This article is part of our AI Agent Guides. See how models compare this week on the AI Agent Leaderboard, a ranking of rankings refreshed every week.
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The best AI customer support agent is usually the one that fits the help desk you already run. Pick Fin for flexibility, Zendesk or Agentforce if you are committed to those platforms, and Gorgias for Shopify brands. Sierra and Decagon suit large enterprises. Tidio Lyro is the low-cost starting point.
A support agent reads a customer's question, checks your policies and systems, and either solves it or hands it to a person. The price model matters as much as the product. Most vendors now charge per outcome, and each one defines "outcome" differently.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (billing) | Key limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fin (Intercom) | Teams wanting an agent on any help desk | $0.99 per outcome | 50 outcomes a month minimum on other help desks |
| Zendesk AI agents | Existing Zendesk teams | Suite Team $55 per agent per month (annual), plus resolutions | Resolution price not shown on the plans page |
| Salesforce Agentforce | Salesforce-based service teams | $2 per conversation, or $500 per 100k Flex Credits | Works best with Salesforce data and admins |
| HubSpot Customer Agent | HubSpot CRM users | Service Hub Starter $7 per seat per month | Runs on credits; rate sheet is separate |
| Sierra | Large consumer brands | Contact sales | No public price |
| Decagon | Large enterprises with voice and chat | Contact sales | No public price |
| Ada | Enterprise CX teams | Contact sales | Built for scale, not small teams |
| Gorgias AI Agent | Shopify and ecommerce brands | $40 per month (monthly) with 30 automated interactions | $1.50 per interaction past the limit |
| Tidio Lyro | Small businesses | $24.17 per month (annual) | Starter's 50 Lyro conversations are one-off |
Prices checked on vendor pages on 2 November 2026.
How we chose
- We read vendor documentation and pricing pages. We did not run our own tests.
- Each option had to take actions or resolve issues, not just suggest articles.
- We compared how each vendor defines a billable outcome, because that drives the bill.
- We included small-business and enterprise options, since they solve different problems.
- Resolution rates on vendor sites are the vendors' own figures. We treat them as claims, not findings.
- The numbering is not a ranking. For model positions, see the AI agent leaderboard.
1. Fin: the flexible choice for any help desk
Best for: Teams that want a strong agent without replacing their help desk.
Price: Fin's pricing page lists $0.99 per outcome, with a 50 outcome monthly minimum on other help desks. Qualified sales leads cost $9.99 each. Bundled with Intercom's help desk, seats start at $19 a month on annual billing.
Fin works with Intercom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Freshworks, Gorgias, and others. It covers chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, and social channels. There are no setup or platform fees, and the free trial lasts 14 days with no card required.
Fin's add-ons are separate. Pro, which adds quality monitoring and an operations agent, starts at $100 a month. Fin Voice is on custom pricing for select customers.
Where it falls short: Read the definition of a resolution. Intercom's help article on outcomes counts an "assumed resolution" when a customer exits without asking for more help. A frustrated customer who just leaves may therefore count as a billable resolution.
Our take: The clearest public pricing among serious options, and the easiest to pilot on an existing setup. Compare confirmed and assumed resolutions separately in your reports.
2. Zendesk AI agents: the natural pick for Zendesk teams
Best for: Teams that already run on Zendesk and do not want to manage two vendors.
Price: Zendesk's plans page lists Suite Team at $55 per agent per month paid yearly and Suite Professional at $115. Agent Copilot is a $50 add-on.
AI agents are included in every Suite and Support plan, and billing uses automated resolutions. Zendesk defines those as requests resolved without any escalation to a human. Zendesk has also added Forethought, whose site now says it is part of Zendesk, and describes those agents as working on any platform.
Zendesk's automated resolutions help article separates committed usage from pay-as-you-go overage and says overage costs more. If your volume is stable, committing can save money.
Where it falls short: The plans page does not show a per-resolution price, so you need a quote. The article also describes older and newer resolution models, so confirm which one your contract uses. The Forethought product lineup may keep changing after the deal, so ask about the roadmap.
Our take: The default if you are staying on Zendesk. Get the resolution price in writing and compare it to Fin's public rate before you decide.
