How do customer service chatbots bill?
Four billing models cover this category. The unit you pay on decides how costs scale with volume.
Per resolution or outcome. You pay only when the AI resolves the conversation. Intercom Fin charges $0.99 per outcome, with a $19/seat/mo base if you take the Intercom helpdesk, or a $49/month minimum if you keep your existing helpdesk. Voice outcomes cost $1.99 each. Tidio offers a pay-per-resolution variant on its Premium plan with a guaranteed 50% resolution rate, but that plan is contact-for-pricing.
Per conversation. Tidio Lyro bills per AI conversation: any interaction with at least one Lyro reply counts as one conversation, no matter how many replies it contains. The published rate is $0.5 per conversation, and the standalone Lyro AI Agent plan starts at $32.50/month for 50 conversations. Self-serve quotas cap at 1,000 conversations per month.
Message credits. Chatbase includes monthly credit bundles per plan — 700 credits on Hobby ($32/month billed yearly) up to 15,000 on Business ($400/month billed yearly) — and auto-recharge adds $40 per 1,000 message credits (Chatbase pricing). HubSpot Customer Agent also runs on credits (HubSpot Credits), but HubSpot does not publish a per-credit rate or a monthly price for the agent itself.
Flat monthly. Botpress charges a flat subscription: Plus at $150/mo billed annually includes 250 conversations per month, Team at $750/mo includes 1,500 (Botpress pricing). Overage packs cost $0.65 per conversation on Plus and $0.50 on Team, and auto-recharge cannot be turned off.
Quote-only. Voiceflow publishes no rates. Businesses get a custom quote; agencies get usage-based billing with no stated rates.
Customer service chatbots compared
All six tools side by side, with the billing unit, entry price, channels and human handoff as stated by each vendor.
| Tool | Billing unit | Entry price | Channels | Handoff to a human | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio Lyro | Per conversation | $32.50/month (standalone, 50 conversations) | Web chat, email, social, WhatsApp | Escalation rules, instant team alerts, ticket creation | 50 free conversations (lifetime) + 7-day trial |
| HubSpot Customer Agent | Credits | Not stated | Web chat, email, phone | Escalates to your team when needed | Not stated |
| Chatbase | Message credits | $32/month billed yearly | Web chat, email, phone, WhatsApp, social, in-app | Shared AI-human helpdesk inbox, guardrail routing | 7-day trial on Hobby |
| Botpress | Flat monthly | $150/mo billed annually | Web chat, WhatsApp, social | Hot handoff with full context | Free plan: 100 conversations, 3 seats |
| Intercom Fin | Per resolution | $19/seat/mo + $0.99 per outcome | Web chat, email, phone, social | Helpdesk handoff; human requests free | 14-day free trial |
| Voiceflow | Quote-only | Custom quote | Web chat, in-app, WhatsApp, SMS, phone | 'Handed to team' analytics, escalation scenarios | Free trial, no credit card (agencies) |
Entry prices are not directly comparable across billing units. A $32.50/month plan covering 50 conversations and a $150/mo plan covering 250 conversations sit in different cost structures once volume grows.
Which chatbot fits a small team?
Small teams usually need three things: a free starting point, a published entry price, and setup the support team can run without developers.
- Tidio Lyro is the easiest start on paper. Every account gets 50 free Lyro conversations for life, the 7-day trial needs no credit card, and the standalone plan starts at $32.50/month. Setup is listed as support-team-led.
- Botpress has a genuine free plan: 100 conversations, 3 seats and 3 AI agents at $0, no credit card required. The jump to Plus is $150/mo billed annually for 250 conversations a month.
- Chatbase starts at $32/month billed yearly for 700 message credits, but voice and API access only appear from the Basic plan at $120/month billed yearly.
- Intercom Fin has no free plan, but the 14-day trial includes all features and Fin. The $49/month minimum on the existing-helpdesk option is the effective floor.
- HubSpot Customer Agent states no entry price and no free trial, so budget-holding teams cannot cost it before talking to HubSpot.
- Voiceflow is listed as developer-set-up and quote-only, which makes it a heavier lift for a small support team.
On published numbers, Lyro and Botpress give a small team the most room to start without a sales call.
How does handoff to a human work?
Handoff quality decides what happens to the conversations the AI cannot resolve. Here is what each vendor states.
- Tidio Lyro: You set flexible handoff and escalation rules. Lyro alerts your team instantly when a customer needs human help and creates a ticket in your support solution when a question falls outside its knowledge.
- HubSpot Customer Agent: HubSpot states the agent escalates to your team when needed. No further handoff detail is published in the captured material.
- Chatbase: The helpdesk is built for AI and humans working from the same conversation. Guardrails can direct users to billing support or a human agent, and teams can track resolution rates and review escalations.
- Botpress: Hot handoff passes conversation history, account details and troubleshooting steps already attempted. Escalation rules and fallback logic determine exactly when the AI acts and when it escalates.
- Intercom Fin: Connect a supported helpdesk and Fin hands off anything it cannot resolve. If the customer asks to speak to a human, you pay nothing for that conversation.
- Voiceflow: Analytics show conversations 'Handed to team', and test scenarios include 'Escalate to team'. No further handoff mechanics are stated.
Fin's free-human-request rule and Botpress's full-context transfer are the most specific commitments. The others describe routing, not terms.
What do the free plans and trials include?
- Tidio Lyro: 7-day free trial of all features, no credit card required. Every account also gets 50 free Lyro conversations, lifetime and one-off, plus a free plan with basic live chat.
- HubSpot Customer Agent: No free trial or free plan is stated.
- Chatbase: 7-day trial on the Hobby plan; the homepage also offers 'Start free trial'. No permanent free plan is listed.
- Botpress: Free plan at $0 with 100 conversations, 3 seats, 3 AI agents, Resolution SLA, Help Center and community support. No credit card required.
- Intercom Fin: 14-day free trial, no credit card required, including all features, Fin and add-ons. No permanent free plan.
- Voiceflow: Free trial with no credit card required, stated for the Agencies & Partners track. The business track is custom-quoted.
Only Botpress and Tidio offer something permanently free. The rest are time-limited trials or unstated.
Chatbot or helpdesk AI agent?
A customer service chatbot lives on your website or messaging channels and answers questions from your content. A helpdesk AI agent sits inside your ticketing system and works through the queue: drafting replies, resolving tickets, routing and escalating. Some products blur the line — Fin is sold both standalone and inside the Intercom helpdesk, and Chatbase ships its own helpdesk inbox — but the buying question is where the AI works: on the front door, or inside the queue.
If your bottleneck is ticket volume in an existing helpdesk, compare helpdesk AI agents instead. If you sell online and want a bot tuned to order questions and product queries, see our page on AI chatbot for ecommerce. For a deeper cost breakdown of one credit-based tool, we track Chatbase pricing separately. And if you are deciding between text and phone automation, read voice agent vs chatbot before you shortlist.