Best AI chatbots for customer service, with prices

The best AI chatbot for customer service answers from your own help pages, says so when they don’t cover a question, and gets the customer to a person when it can’t help. Beyond that, the chatbots below differ most in what they bill you for and which plan lets someone on your team step into the chat.

Below are nine AI chatbots for customer service, ranked for a founder or a small team that answers support itself. Each one comes with its free plan, its first paid plan, how it bills for the AI and when a person can take over. Every price was read on the vendor’s own pages on 23 September 2026, and each one links there.

We’ve put Deacon first. It’s our product, made for founders who still answer support themselves. Deacon is an AI customer support agent that answers your customers in seconds from your own docs, admits it when it doesn’t know, and turns what they ask into a clear view of what they’re stuck on and what they want next. There’s a free plan with no card and no end date.

Nine AI chatbots for customer service compared

The last column is the one to read closely, because a customer service chatbot that can’t reach a person leaves your customer stuck.

Deacon

Deacon is an AI customer support agent for founders who handle support themselves, with no helpdesk and no support team behind it. You put one script tag on your site, or hand the prompt from the Install page to a coding agent such as Claude Code, Cursor or Codex, and point Deacon at your help pages, files or pasted text. From then on it answers customers in seconds, at any hour, in whatever language they write in.

It sticks to what your content says. Each answer is written from the passages Deacon finds in your docs for that question, often with a link to the page it used. When those passages don’t cover the 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 draw before it answers anything.

When a customer needs you, you hear about it. If they leave their email or ask for a person, you get an email. Type your reply in the dashboard, and if they still have the chat open, it appears there under your name. Deacon then stays out of that conversation until you hand it back.

It gets better every time you answer. A question your docs didn’t cover waits in your dashboard with an Answer this button, and what you write becomes part of what Deacon knows, so it can answer the next person who asks. Save & check shows you the reply Deacon now gives and how many other open questions your answer covers. The more you answer, the less it needs you.

It also tells you what your customers need. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what visitors asked. Topics gather similar questions, count how many people asked and label most of them as a feature ask, a bug report, a how-to and so on. That’s customer feedback from everyone who asks, not only the few who bother to email. The same script runs your website analytics, with visitors, sources, goals and funnels.

Every feature is on every plan, the free one included, and the plans differ only in answers, knowledge, crawled pages and seats. 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. A conversation takes about two answers, so that’s around 500 conversations. 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 it right now, and are asked for their email unless they’ve left it already. Every plan answers with the same model, and no plan carries a “powered by” line, so there’s no badge to pay to remove.

Fin, by Intercom

Fin is Intercom’s AI agent, and it suits a team that already runs support from a helpdesk and wants an agent that acts as well as answers. It works well beyond the chat on your site, with email, WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram, Slack and voice among its channels. Intercom says it handles “refunds, cancellations, account changes, and multi-step workflows” using live data from tools such as Stripe, Shopify and Salesforce.

It bills $0.99 an outcome, at most once a conversation. An outcome counts when the customer confirms the answer helped, when they leave without asking for more help, or when Fin completes a procedure you’ve set up, even one that ends in a handoff. Nothing is charged when a customer asks for a person. So the better Fin does, the more a busy month costs.

On Intercom you pay for seats as well. Essential is $19 or $29 a seat a month billed yearly, depending on which side of Intercom’s price test you land, and $29 or $39 on monthly billing. There’s no free plan, only a 14-day trial. You can also keep your helpdesk and add Fin alone. On Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk it needs no Intercom seat, but there’s a minimum of 50 outcomes a month, so the floor is $49.50.

Fin hands conversations to your team in whichever inbox you use. Set it up with nobody to route to, though, and Intercom’s help centre says “Fin will not offer escalation”. Topics and trends across your conversations sit in Intercom’s Pro add-on, from $99 a month. There’s more in Fin AI pricing and Fin AI alternatives.

Tidio Lyro

Tidio is live chat first, with Lyro as its AI agent, and it suits a small online shop that wants people and AI in one widget, with WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger alongside. The live chat is free for 50 conversations a month that your team replies in, and every account gets 50 Lyro conversations once, which never renew.

Lyro has a meter of its own, from $39 a month for 50 Lyro conversations, or $32.50 billed yearly, up to $700 a month for 1,000 on monthly billing. A Lyro conversation is any with at least one Lyro reply, however many follow. New projects on monthly billing move up to the next package at 95% of the quota, unless you switch that off.

For customer service, Tidio gets the handover right by default. Tidio’s help centre says the default for both online and offline hours is to transfer the conversation to your team. When nobody’s online, Lyro can raise a ticket and ask for the customer’s email instead. Shopify order actions, such as cancelling an order or changing a shipping address from the chat, start on Growth, from $59 a month. There’s more in Tidio alternatives.

