Fin AI alternatives and what each charges for

Fin is an AI agent, and now the name of the company once called Intercom, which Salesforce finished buying on 10 September 2026. Teams usually look for a Fin AI alternative because of how it bills. Every outcome costs $0.99, and a customer who reads Fin’s answer and leaves without asking for more help counts as one. Nothing caps that unless you set a hard limit, and you can’t set one during the trial. On a helpdesk you already run, Fin bills at least 50 outcomes a month, and on Intercom’s own, every teammate who answers needs a paid seat as well.

Below are ten AI agents that charge another way, each with its price, what it charges for and what you need before it can answer. Every figure was read on the vendor’s own pages on 23 September 2026, and each price links to the page it came from.

Deacon tops the list. We make it, and it’s built for founders who answer support themselves, with no helpdesk underneath. It’s an AI customer support agent that answers your customers in seconds from your own docs, and shows you what they’re stuck on and what they want next. It has a free plan with no card and no end date.

Ten Fin AI alternatives by what they charge for

Fin is the last row, for comparing each meter with the one you pay now.

How Fin bills, and where it stops

Fin is sold two ways, and both charge $0.99 an outcome, at most once a conversation, on Fin’s pricing page.

On Intercom’s own helpdesk, you also pay for a seat for each teammate who answers. Essential is $19 or $29 a seat a month billed yearly, or $29 or $39 month to month, depending on which of two prices Intercom is testing on its pricing page. On a helpdesk you already run, there are no seats, but you pay for at least 50 outcomes a month, even in a month you use fewer. Fin’s pricing page calls that a 50-outcome minimum, which is $49.50 by our arithmetic, while Fin’s help centre sets a $49 base fee a month that includes 50 resolutions. Intercom’s pricing FAQs say you can start that version yourself on Freshdesk, Freshchat or HubSpot, while Salesforce and other platforms go through sales.

Intercom’s article on outcomes sets out what counts. A resolution is $0.99 whether the customer confirms Fin’s answer helped or leaves without asking for more help, which Intercom calls an assumed resolution. A handoff that a Procedure you wrote ends in is $0.99 too, and so is a sales lead Fin disqualifies, while a qualified lead is $9.99, or $0.99 on a route you’ve marked self-serve. Nothing is charged when the customer asks for a person, when a Procedure fails, when Fin only answers a greeting or when it hands over under its default rules, and a conversation that reopens has its outcome refunded.

Nobody sets a limit for you. Unless you’re on a contract, Intercom’s usage article says, Fin is pay-as-you-go and billed for the usage at the end of the period. A hard limit switches Fin off for the rest of the billing period and sends new conversations straight to your handover steps. It can’t be set during the trial or below a contracted minimum, and Intercom says it can’t guarantee the limit will be 100% accurate.

The trial is 14 days with no card and unlimited Fin outcomes, and when it ends, Fin and Intercom stop until you subscribe. Fin Voice, for phone calls, is sold through Fin’s sales team. Salesforce’s announcement of the purchase says Fin will continue to serve its customers, and describes its agent as working with the help desks companies already use. Fin AI pricing sets out what is and isn’t charged, and prices three months of Fin.

Deacon

Deacon is an AI customer support agent for founders who answer support themselves, and it doesn’t bill by outcome. There’s no outcome to define, and no limit you have to remember to set. Each plan comes with a set number of answers a month, where an answer is one reply Deacon writes on your live site, and nothing is billed past them.

It needs no helpdesk underneath. Add one script tag, point it at your docs, and it answers your customers in seconds, around the clock and in their own language. 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. When they leave it or ask for a person, you get an email, and your reply from the dashboard appears in their chat under your name while they have it open.

Each question your docs didn’t cover waits for you with 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. So it gets better as you answer, and needs you less over time.

You also learn what your customers need, on every plan, with no add-on to buy. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what visitors asked, and Topics group the questions, count the people asking and label most of them as a feature ask, a bug report, a how-to and so on. Fin’s topics, trends and CX Score come with its Pro add-on. Analytics › Widget shows how many people wrote in, the share Deacon answered and the languages they used, and the same script runs your website analytics.

