AI help desks for customer support: how each bills

An AI help desk is a helpdesk with two kinds of AI built in. One answers your customers before a person does, in chat or by email. The other helps the people answering, with drafts, summaries and sorting. Nearly every helpdesk for customer support now sells both, and each bills the first its own way. Some charge per resolution, Intercom per outcome, Freshdesk per session, and others per conversation or from a pool of credits. What counts as one decides your bill more than the price does.

Below are eleven helpdesks grouped by how they bill their AI, with what counts, what’s included and what happens when it stops. Every figure was read on the vendor’s own pages on 23 September 2026, and each price links to where we read it.

Deacon comes first. We make it, and it’s the AI half without the helpdesk. It’s an AI customer support agent for founders who answer support themselves. It answers your customers in seconds from your own docs, and shows you what they’re stuck on and what they want next. It has no tickets, queues or routing, and a free plan with no card.

AI help desks side by side

Each row is a helpdesk’s AI for customers, what it bills by and what you need before it answers anyone.

Deacon, the AI without the helpdesk

Deacon is for the founder who needs the half of an AI help desk that answers customers, and none of the half that manages a support team. It goes on your site with one script tag and needs no helpdesk underneath.

It answers in seconds, at any hour. Deacon replies to your customers in a chat on your website, from your web pages, files, pasted text and the answers you write, in whatever language each visitor writes in. It answers only from what your content says. When that doesn’t cover a question, it says it doesn’t know instead of guessing, and asks for the visitor’s email. There are no flows or decision trees to build first.

It hands you what it can’t answer. The owners on your team get an email when a visitor leaves an address or asks for a person. Reply in the conversation in Deacon’s dashboard, and a visitor with the chat open sees your reply there, under your name.

It gets better as you answer. Each question your docs didn’t cover has an Answer this button. Write the answer once and press Save & check, and Deacon shows you the reply it now gives and how many other open questions your answer covers. Every answer you write becomes part of what Deacon knows, so it needs you less over time.

It shows you what customers need. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what visitors asked. Topics group similar questions, count the people who asked and label most of them as a feature ask, a bug report, a how-to and so on, on every plan with no add-on to buy. The same script runs your website analytics too.

It bills by the plan, not by the outcome. An answer is one reply Deacon writes on your live site, including a reply saying it doesn’t know, and chats in the Playground never count. Every plan answers with the same model. Free gives you 50 answers a month and 1 seat, with no card, no end date and nothing deleted if you go quiet. Starter is $50 a month, or $40 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 answers a month and 3 seats. Growth is $150 a month, or $120 a month billed yearly, for 4,000 answers a month and 10 seats. Nothing is billed past a plan’s answers and no plan upgrades itself. If a month’s answers run out, visitors get a short reply saying Deacon can’t look into that one right now, and are asked for their email unless they’ve left it in that conversation.

It isn’t a helpdesk, and it doesn’t pretend to be. Deacon has no tickets, queues, routing or rotas, and no support inbox for email. It has no phone, WhatsApp or SMS channel and no helpdesk integrations, and it takes no actions in other systems, such as refunds. It always declines questions about a visitor’s own account, invoice or data, and asks for their email so you can reply.

Helpdesks that bill per resolution

Most helpdesks bill their AI for each conversation it resolves, which sounds like paying only for success. The vendor decides what resolved means, and it usually includes a customer who read the answer and left without saying whether it helped. Most also wait a set time before deciding.

Zendesk

Zendesk’s AI agents come with every plan and bill by the automated resolution, a request resolved without a person stepping in. Its pricing page includes 5 an agent a month on Support Team and Suite Team, 10 on Suite Growth and Professional and 15 on Enterprise, then charges $2.00 each as you go, or $1.50 each committed in advance.

Its help centre describes newer resolution tiers, introduced on 18 May 2026, where a language model reads the conversation to verify a resolution. There, a messaging conversation counts as ended two hours after its last message by default, and an email one 72 hours after the last email. Zendesk’s pages disagree on the allowance. The pricing page counts resolutions, but the help centre gives the tiers a dollar allowance of $2 an agent a month on Suite Team, $5 on Growth and Professional and $10 on Enterprise, and says new accounts get the tiers with pricing negotiated during the switch. By default the AI keeps answering past the allowance, and the overage is billed monthly. Switch overage off and it pauses, sending more requests to your agents. Support Team, at $19 an agent a month billed yearly or $25 monthly, answers email, and chat on your site starts on Suite Team, at $55 or $69. Zendesk AI pricing works through a month of it for one or two agents, and Zendesk meets Freshdesk, HubSpot, Gorgias and Zoho Desk head to head on pages of their own.

Help Scout

Help Scout’s AI Answers works in Beacon, its chat widget, and costs $0.75 a resolution, the same on monthly and yearly billing. A conversation counts only if the customer gets an AI answer and doesn’t escalate, search the knowledge base, ask more or press “I still need help”. It’s charged once however many questions it answers.

