Guide
See the real math behind AI support costs
Chatbot pricing doesn't have a common unit. One vendor sells conversations, another sells tokens, contacts, resolutions, interactions, or seats. Sticker prices don't compare until you know what starts the meter.
Outlearn is an AI support agent that answers from the sources you already keep and escalates when it doesn't know. This chatbot pricing guide normalizes 10 vendors to cost per resolved conversation and checks what happens when AI fails: of the 8 vendors with a working AI meter, 6 bill failure and 2 don't.
Last updated 14 August 2026
Find the meter before you compare the price
Chatbot pricing starts with the billed unit, not the monthly plan. Gorgias charges per automated interaction: $0.90 on annual plans, $1.00 monthly, and $1.50 overage at https://www.gorgias.com/pricing, checked 2026-08-07. Tidio Lyro charges per AI conversation: $39 for 50 conversations a month and up to $700 for 1,000 at https://www.tidio.com/pricing/, checked 2026-08-07. Those meters follow AI activity.
Botpress charges $0.50 to $0.65 per conversation with 2+ messages at https://botpress.com/pricing, checked 2026-08-07. Zoho Zia Agents charges by model work: 1 USD = 1,000 AI credits, $0.24 per million Standard-model tokens, $0.72 per million Pro-model tokens, and 30M free tokens a month at https://www.zoho.com/agents/pricing.html, checked 2026-08-07. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text charges $0.99 per AI resolution in 50-packs of $49.50 at https://www.livechat.com/chatbot/pricing/, checked 2026-08-07. ManyChat bills active contacts per month and adds $0 for AI at https://manychat.com/pricing, checked 2026-08-07.
Talkdesk meters voice minutes with 15-second rounding and digital sessions of 15 requests or 30 minutes, but publishes no rate card at https://www.talkdesk.com, checked 2026-08-07. Crisp uses USD-denominated token credits and says Hugo typically runs $0.05 to $0.10 per conversation at https://help.crisp.chat/en/article/how-does-hugo-ai-pricing-and-billing-works-h78hkv/, checked 2026-08-07. Seat plans are different again: Zoho Desk runs $7 to $40 per user per month at https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html, checked 2026-08-07. With Outlearn, you can forecast AI responses from your own support volume, then keep hard threads with your team.
The bill changes when the AI misses
This is the chatbot pricing split that matters: of the 10 vendors we checked, 8 have a working AI meter; 6 of those 8 bill you when the AI fails; 2 do not. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text and ManyChat win this axis. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text excludes no issue solved, irrelevant or incomplete answers, and transfers without answering. ManyChat's AI adds $0 because its meter is active contacts, not outcomes.
The other meters keep their own rules. Gorgias says a fully AI-resolved case creates both a ticket fee and an automation fee, while an AI handoff still creates the ticket fee at https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/how-youre-billed-for-using-gorgias-199385, checked 2026-08-07. Tidio bills after at least 1 AI reply, and a 15-minute gap starts a new billed thread at https://help.tidio.com/hc/en-us/articles/13924459295900, checked 2026-08-07. Botpress says AI-only and human-assisted conversations count the same.
Zoho publishes no outcome rule at all. Wrong and right answers use the same tokens. Talkdesk can split a worse conversation into more billable sessions. Crisp says its meter runs from the first AI-handled message until the conversation is resolved, routed, or escalated. Escalation ends the billed window rather than canceling it. That is an inference from their published definition, not a sentence they publish. Outlearn uses your connected sources for the answer, then escalates instead of inventing when the answer isn't there.
Turn the quote into resolved-conversation math
Chatbot pricing gets useful when you divide the price per billed unit by the share of conversations actually resolved. Tidio's $39 for 50 conversations is $39 ÷ 50 = $0.78 per billed conversation. If every conversation resolves, that is $0.78 per resolved conversation. If failures sit inside those 50 conversations, $39 is divided by fewer resolved conversations.
Tidio's $700 for 1,000 conversations is $700 ÷ 1,000 = $0.70 per billed conversation. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text's $49.50 for 50 AI resolutions is $49.50 ÷ 50 = $0.99 per resolution. The units aren't interchangeable. A resolution meter can exclude failures. A conversation, token, interaction, session, or response meter records work before the outcome is known.
