Short answer. Flat published chatbot plans run from nothing to $750 a month before usage; seats, add-ons and custom tiers go higher, and the usage model matters more than the sticker. On the pricing pages we read on 2 November 2026, Intercom charges $0.99 per outcome for its Fin agent on top of seats at $29, $85 or $132 a month; Tidio's paid plans start at $24.17 a month on annual billing with its Lyro AI agent from $32.50 for 50 AI conversations; Chatbase runs $40, $150 or $500 a month billed yearly on message credits; and Botpress charges $150 or $750 a month for 250 or 1,500 conversations, with extra conversations sold in packs of 100 at $65 or $50. Voice can cost more than chat: Intercom's Fin Voice is $1.99 per voice outcome against $0.99 for chat, and Botpress counts three minutes of a call as one conversation. Below are the four price lists as published, three worked examples at realistic volumes, and the questions to ask before the first invoice.
Key numbers
| Item | Number |
|---|---|
| Intercom Fin AI Agent (one outcome per conversation, max; page says nothing if Fin cannot answer) | $0.99 per outcome |
| Intercom Fin Voice (available via sales) | $1.99 per voice outcome |
| Intercom helpdesk seats, annual (Essential, Advanced, Expert, per seat a month) | $29, $85, $132 |
| Tidio Starter, annual billing (100 billable conversations) | $24.17 a month |
| Tidio Lyro AI Agent stand-alone (50 Lyro AI conversations) | from $32.50 a month |
| Chatbase plans, billed yearly (700, 4,000 and 15,000 message credits a month) | $40, $150, $500 |
| Chatbase extra credits (auto recharge) | $40 per 1,000 |
| Botpress Plus and Team, annual (250 and 1,500 conversations included) | $150 and $750 a month |
| Botpress extra conversations ($0.65 or $0.50 per conversation inside a pack) | packs of 100 at $65 or $50 |
| Botpress voice conversion (voice channel Enterprise only) | 3 minutes = 1 conversation |
Public pricing pages of Intercom, Tidio, Chatbase and Botpress, read in Chrome on 2 November 2026; annual or yearly billing toggles as noted.
Four pricing models for the same job
The four vendors we read charge for four different things. Intercom bills per outcome, at most one per conversation, and adds human seats. Tidio bills per billable conversation, meaning one where a human agent sent a message, and sells AI conversations in separate bundles. Chatbase bills per message credit, with plan tiers that bundle credits, agents and features. Botpress bills per conversation, defined as any exchange with at least two messages from the end user in the billing month, and includes a monthly allowance of AI model spend. A quote that looks cheap under one model can be the most expensive under another once the volume is known, which is why the worked examples below hold volume constant.
Intercom: seats plus $0.99 per outcome
Intercom's pricing page lists three helpdesk plans billed annually: Essential at $29 per seat a month, Advanced at $85 and Expert at $132, with a "New customers save 35%" offer on Essential shown as $19. The AI agent is priced separately and identically on every plan: "Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome," with the rule "One outcome per conversation, max" and the promise "Never pay if Fin can't answer ... you pay nothing." Fin can also sit on a Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk helpdesk at the same $0.99 per outcome with no Intercom helpdesk included. Voice is sold through sales: "Fin Voice is available via sales at $1.99 per voice outcome."
The add-ons are where a small team's bill grows. Copilot, the agent-assist product, is $29 per teammate a month after a free allowance of 10 Copilot conversations and 10 AI auto-translation conversations per agent each month. Pro, which includes the Operator features, starts at $100 per workspace a month, and Proactive Support Plus starts at $99 per workspace a month. Advanced includes 20 free Lite seats and Expert 50. Startups with under $10 million raised and 15 or fewer employees get 93 percent off; the page's own example reads "With Early Stage this would be just $65/mo." There is a 14-day trial with no card.