3. Salesforce Agentforce: for teams already deep in Salesforce
Best for: Service organizations with their customer records and processes in Salesforce.
Price: Agentforce pricing offers $2 per conversation or Flex Credits at $500 per 100,000. Actions use 20 credits and voice actions use 30. That works out to about 10 cents and 15 cents an action.
The main advantage is access. An agent on the same platform as your cases, orders, and permissions can act on real records. Salesforce also sells per-user options, including a $5 Agentforce user license that requires Flex Credits.
Action-based pricing can be cheaper or more expensive than per-conversation pricing. A simple question may use one action, while a complicated case may use many. Estimate from your own conversation logs before you pick a model.
Where it falls short: Getting value usually takes Salesforce admin skills and clean data. Costs can be hard to predict, because metered actions vary by conversation. It makes little sense if you do not already use Salesforce.
Our take: A strong option for existing Salesforce customers and a poor reason to become one. Pilot one case type and use the wallet reporting to check your cost per case.
4. HubSpot Customer Agent: for teams on the HubSpot CRM
Best for: Small and mid-size teams that already use HubSpot.
Price: Service Hub starts at $7 per seat per month, Professional at $90 per seat, and Enterprise at $150 per seat. Professional and Enterprise also have one-time onboarding fees of $1,500 and $3,500.
Customer Agent runs on HubSpot Credits, which cost $0.010 each. Plans include 500, 3,000, or 5,000 credits a month, and unused credits do not roll over. Buying a Professional or Enterprise seat includes 14 days of unlimited Customer Agent access.
The agent can use your CRM context, which is the reason to choose it. If your sales, marketing, and service teams all live in HubSpot, one record per customer makes handoffs simpler.
Where it falls short: The pricing page sends you to a rate sheet for credit rates. Finding the true cost per conversation takes extra work. The page cites a 65%+ automatic resolution rate, which is HubSpot's own figure.
Our take: Reasonable if HubSpot is already home base. Use the 14-day window to measure your real credit burn per conversation.
5. Sierra: built for large consumer brands
Best for: Enterprises with high volume and complex customer journeys.
Price: Contact sales. Sierra says it uses outcome-based pricing, where it gets paid when an agreed task is complete. Examples include a resolved conversation or a saved cancellation.
Sierra runs one agent across chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, voice, and ChatGPT. Its Ghostwriter tool builds agents from procedures, transcripts, and plain English instructions. It also includes monitoring and testing tools for ongoing improvement.
Sierra pitches the agent as a revenue tool as well as a cost saver. That framing suits brands where a support call can also save a subscription or make a sale. It makes outcome definitions especially important, because a "saved cancellation" is harder to verify than a closed ticket.
Where it falls short: No public price and an enterprise sales process. Small teams will likely find it more than they need. Negotiating outcome definitions takes legal and finance time.
Our take: Worth a conversation if you have large volume and a team to manage it. Not a realistic first agent for most businesses.
6. Decagon: enterprise agents with strong testing tools
Best for: Enterprises in sectors like financial services, travel, and telecom.
Price: Contact sales. We could not find a public pricing page, so any figure you see elsewhere should be confirmed directly.
Decagon covers voice, chat, and email. Its AOPs are the workflows that tell the agent what to do. It also lists simulations for testing, live A/B experiments, and an always-on quality tool called Watchtower.
Testing tools matter more than they sound. A support agent changes behavior as your policies and data change. Being able to run simulated conversations before a release is how large teams avoid public mistakes.
Where it falls short: No public pricing. Its customer stories show large brands, so smaller teams may not be a fit. Case study numbers such as resolution rates are vendor-published and specific to those customers.
Our take: A serious shortlist candidate next to Sierra for complex, regulated service work. Ask for a pilot using your hardest case types, not the easy ones.
7. Ada: enterprise customer service automation
Best for: Enterprise CX teams in financial services, retail, gaming, and technology.
Price: Contact sales. Ada's site routes buyers to a demo. Its pricing page blocked our automated request, so we have no figure to report.
Ada describes itself as an agentic customer experience platform that resolves, acts, and improves over time. It publishes customer results and a running count of conversations. Those numbers show scale, but they are marketing figures and do not predict your results.