The computed table below puts each published meter, failure rule, and cost-per-resolved-conversation formula side by side. Where a vendor doesn't publish a resolution rate, the result stays a formula. No guessed savings rate.
| Vendor | Published meter | Published unit price | Failed AI answer billed? | Cost per resolved conversation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gorgiashttps://www.gorgias.com/pricing and https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/how-youre-billed-for-using-gorgias-199385 · checked 2026-08-07 | Per automated interaction, on top of a per-ticket fee | $0.90 on annual plans, $1.00 monthly, $1.50 overage | Yes. A fully AI-resolved case creates both a ticket fee and an automation fee, and an AI handoff still creates the ticket fee. | $1.69 on Pro + overage, $1,686 a month. Annual billing; AI Agent bundled into the card price. |
| Tidio Lyrohttps://www.tidio.com/pricing/ and https://help.tidio.com/hc/en-us/articles/13924459295900 · checked 2026-08-07 | Per AI conversation | $39 for 50 conversations a month, up to $700 for 1,000 | Yes. The meter fires after at least 1 AI reply, and a 15-minute gap starts a new billed thread. | $1.43 on Premium, sales-quoted, $1,429 a month. Above 1,000 Tidio publishes no price; shown at their $0.70 floor. |
| Botpresshttps://botpress.com/pricing · checked 2026-08-07 | Per conversation with 2+ messages | $0.50 to $0.65 per conversation | Yes. AI-only and human-assisted conversations count the same. | $1.00 to $1.30: the published rate divided by the scenario resolution rate, because every conversation bills whether it resolves or not. |
| Zoho Zia Agentshttps://www.zoho.com/agents/pricing.html · checked 2026-08-07 | Model tokens, billed as AI credits | $0.24 per million Standard-model tokens, $0.72 per million Pro-model tokens, 30M free tokens a month | Yes. No outcome rule is published, so wrong and right answers use the same tokens. | Stays a formula: tokens per resolved conversation times the per-million-token rate, after the 30M free tokens each month. Zoho publishes no per-conversation rate. |
| LiveChat/ChatBot/Texthttps://www.livechat.com/chatbot/pricing/ · checked 2026-08-07 | Per AI resolution, sold in 50-packs | $0.99 per AI resolution, $49.50 per 50-pack | No. It excludes no issue solved, irrelevant or incomplete answers, and transfers without answering. | $2.07 on Team + ChatBot Growth, $2,072 a month. Billed annually; the AI agent is a separate ChatBot.com subscription. |
| ManyChathttps://manychat.com/pricing · checked 2026-08-07 | Per Active Contact per month | $0 for AI on top of the contact plan | No. The AI adds $0 because the meter is active contacts, not outcomes. The only vendor of the ten checked that lets you turn overages off. | $0.03 on Pro, $29 a month. Annual billing; AI needs Pro or above, and their team ceiling is 10 users. |
| Talkdeskhttps://www.talkdesk.com · checked 2026-08-07 | Voice minutes with 15-second rounding, and digital sessions of 15 requests or 30 minutes | No published rate card | Not published. A worse conversation can be split into more billable sessions. | Not computable: no published rate to run the scenario against. |
| Crisphttps://help.crisp.chat/en/article/how-does-hugo-ai-pricing-and-billing-works-h78hkv/ · checked 2026-08-07 | USD-denominated token credits, per AI-handled conversation | Typically $0.05 to $0.10 per conversation, Crisp's own figure | Yes. The meter runs from the first AI-handled message until the conversation is resolved, routed, or escalated. Escalation ends the billed window rather than canceling it. | $0.29 on Plus, $295 a month. |
| Zoho Deskhttps://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html · checked 2026-08-07 | Per seat per month | $7 to $40 per user per month | No working AI meter on the seat plans. 30M Zia tokens a month are included before token rates apply. | $0.23 on Professional x 10 seats, $230 a month. Billed annually; AI metered in LLM tokens, not resolutions. |
| Outlearnhttps://outlearn.com/pricing · checked 2026-08-14 | Per AI response, in credits | $0.05 per standard response, $99 for 2,000 credits | Yes. A response that fails to resolve still used credits. | $0.20 on Growth, $199 a month. |
Plan floors, free tokens, and failure-rate math
Start with the support result you can forecast. Outlearn answers from your sources, takes the thread as far as the evidence allows, and sends the hard case to your team instead of making something up. Our measured average is 50.4% of conversations solved automatically. It isn't a guarantee. It is the number you can test against your own conversation mix.