Tidio: from $24.17 a month, AI sold by the conversation
Tidio's pricing page, read with its annual toggle ("2 months free") selected, shows a Free plan with 50 billable conversations, a one-time 50 Lyro AI conversations and 100 Flows visitors; Starter at $24.17 a month with 100 billable conversations; Growth from $49.17 a month from 250 billable conversations; Plus at $300 a month for premium features and priority support, where you "Pay separately for AI and human" conversations; and Premium at custom pricing from 3,000 Lyro AI conversations with pay-per-resolution billing and what the page calls a guaranteed 50 percent Lyro resolution rate. Lyro, the AI agent, can be bought on its own from $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations and added to Zendesk, Salesforce or another helpdesk. Removing Tidio branding is 16.67 USD a month. Tidio's definition of a billable conversation is any live chat, ticket, email or social conversation that includes a message from a human agent; unanswered visitor messages are not billed. The page carries a vendor claim that customers average a 75 percent resolution rate with Lyro, which we repeat as a claim, not a measurement.
Chatbase: $40 to $500 a month on message credits
Chatbase's pricing page on the yearly toggle shows Hobby at $40 a month billed yearly with 700 message credits a month, two members, one agent and five AI actions per agent; Basic at $150 a month billed yearly with 4,000 credits, three members, advanced integrations, a helpdesk inbox, voice, API access and telephony with 10 concurrent calls; and Business at $500 a month billed yearly with 15,000 credits, five members, advanced analytics and 20 concurrent calls. Enterprise is custom, with SSO, HIPAA eligibility, audit logs, white-labelling and SLAs. Add-ons: auto recharge at $40 per 1,000 message credits, removing "Powered By Chatbase" at $99 a month, extra agents at $25 per agent a month and extra storage at $25 per 10 MB a month. Training content is capped at 40 MB on the three paid plans, and there is a 7-day trial.
Botpress: $150 or $750 a month per conversation
Botpress's pricing page, with "Annual · Save 20%" selected, is headed "Priced for the work it does, not the seats it fills. Unlimited AI agents and AI spend included." Free is $0 with 100 conversations, three seats and three agents, no top-ups. Plus is $150 a month billed annually with 250 conversations included, extra conversations in "packs of 100 for $65 ($0.65/convo)," $25 of AI usage included, unlimited agents and a white-label webchat. Team is $750 a month billed annually with 1,500 conversations, "packs of 100 for $50 ($0.50/convo)," $150 of AI usage included, unlimited seats, teams, routing and role-based access. Enterprise is custom, and the comparison table marks the voice channel as Enterprise-only. Storage is a $40 a month add-on on Plus and Team. The conversation definition is the one to read twice: "Any exchange with at least two messages from the end user in the billing month counts as a conversation ... For voice calls, 3 minutes counts as 1 conversation."
The price lists side by side
| Vendor | Lowest paid tier | Unit of usage | Overage or usage price | Voice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom | $29 per seat a month, annual | Outcome (one per conversation, max) | $0.99 per outcome | $1.99 per voice outcome, via sales |
| Tidio | $24.17 a month, annual | Billable conversation (human message) and Lyro AI conversation | Lyro from $32.50 for 50 AI conversations | Not listed |
| Chatbase | $40 a month, billed yearly | Message credit | $40 per 1,000 credits | Included from Basic; 10 or 20 concurrent calls |
| Botpress | $150 a month, annual | Conversation (two end-user messages in a month) | Packs of 100 extra conversations at $65 or $50 | Enterprise only; 3 minutes = 1 conversation |
Three worked examples
- A small ecommerce store, 500 AI conversations a month, no human seats. Botpress Plus: $150 plus three packs of 100 extra conversations at $65, which is $345 a month. Chatbase Basic at $150 covers it if those conversations stay inside 4,000 message credits; a heavier month that needs one more credit pack costs $190. Intercom Fin, if half of the 500 conversations produce a billable outcome, is 250 outcomes at $0.99, $247.50, plus $29 if you add one Essential seat, $276.50 in all.
