AI Support Pricing: What a Conversation Cap Really Means
Almost every AI support plan is sold with a number attached: so many conversations, so many resolutions, so many message credits. The number is the easy part to compare. What happens when you reach it is not, and it varies far more than the headline prices do.
Three questions are worth asking before you sign anything.
What counts as one unit? A conversation, a resolution and a message credit are three different things, and each vendor defines its own. Tidio sells its Lyro assistant standalone from $32.50 for 50 conversations. Chatbase meters message credits and sells more at $40 per 1,000. Intercom’s Fin charges $0.99 per resolution with a 50 a month minimum. Those are not comparable units, so comparing the monthly prices tells you very little on its own.
What happens at the cap? This is the question almost nobody asks. Some vendors charge overage, which is predictable if unpleasant. At least one ecommerce chatbot vendor in our August 2026 price scan does something else on its lower tiers: the chatbot simply switches off when you hit the conversation limit, until you upgrade. That is a very different risk from a slightly larger invoice, and it happens on your busiest week.
What else is metered? Caps rarely travel alone. Seats are often billed separately on top of the conversation meter, and removing the vendor’s branding from your own storefront can be its own line item. Chatbase charges $1,188 a year for that one.
Our own answer is a flat monthly price for the volume in the plan, with no credits, no per-resolution fee and no seat charges. That is not the cheapest option for a store with a tiny or very spiky queue, and we say so plainly on both pages below.
The full sourced comparison is here: how much AI customer support costs in 2026. The argument about the two billing models, including when a meter genuinely wins, is here: per-resolution vs flat pricing.
See it in action