Tidio, Intercom Fin and Zendesk AI all sell AI support, but they count a different thing. Tidio bills Lyro per conversation, Fin bills $0.99 per outcome, and Zendesk bills $1.50 to $2.00 per verified resolution. At 1,000 AI chats a month with half resolved, the bills land far apart.
The trap in one sentence: three vendors, three different bills
Three vendors can all quote you a low number and still send you very different bills, because each one counts a different unit. Tidio counts a Lyro conversation, which is any chat where Lyro replies at least once. Fin counts an outcome, which is a resolution, a handoff, a disqualification, or a self-serve routing. Zendesk counts a verified resolution, which is a chat the AI closed and a second model confirmed as solved. Same customer, same question, three different meters.
What Tidio actually charges for
Tidio charges in three pools, and Lyro is its own pool. The chat plans, checked live on 11 November 2026, run from Free at $0, to Starter at $24.17 a month on annual billing ($29 monthly), to Growth from $49.17 a month on annual billing ($59 monthly), to Plus from $300 a month plus usage. Up to 10 seats are included, with no per-seat charge. Lyro is bought on top, from $32.50 a month on annual billing for 50 conversations ($39 monthly, about $0.78 each), up to $700 a month for 1,000 ($583.33 annual, about $0.70 each).
Two details catch buyers out. First, the first 50 Lyro conversations are a lifetime one-off, not a monthly allowance, so do not plan your monthly budget around them. Second, a Lyro conversation is any interaction with at least one Lyro reply, whether it resolves or not. Pay-per-resolution billing exists only on the Premium plan, from 3,000 Lyro conversations, with a written guarantee of a 50 percent resolution rate. Tidio says its customers average a 75 percent Lyro resolution rate, but that is a vendor claim, not a verified number.
What Intercom Fin actually charges for
Fin charges $0.99 per outcome, at most once per conversation, on top of seats. The seat plans on annual billing are $29 a seat a month on the entry plan, $85 on the mid plan, and $132 on the top plan, or $39, $99 and $139 on monthly billing. A sales qualification costs $9.99 each. If you run Fin on a help desk that is not Intercom, there is a 50-outcome monthly minimum, about $49.50, and unused outcomes do not roll over. Intercom renamed itself Fin in May 2026, and Salesforce completed its acquisition on 10 September 2026, with pricing unchanged in the September checks. It could still shift, so check the vendor page.
The rule that matters most is the assumed resolution. A resolution counts as confirmed when the customer says the answer helped, or assumed when the customer stays silent for 24 hours after Fin's last answer. A customer who gives up and walks away still counts as a $0.99 outcome. Fin's own pages put its average resolution rate at 76 percent across more than 12,000 customers, but that is a vendor claim with no method given, so treat it like Tidio's 75 percent: interesting, not proof.
What Zendesk AI actually charges for
Zendesk charges seats plus resolutions, and since 18 May 2026 only verified resolutions bill. The seat plans on annual billing are Support Team at $19 an agent a month, Suite Team at $55, and Suite Professional at $115, or $25, $69 and $149 on monthly billing. The AI rate is $1.50 per verified resolution on a committed volume, or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Each plan includes a small allowance: 5 automated resolutions per agent a month on Team plans, 10 on Suite Professional, capped at 10,000 a year. Copilot, the agent-facing helper, costs $50 an agent a month extra. A second model checks within 72 hours that the reply solved the issue, and chats that escalate or go unverified are free.
The worked bill: 1,000 AI conversations, 50 percent resolved, 5 agents
Here is the same month run through all three, on annual billing, with the assumptions stated plainly. Your shop gets 1,000 AI conversations a month, half of them resolve, and you have five agents. That is 500 resolved chats. Prices are the November 2026 figures in this post, and you should check the vendor page before you sign, because prices change.