Every feature comes with every plan, including the free one, and the plans change only the answers, knowledge, pages from your website and seats you get. Free is 50 answers a month and 1 seat, with space for about 67 pages of docs, no card, no end date and nothing deleted if your account goes 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.

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, and you can still reply to every conversation. Every plan answers with the same model, and none carries a “powered by” line.

Zendesk AI agents

Zendesk’s AI agents come with every Zendesk plan and answer inside Zendesk, billed per automated resolution, a request the AI resolved without escalating to a person. Its pricing page includes 5 automated resolutions an agent a month on Support Team and Suite Team, then charges $2.00 each as you go, or $1.50 each if you commit in advance.

Zendesk’s help centre describes a newer set of resolution tiers, introduced on 18 May 2026, with an allowance in dollars rather than resolutions, and a language model that reads each conversation to verify a resolution before it counts. So check which allowance you’re offered. Messaging needs Suite Team, at $55 an agent a month billed yearly or $69 monthly. By default the AI keeps answering past the allowance and the overage is billed monthly. Choose “Don’t allow overage” and it pauses instead, sending more requests to your agents. Zendesk AI pricing prices a month of it for one or two agents.

HubSpot Customer Agent

HubSpot’s Customer Agent answers on chat, email, WhatsApp and Messenger for teams on Service Hub Professional or Enterprise, and each resolution costs $0.50, paid in HubSpot credits. It counts as resolved when a 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.

Professional starts at $90 a seat a month billed yearly, or $100 billed monthly on a yearly commitment, with a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500. When the credits run out, HubSpot says the agent stops taking new conversations until they reset or you buy more, and they go to your team through your handoff settings.

Help Scout AI Answers

Help Scout’s AI Answers works inside Beacon, its chat widget, and costs $0.75 a resolution on the paid plans. A conversation counts only if the customer gets an AI answer and doesn’t escalate, search the knowledge base, ask more or say they still need help, and it’s charged once however many questions it answers.

You can set a monthly cap, and when it’s reached AI Answers switches off until the next cycle. New accounts get three months of it free. Chat starts on Standard, at $25 a user a month billed yearly or $30 monthly.

Freshdesk Freddy AI Agent

Freshworks bills Freddy AI Agent by the session rather than the outcome. A session is everything between a customer and the AI within 24 hours on chat, or 72 hours from the first email, whether or not it ends in an answer, and even previewing the agent uses sessions. Every paid plan includes 500 sessions once, and then they cost $49 for each 100.

On Freshdesk the AI answers email, and chat needs Freshdesk Omni, from $29 an agent a month billed yearly, or $35 monthly. When the sessions are gone, the AI stops responding and chats go to your agents, unless auto-recharge is on, which adds 100 more whenever fewer than 50 are left. Freshdesk pricing prices the sessions alongside the seats.

Front Autopilot

Front charges for Autopilot by the highest level it reaches in each conversation, and prints the rates in its help centre. Triage, which sorts and tags 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, and counts when no teammate replies within 24 hours on channels such as SMS and WhatsApp, or 72 hours on email.

Nothing is charged if a teammate cancels it before it finishes, the customer asks for a person or something fails. Autopilot is an add-on to a Front plan, from $25 a seat a month billed yearly, or $35 monthly. There’s no allowance, so it’s invoiced monthly for what you use, unless you ask Front to set a maximum.

Gorgias AI Agent

Gorgias sells its AI Agent with its helpdesk for online shops. An automated interaction is a request no person needs to touch for 72 hours, and it costs $0.90 billed yearly or $1.00 monthly within your plan’s allowance, then $1.50 each past it.

Each interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket, so there’s a ticket fee on top, and if a person replies within 72 hours, only the ticket fee is charged. Starter bundles the helpdesk and AI Agent at $40 a month with 30 automated interactions. It never stops at the allowance, so a busy month simply bills more.

