Intercom, Zendesk, Gorgias, Freshdesk and Tidio all bill for AI outcomes — and all define them differently. A sourced, side-by-side look at what each one actually charges you for.
Every major support vendor has now moved some part of its AI pricing from per-seat to per-outcome. The headline rate is easy to compare. What that rate buys is not — because each vendor writes its own definition of the event you are being billed for, and those definitions differ in ways that change the invoice more than the rate does.
This page collects what each vendor publishes on its own pricing page, with the date we read it. Where a vendor does not publish something, we say so rather than filling the gap with a third-party estimate.
| Vendor | Published rate | What triggers the charge |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom (Fin) | $0.99 per outcome; $9.99 for a qualification outcome | Charged per outcome, once per conversation regardless of message count. Outcome types are resolution, procedure handoff and disqualification at $0.99, and qualification at $9.99. Standalone use carries a 50-outcome monthly minimum. |
| Zendesk (AI agents) | Not published | The page describes the model — you pay "per automated resolution", only for questions resolved without escalation — but does not state a per-resolution figure. Third-party blogs quote numbers for this; none of them cite a Zendesk source, so we do not repeat them. |
| Gorgias (AI Agent) | $0.90 per resolved conversation; $1.00 on the Starter plan | A resolution means the AI handled the conversation with no human handoff. Gorgias states that a conversation handed to a human is not billed as both an AI resolution and a helpdesk ticket. |
| Freshdesk (Freddy) | $49 per 100 AI Agent sessions; $29/agent/month for AI Copilot | Billed per session rather than per resolution — a session is charged whether or not it ended the customer's problem. The first 500 sessions are included. |
| Tidio (Lyro) | Lyro AI Agent add-on from $32.50/month for 50 conversations | Priced per AI conversation in blocks rather than per successful outcome, on top of the base plan's own conversation quota. |
| CustomerEagle | €0.99, €0.56 or €0.49 per resolution depending on plan, with 10–50 included per agent per month | Zero human replies in the conversation, conversations the customer never engaged with closed by timeout without counting, and a three-day settling window that reverses the resolution if the conversation reopens. |
Competitor figures were read from each vendor's own public pricing page on 4 August 2026 and are quoted in the currency that page publishes; they are not converted or compared across currencies. Vendors change prices without notice — check the linked source before relying on any figure. CustomerEagle is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with any vendor named here; all product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Notice that the table above is not comparing like with like, and that is the point. Freshdesk's published unit is a session. Tidio's is a conversation. Intercom's and Gorgias's are outcomes. A per-session price looks lower than a per-outcome price partly because it is charged more often — every session bills, including the ones where the AI did not help.
So the only sound way to compare is to model your own volume against each unit. Take a month of real tickets, estimate what share your knowledge base can answer, and multiply by each vendor's unit at its own trigger. A rate card comparison without that step will point you at the wrong vendor.
The most common design is to assume a conversation resolved when the customer does not come back within some window. It is easy to implement and it is not unreasonable — most satisfied customers do go quiet. But it also books every customer who gave up, went to a competitor, or found the answer elsewhere as a success you paid for. If you only change one thing about how you evaluate vendors, ask this question in writing.
Where the AI agent and the helpdesk are separately priced products, a conversation can generate a charge in both. Gorgias explicitly says it does not do this. Others do not address it on their pricing pages either way, which is a reason to ask rather than a reason to assume the worst.
A resolution that cannot be reversed is a resolution the vendor never has to defend. We publish our own reversal rules on how we measure AI resolutions — three days, automatic, credited back if already invoiced — because a definition that can only ever move in the vendor's favour is not a measurement.
An AI resolution is a support conversation that an AI agent handled from start to finish without a human agent replying. Vendors differ on the details that matter for billing: whether an abandoned conversation counts, whether a handoff to a human is still charged, and whether a counted resolution can later be reversed.
Published rates as of 4 August 2026: Intercom charges $0.99 per outcome, Gorgias $0.90 per resolved conversation ($1.00 on Starter), Freshdesk $49 per 100 AI Agent sessions, and Tidio's Lyro add-on starts at $32.50 per month for 50 conversations. Zendesk describes a per-automated-resolution model but does not publish a rate. CustomerEagle charges €0.99, €0.56 or €0.49 per resolution depending on plan, with an allowance included in each seat.
Not on its pricing page, as of 4 August 2026. The page explains that AI agents are billed per automated resolution and that you pay only for questions resolved without escalation, but it does not state a figure. Several third-party blogs quote specific numbers without citing a Zendesk source.
Not automatically. Per-resolution pricing converts a fixed headcount cost into a variable volume cost, which favours teams with highly repetitive ticket mixes and well-documented knowledge, and penalises teams whose volume spikes without matching content. Model both against a real month of your own tickets before switching.
A session is charged when the AI engages with a customer, whether or not the customer's problem was solved. A resolution is charged only when the conversation was actually completed by the AI. Because sessions bill more often than resolutions, a lower per-session rate can produce a higher monthly bill.
Only if the vendor implements reversal, and most do not describe one. CustomerEagle applies a three-day settling window: if the customer reopens the conversation, a human takes over, or a negative rating arrives, the resolution is removed from usage and credited back if it was already invoiced.
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