- A support team of three, 1,000 AI conversations a month. Botpress Plus is $150 plus eight packs of 100 at $65, or $670, still under Team's $750 for 1,500 conversations. Intercom, if every conversation produced an outcome, would be 1,000 outcomes at $0.99, $990, plus three Essential seats at $29, $1,077 a month; where Fin cannot answer, the page says you pay nothing, so the outcome fee falls with the share of conversations it handles.
- A phone-heavy service business. Voice is the dividing line. Intercom's $1.99 per voice outcome and Botpress's three-minutes-per-conversation rule both make a 10-minute call cost more than a chat: about twice at Intercom, and more than three conversations at Botpress. For inbound call handling we build on dedicated voice platforms rather than chat tools; the pricing and limits of those are in the best AI voice agents in 2026, and the consent rules for outbound AI calls are covered in our TCPA guide to AI calling. A worked example for a trade business is in our AI answering service for HVAC guide.
The costs that are not on the price card
Four items move the real number. Branding removal: $16.67 a month at Tidio, $99 a month at Chatbase, included in Botpress Plus's white-label webchat. Human seats: Intercom's $29 to $132 per seat grows with headcount and Tidio's billable conversations grow with every conversation a human answers, while Botpress Team includes unlimited seats. Storage and training data: Chatbase caps training content at 40 MB and charges $25 per 10 MB more; Botpress sells storage at $40 a month. And model spend: Botpress includes $25 or $150 of AI usage; ask Intercom and Chatbase how model costs reach their prices. Ask each vendor what one average conversation consumes under its own definition before comparing plans.
How to choose
Match the billing unit to your traffic. If most conversations end without a human and you can measure that, per-outcome pricing charges you only for the conversations the bot handles. If humans handle the tail of every conversation, a conversation-based plan with seats included is easier to forecast. If you need voice, price the voice unit first, because it is the line that changes the answer. Every figure above is from the vendors' public pricing pages as read on 2 November 2026; prices change, and the annual billing shown on all four pages lowers the monthly figure in exchange for a year's commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
On the public pricing pages read on 2 November 2026, paid plans start at $24.17 a month at Tidio (annual billing), $29 per seat at Intercom plus $0.99 per outcome, $40 a month at Chatbase billed yearly, and $150 a month at Botpress billed annually for 250 conversations. Free plans exist at Tidio and Botpress (100 conversations); Chatbase and Intercom offer 7-day and 14-day trials.
Fin AI Agent is $0.99 per outcome on every Intercom plan, with at most one outcome charged per conversation and, per the page, no charge when Fin cannot answer. Helpdesk seats are $29, $85 or $132 a month on annual billing. Fin Voice is $1.99 per voice outcome and is sold through sales.
Botpress charges per conversation, defined as any exchange with at least two end-user messages in the billing month. Plus is $150 a month billed annually with 250 conversations and packs of 100 extra conversations at $65; Team is $750 a month with 1,500 conversations and packs of 100 at $50. For voice calls, three minutes count as one conversation, and the voice channel is Enterprise-only.
Chatbase meters usage in message credits: 700 a month on Hobby ($40 a month billed yearly), 4,000 on Basic ($150) and 15,000 on Business ($500). Extra credits cost $40 per 1,000 through auto recharge, and removing Chatbase branding costs $99 a month.
At Intercom, and for long Botpress calls, yes. Intercom charges $0.99 per chat outcome but $1.99 per voice outcome, and Botpress counts three minutes of a call as one conversation, so a ten-minute call counts as more than three. Chatbase includes voice from its Basic plan. Voice platforms are priced differently again; see our comparison of AI voice agents.
Branding removal ($16.67 a month at Tidio, $99 at Chatbase), human seats (Intercom grows with headcount, Tidio with every conversation a human answers), storage and training-data limits (Chatbase caps training content at 40 MB and charges $25 per 10 MB more; Botpress sells storage at $40 a month) and how each vendor defines the unit it bills.