Tidio Lyro

Like Fin, Lyro can be added to a helpdesk you already run. Tidio sells it for Zendesk, Salesforce or other help desk software, or on its own beside Tidio’s free live chat. It bills by Lyro conversation, any conversation with at least one reply from Lyro, resolved or not, in packages from $39 a month for 50, or $32.50 billed yearly.

That’s 78 cents a conversation on the smallest package, by our arithmetic, and nothing is counted when Lyro hands over straight away. Every account gets 50 free Lyro conversations once. On a new project billed monthly, the package moves up a level by default when you reach 95%.

Kustomer Concierge

Kustomer is a helpdesk sold through its sales team, and it prices Concierge, its AI agent for customers, at $0.60 an engaged conversation. Engaged is broad. Kustomer’s help centre counts a conversation once the AI has formed a response, tried to, been handed the conversation, or even opened it without replying.

So it’s billed whether or not the AI resolves anything. Kustomer publishes no plan prices, and its pricing details page was last updated in December 2025.

Salesforce Agentforce

Salesforce, which now owns Fin, also sells an AI agent of its own, Agentforce. Its pricing page prices customer-facing agents at $2 a conversation, or through Flex Credits at $500 for 100,000, where an action uses 20 credits, 10 cents by our arithmetic, and a voice action 30.

Either way it charges for work done rather than for resolutions, and the page sends you to Salesforce’s sales team for the details.

Which one fits you

Start from the helpdesk you have, or don’t have.

If your team is staying on Zendesk, HubSpot, Help Scout, Freshdesk, Front or Gorgias, its own AI agent answers where your team already works, each billed its own way. If you want an AI you can add to Zendesk or Salesforce, as you can with Fin, Tidio sells Lyro that way. If you’re on Kustomer or Salesforce, Concierge and Agentforce charge by the conversation. AI help desks sets out how each helpdesk bills its AI, and the best AI agents for customer service ranks nine by who they suit.

If you have no helpdesk and answer support yourself, 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.

The best AI chatbots for customer service ranks Fin against eight others for a small team.

Questions about Fin AI alternatives

Who owns Fin now?

Salesforce. It completed its purchase of Fin, the company formerly called Intercom, on 10 September 2026, and says Fin will carry on serving its customers from within Salesforce. Intercom is now the name of Fin’s helpdesk, and Intercom pricing explains how the two are sold now. Deacon vs Fin AI puts the two side by side.

Is there a free Fin AI alternative?

Yes. Deacon’s free plan gives you 50 answers a month with every feature, no card and no end date. Tidio gives every account 50 Lyro conversations once, and Help Scout gives new accounts three months of AI Answers free. HubSpot’s free plan has live chat with rule-based bots, and its AI agent needs Professional. Fin has no free plan, only a 14-day trial.

Which Fin alternatives work with the helpdesk I already have?

Tidio’s Lyro does. Tidio sells it for Zendesk, Salesforce and other help desk software, much as Fin is sold for the helpdesk you already run. Zendesk also sells Forethought’s AI agents for other helpdesks, through its sales team. Most of the others here are AI helpdesks, agent and helpdesk in one, so switching means moving your team as well. Deacon doesn’t connect to a helpdesk at all. It answers on your website, and you reply from its dashboard.

What does Deacon count as an answer?

Every reply it writes on your live site, whether or not the visitor writes back, including one saying it doesn’t know. A reply that failed isn’t counted, nor is the short fixed reply sent when nothing in your content matches at all, and nor are chats in the Playground or on a development address such as localhost. Nothing is billed past your plan’s answers.

Can Deacon answer by email, phone or WhatsApp like Fin?

No. Deacon is a chat widget on your website, with no email inbox, phone line, WhatsApp, SMS or social channels. Fin answers across all of those, and Zendesk, HubSpot, Front and Kustomer reach past the website too.

Can Deacon take actions, such as refunds?

No. Deacon answers questions and hands conversations to you, and it takes no actions in other systems. It always declines questions about a visitor’s own account, invoice or data. Fin can handle refunds, cancellations and account changes through its Procedures and connections to systems such as Stripe and Shopify.