Pricing, explained
Published prices in this market run from free to $1,500 a month before anyone mentions usage. Here is the shape of it, what a real month costs under each pricing model, and where a flat plan wins.
We priced the field in August 2026. It sorts into three groups. Self-serve website chat tools sit at $32 to $39 a month: Chatbase at $32 on message credits, SiteGPT at $39 priced per message. Intercom's Fin is next, priced per outcome at $0.99 a resolution with a 50 a month minimum, which is roughly $49.50 to get started.
Then the published prices stop. The next one in the scan is Lorikeet at $1,500 a month, charging $0.80 to $0.95 per resolution. Above that, Sierra, Decagon and Pylon publish nothing at all. Contact sales.
Ecommerce has its own shelf, and the bottom of it is cheap. Gorgias enters at $10 a month for 50 tickets and charges $1.50 per AI conversation. Tidio has a genuinely free tier, with paid plans from $24.17 and its Lyro assistant available standalone from $32.50 for 50 conversations. Richpanel anchors on $99 per seat plus $0.20 per AI conversation. Siena charges a $750 platform fee plus $0.90 per automated ticket. Zowie publishes no price.
One number keeps reappearing. Per-resolution pricing has converged near a dollar: Fin at $0.99, Lorikeet at $0.80 to $0.95, arriving there independently from opposite ends of the market. Any monthly minimum is therefore an implicit claim about your volume.
Competitor prices were checked in August 2026 from vendors' public pricing pages. The Gorgias figures come from its Shopify app listing, which may lag its direct-sale pricing. Zowie, Sierra, Decagon and Pylon publish no prices at all. Prices in this market move quickly, so check the vendor before you decide.
The scan
| Vendor | Entry price | What is metered on top |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbase | $32/mo, free tier available | Message credits. Extra credits $40 per 1,000. Removing their branding costs $1,188 a year. |
| SiteGPT | $39/mo | Per message. |
| Intercom Fin | about $49.50/mo effective | $0.99 per resolution, 50 a month minimum. |
| Gorgias | $10/mo for 50 tickets | $1.50 per AI conversation. Ticket overage $36 to $40 per 100. |
| Tidio and Lyro | Free tier, paid from $24.17 | Billable conversations. Lyro standalone from $32.50 for 50 conversations. |
| Richpanel | $99 per seat | Plus $0.20 per AI conversation. |
| Siena AI | $750/mo platform fee | Plus $0.90 per automated ticket. |
| Lorikeet | $1,500/mo | $0.80 to $0.95 per resolution. |
| Sierra, Decagon, Pylon, Zowie | Not published | Contact sales. |
| Sensbot | €49/mo | Nothing. Flat monthly price for the volume in the plan. |
Chatbase's free tier deletes an idle agent after 14 days. Gorgias states it never prices per agent. Tidio includes multi-store and multi-language on every tier, including the free one.
The arithmetic
Sticker price is not the bill. Take a store handling 500 support conversations a month, a normal load for a growing brand, and run it through each pricing model at the published rates. Where a meter only fires on part of the volume, we assume it fires on half, which is generous to the vendor.
| Pricing model | The arithmetic | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Per resolution, at the Fin rate | Half of 500 conversations resolve: 250 × $0.99 | $247.50 |
| Per resolution, if all 500 resolve | 500 × $0.99 | $495 |
| Per AI conversation, at the Gorgias rate | $10 entry plan, AI handles half: $10 + 250 × $1.50 | $385 |
| Per seat plus per conversation, at the Richpanel rate | One seat $99 + 500 × $0.20 | $199 |
| Platform fee plus per ticket, at the Siena rate | $750 + 250 × $0.90 | $975 |
| Sensbot Growth | Flat monthly plan, 500 chats included | €129 |
Read this as orders of magnitude, not as quotes. The units are not identical: a Fin resolution, a Gorgias AI conversation, a Siena automated ticket and a Sensbot chat are each defined by the vendor selling them. Three concessions run in the vendors' favour. The Gorgias $10 plan includes 50 tickets, so a 500-ticket month would really sit on a larger plan. One Richpanel seat is fewer than most teams run. And we have not extrapolated Tidio or Chatbase at all: Lyro's entry rate of $32.50 for 50 conversations works out at $0.65 each, but larger packs are likely cheaper per conversation and our scan does not record them, while Chatbase's included credit allowance is not in our scan either, so the only knowable Chatbase numbers are $40 per extra 1,000 credits and $1,188 a year to remove the branding.
This is the part most vendor pricing pages skip. A meter is not a trick. There are two situations where it wins outright, and we would rather you know them.
Under about 50 conversations a month, a meter wins and it is not close. Fin's minimum is roughly $49.50, Gorgias enters at $10 for 50 tickets, and Tidio has a real free tier. If you handle a handful of tickets a week, start there, not with us.
If eleven months are quiet and one is not, a meter charges almost nothing for the eleven. A flat plan does not refund a quiet month. Run the arithmetic across your own twelve months rather than an average of them.
Once the queue is predictable, every meter is a bill that grows with your success. The table above is the whole argument: at 500 conversations a month the metered models in our scan land between roughly $199 and $975, and a flat plan lands at €129.
A flat plan gives you a number you can put in a spreadsheet in January that is still right in November. A metered plan gives you a number that moves every time your marketing works.
Our ladder starts in the self-serve band and climbs into the gap. Starter is €49, shelved next to Chatbase and SiteGPT. Growth is €129 and Scale is €299, in the stretch between Fin's entry price and Lorikeet's $1,500 where our scan found almost nobody publishing anything. Done-for-you starts at €390 and includes the setup and the ongoing tuning.
What never appears on the bill: usage credits, per-resolution fees, per-seat charges, or a fee to remove our branding from a plan that includes custom branding. You pay for the volume in the plan. When you outgrow it, you move up a tier and the bill stays predictable.
There is one more thing a flat plan buys, and it only shows up at the cap. At least one ecommerce chatbot vendor in our scan does not charge overage below its top tier at all: the chatbot simply switches off when you hit the conversation limit, until you upgrade. Above roughly 500 conversations a month that vendor's delivered price also passes ours. A flat plan that includes your volume does not have either problem.
The honest summary: if your store has steady, real support volume, flat pricing wins on both predictability and total cost. If it does not, one of the metered tools above will serve you better and cost you less.
Because the vendors are selling different things. A $32 website chat tool answers from a knowledge base. A $1,500 agent resolves tickets end to end against your systems and arrives with an implementation project. Most ecommerce stores live in the middle of that range, which is exactly where the published prices thin out.
In theory it is the fairest model there is: you pay when the AI does the work. In practice the meter is unpredictable and it rises hardest in the months your store is busiest. We put both sides of that argument on one page: per-resolution vs flat pricing.
Chatbot and Email Assistant both start at €49 a month, Growth is €129 and Scale is €299. Done-for-you starts at €390 and includes setup and tuning. Flat monthly, no credits, no per-resolution fees. Full plans on the pricing page.
No. Seats are not our value metric, and the wider market is moving the same way: Gorgias states outright that it never prices per agent. Your plan covers the volume it says it covers, however many people work the queue.
They were checked in August 2026 from public pricing pages, except the Gorgias figures, which come from its Shopify app listing and may lag its direct-sale pricing. Prices in this market move; check the vendor before you decide.
Tell us how many support conversations you handle in a month and we will tell you which plan fits, or that you are better off on a meter.
Free trial on every platform. No credit card on Shopify, Shoper or Upgates.