Chatbase

Chatbase is an AI agent builder that reaches well past your website. Its channel list runs to 16, with WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger from Hobby and phone calls from Standard, and its AI Actions can work in tools such as Stripe and Shopify. It suits a small team that needs those channels or actions and is happy to set them up.

Hobby is $40 a month, or $32 billed yearly, for 700 message credits and 2 members. A reply costs 1 to 6 credits depending on the model, and an action can double that, so 700 credits can be as few as 116 replies. When they’re gone, your agent tells customers “This AI Agent is currently unavailable. If you are the owner, please check your account.” Auto recharge avoids that, at $40 for each 1,000 credits.

Check the customer service parts before you commit. Handing a chat to a person is an AI Action, which the free plan doesn’t have, and a live handover runs through Chatbase’s Helpdesk, which the plan table lists from Standard at $150 a month. Topic analysis is on Pro, at $500 a month, and a free agent is deleted after 14 days without use. There’s more in Chatbase alternatives.

Chatling

Chatling is one of the cheapest ways to start, and it puts live chat on every plan, the free one included, so you can step into a conversation from day one. It suits a founder who wants AI answers with a person able to take over, on a small budget.

Free gives you 200 AI credits a month and 1 seat. Starter is $25 a month, or $21 billed yearly, for 1,750 credits and 2 seats. A reply costs from 0.5 credits on the lightest models to 25 on the heaviest, so choose the model before you count on the allowance. When the credits run out, the chat stays up and shows customers an “Insufficient AI credits” error until you buy more or upgrade.

One setting matters for customer service. The Human Handoff action is created for every agent, but Chatling’s docs say it’s “disabled by default”, so turn it on before you go live. WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram start on Starter, and routing chats between teammates on Growth, at $75 a month. There’s more in Chatling pricing and Chatling alternatives.

Dante AI

Dante AI has a free plan that doesn’t expire and one of the plainest meters here, where a credit is one answer on the lighter models. Free gives you 100 messages a month, 1 seat and 150,000 characters of knowledge, with no card. Starter is $40 a month, or $33 billed yearly, for 2,000 messages and 2 seats. It can also give your agent a voice, and a phone number of its own starts on Advanced.

The catch for customer service is the handover. The inbox where a person takes over a chat, and the leads the agent captures, start on Advanced, at $120 a month or $100 billed yearly, which also drops the Dante mark. The reports of top questions and knowledge gaps start there too. When credits run out, the agent tells customers “This AI agent is offline at the moment. Please contact the site owner directly for help.” There’s more in Dante AI alternatives.

ChatBot.com

ChatBot.com now sells Text’s AI Agent, from the company behind LiveChat, with live chat and ticketing in the same Text inbox. It learns from your website, files and articles, and every plan lets a teammate take over from the AI. It suits a small team that wants the AI, the chat and the tickets from one vendor.

Essential is $25 a user a month, or $19 billed yearly, with 1 AI agent and 10 AI resolutions a month. Growth is $99 a user, or $79 billed yearly, with 200. A resolution is a conversation in which the AI directly solved at least one question, counted once however many it solved, and a chat handed over without an answer isn’t counted. Ten a month is a trial-sized allowance, and past it Text adds a pack of 50 resolutions for $49.50 automatically.

There’s no free plan, only a 14-day trial with no card. WhatsApp, Messenger and SMS through Twilio come with Essential, and taking “Powered by Text” off needs Enterprise.

Botpress

Botpress is for building your own agent, and it gives you the most room if you’ll put the time in. Its home page says an agent “takes real action on refunds, account updates, and multi-step workflows”. WhatsApp is ticked on every plan, and so is Botpress Desk, where your team takes conversations over.

Free gives you 25 conversations and 3 seats, with no top-ups. Plus is $189 a month, or $150 billed yearly, for 250 conversations and $25 of AI usage. A conversation is any exchange with at least two messages from the customer in the month. At 95% of the quota Botpress adds a pack of 100 conversations for $65, which you can’t turn off, and AI usage past the $25 is billed on top. There’s more in Botpress pricing and Botpress alternatives.

eesel AI

eesel AI is an AI agent that works inside the helpdesk you already have, including Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, HubSpot, Gorgias, Front and Help Scout, and it can answer on your website too. It learns from your past tickets as well as your help docs, and it can start in draft mode, where you approve each reply before it goes out. On what it does when it’s unsure, eesel says “If it doesn’t know, it says so, or escalates.”