| Vendor | Seats | AI charge | Total a month | Cost per resolved chat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio Growth + Lyro 1,000 | $0 (10 seats included) | $49.17 + $583.33 | $632.50 | $1.27 |
| Intercom entry plan + Fin | 5 x $29 = $145 | 500 x $0.99 = $495 | $640 | $1.28 |
| Zendesk Suite Team + AI | 5 x $55 = $275 | 475 x $2.00 = $950 | $1,225 | $2.45 |
| Zendesk Suite Team, committed | 5 x $55 = $275 | 475 x $1.50 = $712.50 | $987.50 | $1.98 |
A few notes on the maths. The Zendesk rows use 475 billable resolutions, because the 25 free resolutions in the plan allowance (5 per agent) come off the 500 first. Tidio's cost does not change with the resolution rate, because Lyro bills per conversation, not per resolution. At a 75 percent resolution rate the Tidio bill stays at $632.50 but the cost per resolved chat falls to about $0.84. Monthly billing runs higher on every vendor, so these annual figures are the low end.
Tidio Lyro: cheapest per reply, dearest per solved chat at low rates
Lyro is the cheapest way to buy an AI reply. At $0.70 a conversation on the 1,000-conversation package, no other vendor in this post sells a reply for less. That matters if your chats are simple and your knowledge base is strong, because most replies will resolve the chat and the bill stays low. It matters less if your chats are messy: a wrong answer still costs $0.70, and every new chat that goes nowhere still costs you. At low resolution rates Tidio becomes the dearest option per solved chat, even while it stays the cheapest per reply.
Intercom Fin: when $0.99 is a bargain, and when the 24-hour rule bites
Fin is a bargain when your AI resolves chats cleanly and your customers say so. At $0.99 an outcome, a shop that resolves 500 chats a month pays $495 for the AI, plus the seat bill. It stops being a bargain in two cases: volume, because at a 100 percent resolution rate on 1,000 chats the same five-seat team pays $1,135 a month, and silence, because customers who walk away without an answer count as assumed resolutions after 24 hours.
Zendesk AI: why $2.00 can still be the cheapest of the three
Zendesk looks like the dearest option in the table, and on pay-as-you-go it is. But the verified-only meter changes the comparison. You only pay for chats the AI closed and a second check confirmed as solved, so the chats that drift, escalate, or go quiet cost you nothing on the AI line. On a committed volume at $1.50, the same five-agent team pays $987.50, still more than Tidio or Intercom at a 50 percent rate, but the gap narrows fast as volume grows. Zendesk fits a team that already lives in Zendesk, or a team that wants the strictest billing they can get.
Which one fits your shop
A one-person shop with a few hundred chats a month should start with Tidio. The free plan covers 50 conversations, Starter is $24.17 a month on annual billing, and there are no seat charges to worry about. A five-person team with a strong help center can pick between Tidio and Fin on price, and the tie-breaker is how your customers behave: if they reply and confirm, Fin wins; if they go quiet, Tidio's per-conversation meter is kinder. A store already on Zendesk should not switch help desks to save on AI.
How to cap the bill before you switch it on
Do three things before you turn any of these on. First, fix the help center, because AI answers are only as good as the articles they read, so rewrite your top ten help articles in plain words before you buy. Second, set a deflection rule: let the AI answer order tracking, returns and hours, and send pricing, complaints and anything angry straight to a person. Third, set a monthly cap or an alert, because none of these vendors caps the bill for you.
For a wider view of support tools beyond these three, read our guide to AI customer service tools for small businesses that actually help. If phones are part of your support mix too, see how much an AI receptionist costs a small business. And for the wider software budget, read how much small business software costs in 2026. Check the vendor pages: Tidio pricing, Intercom pricing, and Zendesk pricing. If a price on a vendor page differs from the figures here, trust the vendor page.
The bottom line on Tidio vs Intercom vs Zendesk AI pricing
Tidio vs Intercom vs Zendesk AI pricing comes down to the meter, not the logo. Tidio bills per Lyro reply from $0.70 a conversation, Fin bills $0.99 per outcome on top of seats, and Zendesk bills $1.50 to $2.00 per verified resolution on top of seats. At 1,000 chats, half resolved, and five agents, Tidio and Intercom land near $630 to $640 a month on annual billing, while Zendesk lands near $990 to $1,225. Pick the meter that fits how your customers behave, cap the bill before you switch it on, and check the vendor page before you pay.