Ada's focus is customer service at large companies. That can help where a company has already built processes around automation. It can also mean a heavier sales and onboarding motion.
Where it falls short: No public pricing we could verify, and a clear focus on larger companies. Small teams have simpler choices in this list.
Our take: Include it in an enterprise evaluation, especially if you need vertical experience. Ask for references in your own industry.
8. Gorgias AI Agent: made for online stores
Best for: Shopify and other ecommerce brands that want support and sales in one inbox.
Price: Gorgias has a Starter plan at $40 a month, monthly only, with 50 tickets and 30 automated interactions. Basic is $90 monthly or $77 annually. AI interactions beyond your limit cost $1.50 each.
Gorgias prices by ticket volume, not by support agent seat. It connects with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce, plus store tools like Loop Returns and Recharge. Order and refund questions are the core of the use case.
At $1.50 per automated interaction, it costs more per unit than some rivals. The trade-off is a store-focused product with tighter store integrations. Compare total cost at your real volume, not just the unit price.
Where it falls short: It is narrow by design and less useful outside commerce. The per-interaction overage adds up during peak season, so set alerts before Black Friday.
Our take: A strong fit for Shopify brands. See our ecommerce agent list for how it compares with other store tools.
9. Tidio Lyro: the small-business starting point
Best for: Small teams that want to automate common questions for little money.
Price: Tidio's pricing lists Starter at $24.17 a month billed annually, with 100 billable conversations. Your first 50 Lyro conversations are free for life.
Lyro is a chat agent that answers from your content and hands off to your team when needed. You can buy it alone, and Tidio says it connects with Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce, and 20+ platforms. Tidio also offers a custom managed tier for bigger needs.
Small teams should value the low commitment here. You can find out how many of your questions are repeatable for very little money. That number will shape every later decision.
Where it falls short: Starter's Lyro allowance is a one-off, so ongoing use costs more. Complex back-office actions are likely to need more setup than simple Q&A. Treat Tidio's stated resolution figures as vendor claims.
Our take: The right test bed for a small team. Outgrow it only when you have data showing a bigger tool would pay for itself.
How to choose
Start from your help desk. Replacing it and adding an agent at once doubles your risk. Fin, Lyro, and Forethought are all pitched as working with other help desks, which makes a pilot simpler.
Then compare price per outcome using your own numbers:
- Export three months of tickets and label them by type.
- Estimate how many are simple enough to resolve without a person.
- Multiply by each vendor's outcome price, then add seats and platform fees.
- Ask how each vendor counts a customer who disappears mid-conversation.
- Compare against your current cost per ticket.
Our guide to AI agent pricing models and our piece on cost per task explain the math in more detail.
Next, limit what the agent can do. Answering is low risk, but refunds, cancellations, and account changes are not. Our human approval decision table helps you decide what needs sign-off.
Finally, run a trial on real tickets with a scorecard. Our agent evaluation scorecard gives you a template. Benchmarks measure models on general tasks, and the knowledge work board is useful context. Only your tickets show how an agent will handle your customers.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI customer support agent cost?
Public prices range from $0.99 per outcome on Fin to $1.50 per automated interaction on Gorgias. Salesforce lists $2 per conversation. Sierra, Decagon, and Ada are quote-only. Add seat fees, onboarding, and any voice charges to get a real total.
What is a "resolution" in AI support pricing?
It is whatever the contract says. Zendesk bills requests resolved with no human escalation. Intercom counts both confirmed resolutions and customers who leave without asking for more help. Always read the definition before comparing prices.
Can I add an AI agent without changing help desks?
Often, yes. Fin lists Salesforce, HubSpot, Freshworks, and others as supported help desks. Tidio says Lyro connects to Zendesk, Intercom, and Salesforce. Check the integration depth, because answering a question takes less access than issuing a refund.
Is an AI support agent safe for healthcare or financial questions?
Only with the right contract and supervision. Intercom lists HIPAA support on its Expert plan, for example, but a plan feature alone does not make you compliant. Get your legal or compliance team to review use cases and keep a person in charge of sensitive decisions.
Which AI model powers the best support agents?
Vendors change models often, so we do not name winners here. See the current leaderboard and its methodology. In support, your knowledge base and system access often matter more than the model.