There are no seats, and no plan to buy unless you want Enterprise, a $1,000 monthly fee on top of usage. eesel charges $0.40 for each ticket or chat its agents handle, however many messages it takes, and says “tasks are billed regardless of outcome”. You start with $50 of usage and no card. After that the agents pause until you add a payment method, and a monthly limit, $250 by default, pauses them again when you reach it. It suits a team with a helpdesk that would rather pay per conversation than per resolution.

AI agents built for large support teams

Some names on other lists are sold to large companies through a sales call, with no price on their sites. Ada’s pricing page publishes no figure and offers to “Schedule your custom demo”. Decagon, which calls itself “The AI concierge for every customer”, asks you to get a demo. Sierra says it charges by outcome, “Pay for a job well done”, without saying how much. They’re worth a look once support is a department, not while a founder is still answering.

The AI agents that come with a helpdesk

Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Help Scout, Crisp and Gorgias each sell an AI agent of their own, billed by the resolution, the session, the automated interaction or the credit, mostly on top of the helpdesk’s own price. AI help desks sets out how each one bills, and if you’re choosing the helpdesk as well, the best customer service software for startups ranks those products for a small team.

How to test an AI chatbot before your customers do

Every chatbot here has a free plan or a trial, so try each one on your own docs before you pay. These five tests tell you more than any feature list.

1. Ask it something your docs don’t cover. A good one says it doesn’t know and offers a way to reach you. A bad one invents an answer, which is how support bots end up making up refund policies. Why chatbots hallucinate explains where that comes from.
2. Ask it for a refund. Unless you’ve connected it to your billing on purpose, it should pass that to you rather than promise anything.
3. Ask for a person, and watch what the customer sees. Then check that the plan you’re pricing includes the handover.
4. Write to it in another language, and check the reply comes back in that language.
5. Find out what happens at the limit. Read what customers see when the credits, conversations or resolutions run out, and whether the vendor keeps billing you past it.

Which one fits you

Start from who answers your customers today and where they write to you.

If you already run a helpdesk with a team in it, Fin or eesel AI adds an agent without changing where your team works. If you sell on Shopify and want live chat as well, Tidio pairs Lyro with a free chat inbox. If you need WhatsApp, the phone or actions in other systems, Chatbase and Botpress go furthest, and Botpress rewards the time you spend building. If you want a person able to step in on a free plan, Chatling has live chat on it.

If you answer support yourself, Deacon is the one built for you. It answers your customers from your docs in seconds, sends you only the questions that need you, and shows you what they’re stuck on and what they want next. Every feature is on the free plan, and it needs no card.

Questions about AI chatbots for customer service

What is an AI chatbot for customer service?

It’s conversational AI that answers your customers’ questions in a chat, usually on your website, by reading your help pages and writing a reply in seconds. Unlike older rule-based bots, it understands a question however it’s phrased and needs no decision trees. The good ones say when they don’t know and pass the customer to a person, and many sit alongside live chat, so the same window reaches your team when the AI can’t help.

Is there a free AI chatbot for customer service?

Yes, several. Deacon’s free plan gives you 50 answers a month with every feature, no card and no end date. Chatling’s free plan has 200 AI credits a month with live chat, Dante AI’s has 100 messages a month, Chatbase’s 50 message credits and Botpress’s 25 conversations. Tidio gives every account 50 Lyro conversations once, and eesel AI starts you with free usage. Fin and ChatBot.com offer trials instead. Free AI chatbots for a website compares the free plans in detail.

Can an AI chatbot replace customer service staff?

Not entirely. It can take the questions your docs already answer, at any hour and in the customer’s own language, and pass the rest to a person. It can’t make a judgement call, bend a policy or fix a customer’s account unless you’ve wired it into your systems. For a founder, the win is that you mostly hear about the questions that need you.

How much does an AI chatbot for customer service cost?

It depends on what the vendor counts. Some charge for each resolution or outcome, so the bill grows with every conversation the AI settles. Some sell credits that cost more on a better model, and some charge a set price for a set number of answers. How much does an AI chatbot cost? prices one month of 1,000 questions every way.

Can Deacon answer on WhatsApp, email or the phone?

No. Deacon answers in a chat widget on your website, and you reply to customers from its dashboard. It has no WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS channel, no phone agent and no support inbox for email. Fin, Chatbase, Botpress and Tidio answer on WhatsApp, and Fin, Chatbase and Dante AI can take phone calls.

Can Deacon take actions, such as refunds or order changes?

No. Deacon answers questions and hands conversations to you, and it takes no actions in other systems. It won’t refund an order, change a plan or look up an account, and it always declines questions about a visitor’s own account, order or data. If you need an agent that acts, Fin, Chatbase and Botpress are built for it.