It’s billed monthly in arrears, and you can set a monthly spending cap, after which AI Answers switches off until the next cycle. A new account gets three months of unlimited AI Answers free, counted from the day the account is created. After that it needs a paid plan, from Standard at $25 a user a month billed yearly or $30 monthly.

HubSpot

HubSpot’s Customer Agent charges $0.50 a resolved conversation, paid as 50 HubSpot credits. HubSpot’s knowledge base counts a resolution when at least one reply shared a source, such as a help article, or took an action, and the visitor didn’t ask for a person within 72 hours. Assigning the conversation to someone yourself doesn’t stop the charge.

It needs Service Hub Professional or Enterprise. Professional is $90 a seat a month billed yearly, or $100 paid monthly on a yearly commitment, with a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500. It comes with 3,000 credits a month, which is 60 resolutions if nothing else spends them, by our arithmetic. The knowledge base says that when the credits run out, the agent stops taking new conversations until they reset or you buy more, and they go to your team. HubSpot’s pages disagree on what happens next. Its credits page calls pay as you go the default overage setting, while its credits help says usage pauses by default until you’ve bought extra credits, and only then defaults to pay as you go.

Front

Front prices Autopilot by the highest level it reaches in each conversation, and prints the rates in its help centre. Triage, which sorts, tags and routes without replying, is $0.05. A handoff, where its tasks end with your team taking over as you planned, is $0.39. A resolution is $0.89, counted when no teammate follows up within 24 hours on channels such as SMS and WhatsApp, or 72 hours on email.

Nothing is charged if a teammate cancels it, the customer asks for a person or Autopilot fails on Front’s side. There’s no allowance, so it’s invoiced monthly for what you use, unless you ask Front to set a maximum. On your website it answers through Autopilot Resolve, a channel you embed in your pages or help centre. A Front plan starts at $25 a seat a month billed yearly, or $35 monthly.

Gorgias

Gorgias, a helpdesk for online shops, bills its AI Agent by the automated interaction, a request resolved with no person needed for 72 hours. Within your plan’s allowance it’s $0.90 billed yearly or $1.00 monthly, then $1.50 each past it, and Gorgias describes no pause there, only overage fees. The same page contradicts itself on Advanced. Its compare table says $0.85 an interaction, while its FAQ says $0.90 on every yearly plan, and Advanced’s own price of $477 a month for 530 interactions is $0.90 each, by our arithmetic.

Each interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket, so there’s a ticket fee as well. If a person replies within 72 hours, only the ticket fee is charged. Starter bundles the helpdesk and the AI Agent at $40 a month, billed monthly only, with 50 tickets and 30 automated interactions. Actions such as cancelling an order or applying a discount start on Basic.

Intercom bills per outcome

Intercom charges $0.99 a Fin outcome, at most one a conversation. Intercom’s help centre counts a resolution when the customer confirms the answer helped, or leaves without asking for more help, which it calls an assumed resolution. A handoff that a Procedure you wrote ends in is an outcome too, at the same price. Nothing is charged when the customer asks for a person or Fin only answers a greeting, and a conversation that reopens has its outcome refunded.

Nothing is included, and outcomes are billed at the end of the period. Only a hard limit caps them, and you can’t set one during the trial. On Intercom’s own helpdesk, every teammate also needs a seat. Essential is $19 or $29 a seat a month billed yearly, or $29 or $39 monthly, depending on which of two prices Intercom’s pricing page shows you. On a helpdesk you already run, Fin needs no seat but bills at least 50 outcomes a month, which is $49.50 by our arithmetic. Fin AI pricing works through what Fin costs on each helpdesk.

Helpdesks that bill per session or conversation

These charge for each conversation their AI joins, whether or not it solves anything. You pay for the misses, but you always know what counts.

Freshdesk

Freshworks bills Freddy AI Agent by the session. On chat, a session is everything within 24 hours of the customer starting, and on email a 72-hour window from their first email, however many replies go out. Every paid plan includes 500 sessions once per account, then they cost $49 for each 100. Previewing the agent uses sessions too.

When the sessions are gone, the AI stops and chats go to your agents, unless you’ve switched on auto-recharge, which adds 100 whenever fewer than 50 are left. On Freshdesk itself the AI answers email. Chat needs Freshdesk Omni, from $29 an agent a month billed yearly or $35 monthly.

Tidio

Tidio bills Lyro by the conversation, any conversation with at least one reply from Lyro, resolved or not. It’s sold in monthly packages from $39 for 50, or $32.50 billed yearly, up to $700 for 1,000 on monthly billing. Every account gets 50 Lyro conversations free, once.

