AI support agents
AI support agents: what you pay depends on what the vendor counts as a resolution
Seven AI support agents compared on the number that decides the bill: what each one counts and charges as a resolved ticket, what each vendor claims for deflection, and where the claim is published. Every price was read on the vendor’s own page on 26 October 2026.
The short answer
- No page can tell you which agent deflects the most tickets. Every deflection figure on a vendor page is a vendor claim or a customer quote, measured on that vendor’s own customers; what the pages do publish is the price of a resolution and the definition behind it.
- For a per-outcome meter with no seat minimum,
Intercom prices Fin at $0.99 per outcome and counts an outcome when a customer confirms, when they do not ask for more help, or when Fin completes a workflow, including handoffs. - For the strictest definition, Zendesk bills an automated resolution only when the AI agent resolves a request "without any escalation to a human agent": $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go.
- For e-commerce help desks,
Gorgias includes an AI Agent on every plan at roughly $0.90 an automated interaction, and 
Tidio sells Lyro by the conversation from $0.65 and guarantees a 50 percent resolution rate on its Premium plan.
Disclosure: Nesyona earns a commission if you subscribe to Tidio through the link on this page. It does not change the order, the prices or the verdicts.
Which AI support agent deflects the most tickets?
None can be ranked on deflection from published pages: the rates printed are vendor claims or customer quotes, so the useful comparison is what each vendor counts as a resolution and what it charges for one.
Deflection, the share of tickets an AI agent closes without a human, depends on your help centre far more than on the vendor. The pages below show what each vendor publishes and where.
| Vendor | Claim as published | What it is | Pricing unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | "Our customers average a 75% resolution rate with Lyro"; "Guaranteed 50% Lyro AI resolution rate" on Premium | Vendor average; a plan guarantee (Premium is contact-for-pricing) | Per AI conversation; per resolution on Premium |
| Zendesk | "Resolve up to 80%+ of even the most complex service issues across any channel" | Vendor ceiling claim, no basis printed | Per automated resolution |
 Decagon | Customer stories tiled on the homepage: "80% deflection rate", "70% chat and voice resolution" | Individual customer results | No price on the site |
| Intercom | A customer quote on the pricing page: "We’re seeing a 50% resolution rate with Fin" | One customer’s figure | Per outcome, $0.99 |
| Gorgias | A customer quote: "now above 50% automation" | One customer’s figure | Per automated interaction |
| Forethought | No rate on its pricing page | Pricing is "a blend of platform access fees and an outcome-based pricing cost" | Quote; Proof of Value instead of a trial |
Deflection and resolution claims as printed on each vendor’s own page, read 26 October 2026. Ada’s pricing page returned a bot challenge to our reader, so nothing is stated for Ada.
Read in that light, "up to 80%" and "average 75%" are two different kinds of sentence: one is a ceiling, one an average over Tidio’s own customers, and neither is a prediction for yours. Our customer support AI guide covers the wider tool field; this page isolates the one question of what a resolution costs.
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What does each vendor bill for: a seat, a conversation or a resolution?
Pricing per resolution changes the incentive: Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin outcome, so cost scales with success rather than with seats, but each vendor defines success differently.
Intercom’s pricing page defines an outcome in three ways: "A customer confirms their issue is resolved", or "They don’t ask for more help after Fin responds", or "Fin completes a workflow (Procedure), including handoffs", charged once per conversation, with a minimum monthly commitment (it gives 50 outcomes as an example) and no seat cost on the standalone Fin product. Seats are separate on its helpdesk plans: Essential $29, Advanced $85 and Expert $132 per seat a month, with a 35 percent new-customer discount shown on Essential.
Zendesk includes automated resolutions with its plans (its table lists 5, 5 and 10 per agent a month across the three plan columns) and sells more at $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go; its plans are $19, $55 and $115 per agent a month paid yearly for Support Team, Suite Team and Suite Professional. Gorgias prices its helpdesk by tickets (Starter $40, Basic $90 a month billed monthly) and lists the AI Agent inside each plan: its comparison table shows $1.00, $0.90, $0.90 and $0.85 per automated interaction across the four tiers. Tidio’s Starter plan is $24.17 a month for 100 billable conversations, and its Lyro AI Agent starts at $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations.
When is a per-conversation price cheaper than a per-resolution price?
Only above a break-even resolution rate you can compute: the price per conversation divided by the price per resolution.
A per-conversation meter bills the bot’s work; a per-resolution meter bills its results. Tidio Lyro at $0.65 a conversation is therefore $1.30 per resolved ticket at its guaranteed 50 percent rate and $0.87 at its claimed 75 percent average. Against Intercom’s $0.99 that is dearer at 50 percent and cheaper at 75.