Outlearn charges credits for AI work, never per seat and never per resolution. A standard response is 1 credit. Heavier models use 1 to 5 credits based on the model. Starter: $99 a month with 2,000 credits at https://outlearn.com/pricing, read 2026-08-14. $99 for 2,000 credits is about $0.05 per standard response. A response that fails to resolve still used credits. The difference is that you can count responses before committing, ground answers in your sources, and route the unresolved work clearly.
Plan mechanics still move chatbot pricing. Tidio's $39 for 50 conversations is $0.78 each, while $700 for 1,000 is $0.70 each. Gorgias lists $1.50 per automated-interaction overage. Zoho gives 30M free tokens a month before its $0.24 per million Standard-model tokens or $0.72 per million Pro-model tokens apply. Those figures tell you usage. Your resolution share tells you the support outcome.
Will a failed AI thread still create a charge?
Picture one customer thread. The AI replies, misses the answer, then hands the case to a person. Under Tidio, at least 1 AI reply starts a billed conversation. Under Gorgias, the handoff still creates the ticket fee. Under Botpress, human-assisted and AI-only conversations count the same. That single thread is the scenario to run against every quote.
Then check who calls an issue resolved. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text says irrelevant or incomplete answers and transfer-without-answering cases cost nothing, but its page doesn't answer who adjudicates irrelevant or incomplete. Check the overage too. Gorgias publishes $1.50 per automated interaction. ManyChat lets you turn overages off.
For Outlearn, run your real questions through the sources your team already trusts. See what gets answered, what gets escalated, and how many credits each response uses. Your bill follows AI work, not headcount, so adding support teammates doesn't add seats to the AI bill.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a chatbot cost per month?
Start with the unit, then the plan minimum. Tidio lists $39 for 50 AI conversations a month and up to $700 for 1,000 at https://www.tidio.com/pricing/, checked 2026-08-07. Chatbot pricing only becomes comparable after you convert those conversations into the number actually resolved.
What is per-resolution pricing?
It charges when an issue counts as solved. LiveChat/ChatBot/Text charges $0.99 per AI resolution in 50-packs of $49.50 and says no issue solved, irrelevant or incomplete answers, and transfer-without-answering cases cost nothing at https://www.livechat.com/chatbot/pricing/, checked 2026-08-07. The remaining question is who decides an answer was irrelevant or incomplete.
Do chatbots charge when they give a wrong answer?
Often, yes. Of the 8 vendors we checked with a working AI meter, 6 bill when the AI fails. Tidio bills after at least 1 AI reply, while Zoho publishes no outcome rule at all. Outlearn also uses credits when a response doesn't resolve, then escalates instead of inventing when the answer isn't in your sources.
Is per-seat pricing better?
Seat pricing is the right chatbot pricing model when you want the bill to follow headcount. Zoho Desk lists $7 to $40 per user per month at https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html, checked 2026-08-07. Outlearn doesn't charge per seat, so you can add the people handling escalations without changing the AI meter.
What does Outlearn cost?
Use the plan that gives you enough response credits to test your own support volume. Free plan: $0, 100 credits a month, no card. Starter: $99 a month with 2,000 credits. Growth: $199 with 4,500. Scale: $599 with 15,000. Every paid plan has a 14-day trial at https://outlearn.com/pricing, read 2026-08-14.
Start free with your own support sources
Get 100 credits a month for $0, no card. Connect the sources your team already uses and see whether Outlearn answers your real support questions or escalates them with the context your team needs.
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Pricing
Priced by the AI work the agent does. No charge per seat, and a free plan to start.