Nothing is counted when Lyro hands over straight away. On a new project billed monthly, the package moves up a level by itself once you’ve used 95%, unless you switch that off. Lyro runs on Tidio’s own chat, including its free plan, or on another helpdesk such as Zendesk or Salesforce. The best AI chatbots for customer service ranks more AI agents you can add to a helpdesk.

Kustomer

Kustomer prices Concierge, its AI agent for customers, at $0.60 an engaged conversation. Its help centre counts a conversation as engaged once the AI has formed a response, tried to, been handed the conversation, or even opened it without replying.

Kustomer publishes no plan prices and sells through its sales team, and its pricing details page was last updated on 19 December 2025.

Helpdesks that bill in credits or tokens

Credits price the AI by how much text it reads and writes, so a long conversation costs more than a short one.

Crisp

Crisp includes its AI, Hugo, in each paid plan as a monthly amount of credits. Mini, at $45 a month for the workspace, has $5 of them, which Crisp puts at around 90 conversations. Essentials, at $95, has $25, around 450, and Plus, at $295, has $75, around 1,350.

Crisp’s help centre says credits are token-based and a Hugo conversation costs around $0.05 to $0.10 on average, as an estimate. Credits reset each billing cycle, currently on the 4th of the month. When they’re gone, Hugo stops answering and conversations go to your team, unless you switch on pay as you go, at a rate Crisp doesn’t publish. Chatbot vs live chat weighs an AI that answers first against a person in the chat.

Zoho Desk

Zoho gives its AI agents away and charges for the model behind them. Zia Agents are free, and on Zoho’s own models up to 30 million tokens a month are free too, or 20 million on its Pro-tier model. Past that, Zoho’s help prices its standard models at $1.00 per million tokens, or you can bring your own key for another provider’s model.

AI agents come from Express, at $7 a user a month billed yearly or $9 monthly. A chat widget for signed-in customers starts on Standard, at $14 or $20. The dollar prices sit under USD in the page’s currency menu.

The other AI: help for the people answering

Every helpdesk also sells AI for the team inside it, usually priced by the seat. It drafts replies, sums up long threads and sorts incoming tickets.

When you answer support alone, this half has little to do. There’s nobody to route tickets to and one person to assist. The half that saves a founder hours is the one that answers customers.

Which AI help desk fits you

Start from whether you run a helpdesk already.

If your team works in Zendesk, Help Scout, HubSpot, Front, Gorgias, Intercom, Freshdesk or Kustomer, its own AI answers where your team already works. Compare what each counts as one before the price, because an assumed resolution, a 72-hour window or a session that bills a miss changes the bill more than a few cents do. If you’re still choosing one, the best customer service software for startups ranks them for a small team.

If you sell from an online shop and want the AI to cancel orders or apply discounts, Gorgias is built for that. If most of your support comes by email, pick a helpdesk whose AI answers email, such as Zendesk or Freshdesk. Helpdesk automation sets out the routing and deadline rules each plan unlocks.

If you answer support yourself and have no helpdesk, Deacon is made for you. It answers your customers from your docs in seconds, brings you only the conversations that need a person, and shows you what customers are stuck on and asking for, for a plan price you know before the month starts. Every feature is on the free plan, and it needs no card.

Questions about AI help desks

What is an AI help desk?

A helpdesk with AI built in. For customer support, that’s usually an AI agent that answers customers from your help content, and AI that helps your team draft replies, sum up threads and sort tickets. An AI helpdesk for IT, often called an AI service desk, does the same for staff requests, such as password resets.

How is an AI help desk billed?

Mostly by use, on top of seats. Zendesk, Help Scout, HubSpot and Gorgias bill per resolution, Front by the highest level its AI reaches in a conversation, Intercom per outcome, Freshdesk per session, Tidio and Kustomer per conversation, and Crisp and Zoho in credits or tokens. The AI for your team is usually priced per seat.

Is there a free AI help desk?

Not a permanent one among the helpdesks here. Zoho Desk has a free plan for 3 users with email ticketing, but its AI agents start on Express. Help Scout gives a new account three months of AI Answers free, Freshdesk includes 500 AI sessions once on its paid plans, and Tidio gives every account 50 Lyro conversations once. Deacon, which isn’t a helpdesk, has a free plan with 50 answers a month and no end date.

Is Deacon a helpdesk?

No. Deacon has no tickets, queues, routing or rotas, and no support inbox for email. It answers customers on your website, and you reply from its dashboard when someone needs you.

Can I use Deacon alongside a helpdesk?

Yes, side by side, though they don’t connect. Deacon answers visitors on your website and hands you the questions it can’t answer in its own dashboard, while your helpdesk carries on with email.

Can Deacon answer email, phone calls or WhatsApp?

No. Deacon answers in a chat widget on your website. It has no support inbox for email, no phone agent and no WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS channel.