What does a month cost at 500 and 5,000 conversations?
At 5,000 conversations a month with half resolved, the AI meter alone is $2,250 on Gorgias, $2,475 on Intercom Fin, $3,750 on Zendesk committed resolutions and $5,000 pay-as-you-go.
How do you measure deflection on your own help desk?
Deflection rates on vendor sites are vendor claims measured on the vendor’s own customers; the only number that predicts your result is the share of your tickets the help centre already answers.
The card below turns that into a 30 minute audit and the break-even sum, and lists the five questions that decide a contract. The definition question comes first because it moves the bill more than the headline price. A regulator’s view of what goes wrong is worth reading before you buy: the CFPB’s report on chatbots in consumer finance describes the "doom loop" of a bot that cannot hand over, and the EU AI Act’s Article 50 requires that people be told when they are talking to an AI system. Intercom’s own help centre has a Fin AI Agent explainer, and Zendesk publishes its CX Trends research (vendor research, read it as such).
SMB or enterprise: which platform for which team?
Enterprise agents such as Decagon and Forethought publish no price at all, which is a buying signal in itself: expect a scoped pilot rather than a self-serve trial.
Decagon’s pricing page returns not found and its homepage shows no price. Forethought says its pricing "is a blend of platform access fees and an outcome-based pricing cost" and offers a Proof of Value in place of a free trial. Ada’s pricing page was behind a bot challenge when read, so it is named here without a figure. The tools below print a price you can model before a sales call.
Intercom Fin$0.99 per outcome; helpdesk $29, $85, $132 a seat
Best true angle: a standalone Fin you can run on a helpdesk you already have, with no seat costs, set up in under an hour per its page, and a startup discount.
An outcome counts silence and handoffs, so ask for the confirmed-resolution share.
Zendesk AI agentsPlans $19, $55, $115 an agent; $1.50 / $2.00 a resolution
Best true angle: AI agents included in every Suite and Support plan, and the narrowest billing definition: no escalation, no charge.
Included resolutions are a handful per agent a month; the rest are bought.
TidioStarter $24.17, Lyro from $32.50 a month
Best true angle: the lowest entry price here, a free plan, and a guaranteed 50 percent Lyro resolution rate with per-resolution billing on its Premium plan.
Entry Lyro bills each AI conversation resolved or not, and above 1,000 conversations a month it is a custom plan.
GorgiasStarter $40, Basic $90 a month
Best true angle: an AI Agent on every plan priced per automated interaction, aimed at e-commerce support with actions such as cancel and apply discount.
The plan cards and the comparison table differ slightly on the per-interaction rate; confirm yours.
Forethought and Decagon sit above these on scope: Forethought lists Autoflows, custom actions and an insights dashboard on its Team plan, and Decagon positions its AI concierge across chat and voice. Both are sales-led, so the break-even sum above is the first thing to ask them to fill in. For voice, see our AI voice agents guide; for a small business stack, the small business AI tools list; for the chatbot field overall, our AI chatbots comparison.
Who should pick which AI support agent?
Pick by what you can price before a sales call, then by the definition of a resolution.
- SaaS team on an existing helpdeskIntercom Finbecause it runs on your current helpdesk with no seats at $0.99 an outcome; ask what share are confirmed resolutions.
- Team on Zendesk alreadyZendesk AI agentsbecause AI agents are in every plan and an escalated ticket is never billed.
- Shopify or WooCommerce storeGorgiasbecause the AI Agent is on every plan and priced per automated interaction, with e-commerce actions.
- Small team that wants the cheapest startTidiobecause a free plan and Lyro from $32.50 get you running; above about 66 percent resolution it is also cheaper per ticket than Fin.
- Enterprise with complex flowsForethought or Decagonbecause both are scoped through a pilot; bring your own ticket audit and the break-even sum.
For most SaaS support teams the right first move is the free ticket audit, then Intercom Fin if you already have a helpdesk or Tidio if you are starting small; whichever you pick, buy on the vendor’s definition of a resolution, not on its headline rate.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI support agent has the best ticket deflection rate?
How much does Intercom Fin charge per resolution?
How does Zendesk price its AI agents?
Is Tidio Lyro cheaper than Intercom Fin?
How do I measure my own ticket deflection?
Do enterprise AI support agents publish prices?
Sources
- Intercom pricing and Fin outcome definition
- Intercom help: Fin AI Agent explained
- Zendesk pricing and automated resolutions
- Zendesk CX Trends report (vendor research)
- Tidio pricing
- Gorgias pricing
- Forethought pricing
- Decagon homepage
- CFPB: Chatbots in consumer finance
- EU AI Act, Article 50: transparency obligations