# AI customer service agent pricing, with the open-source option priced in full

> A per-outcome price answers one question and leaves two bills for you to find. The rest is the seat, the edition, and the model an agent spends reading a ticket. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, skills, memory, and connectors in one repo you own.

URL: https://aicustomerserviceagentguide.com/ai-customer-service-agent-pricing

Independent comparison, prices checked October 2026

`kortix.com/pricing`

```
## Credits
$50 / month and up
From $50 a month. Pick the credits your team needs.
- Managed models: DeepSeek, GLM. Zero data retention
- Unlimited members, one shared credit pool
- Unused credits roll over one month
```

Source: https://kortix.com/markdown/pricing.md

Credits from $50 a month, at 100 credits per dollar.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Compare the bills](https://aicustomerserviceagentguide.com/#compare)

Open source · Members are unlimited · Self-host is free

## What one month of support costs on each price page

Kortix is our recommendation. Every option is priced for the same month: 720 resolved conversations, three seats and two actions a resolution, at each vendor's own published rates.

| | Kortix (our pick) (recommended) | Intercom Fin | Zendesk | Salesforce Agentforce | Lindy |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Price model | Credits from $50 a month, at 100 credits per dollar | $0.99 per outcome, with a $49 a month minimum | €55 per agent a month on Suite Team, plus €1.50 a resolution | $500 per 100,000 credits; an action is 20 | $49.99 a month per active user for 5,000 credits |
| What is metered | Model calls and machine time, from one shared pool | A resolved conversation, which Fin counts as an outcome | Agent seats, plus automated resolutions past the plan | Each action, at 20 credits; 30 for voice | Credits, per active user |
| Minimum commitment | Free at $0; Credits from $50 a month | $49 a month, including 50 outcomes | Annual billing, per agent | $500 per 100,000 credits; add-on from $550 a user | $49.99 a month per active user |
| Example month at 720 resolutions and 3 seats | $50, the plan floor | $799.80 with three helpdesk seats | €1,245 with three seats | $1,794 with the add-on | $149.97 for three active users |
| What the price excludes | Usage past the plan's 5,000 credits | Helpdesk seats, $29 to $85 a month | Resolutions past the plan's own allowance | The edition it runs in, from $550 a user a month | Credits past 5,000, at $10 per 1,000 |
| Open source | Yes | No | No | No | No |

Plans, prices and included volumes come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked October 2026, and they change. Zendesk bills in euros. The example month is arithmetic on those unit prices, not a quote for a customer.

## One price line, three bills

A price of $0.99 a resolved conversation answers one question and leaves the rest of the invoice for you to find. Across the price pages on this market, the rest is usually two more lines. First the seat the agent needs around it and the edition it runs inside. Then the model the agent spends when it has to read something.

Intercom's Fin AI Agent is $0.99 per outcome, with a $49 a month minimum that includes 50 outcomes, and no seat costs for Fin ([fin.ai/pricing](https://fin.ai/pricing)). That last clause is true and easy to misread. Fin works with any helpdesk, including Salesforce and Zendesk ([fin.ai/pricing](https://fin.ai/pricing)), so the helpdesk seat stays on your invoice. Essential is $29 per seat a month, or $19 a seat a month on annual billing for new customers, and Advanced is $85 ([intercom.com/pricing](https://www.intercom.com/pricing)).

Put numbers on one month. A team handles 1,200 conversations and the agent resolves 60 of them in a hundred, which is 720 outcomes. Fin comes to $712.80. Three people still work the queue at $29 a seat, so add $87. The month is $799.80, and $87 of it never appears on a per-outcome price. The arithmetic is ours, the unit prices are the vendors'.

## The seat is the bill that stays

Zendesk prices the whole suite per agent a month, paid annually: €19 Support Team, €55 Suite Team, €115 Suite Professional ([zendesk.com/pricing](https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/)). An extra automated resolution is €1.50 pay-as-you-go. The agent sits inside the plan rather than beside it, so the seat does double work. It carries the ticket, the views and the reporting the agent reads.

The same 720 resolutions on Suite Team at three seats come to €165 of seats and €1,080 of automated resolutions, €1,245 for the month. Zendesk publishes that page in euros, so keep the figure in euros. Ask for a quote in the currency you are billed in. Converting at the day's rate compares exchange rates as much as agents.

Lindy bills the other way round: from $49.99 a month per active user for 5,000 credits, with top-ups at $10 per 1,000 ([lindy.ai/pricing](https://www.lindy.ai/pricing)). Three active users are $149.97 a month and 15,000 credits between them. That is the smallest line in the example month, which is why the next question matters: how many credits a resolved conversation spends in your queue, since the plan charges the person, not the resolution.

## The edition is agreed separately

Salesforce sells Agentforce in Flex Credits at $500 per 100,000 credits ([salesforce.com/agentforce/pricing](https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/pricing/)). An Agentforce action is 20 credits, about $0.10, and a voice action is 30. At two actions per resolved conversation, the same 720 conversations are 1,440 actions, 28,800 credits, $144.

Then the edition arrives. The Agentforce add-on comes with Sales and Service editions from $550 a user a month. An Agentforce User License is $5 a user a month and requires Flex Credits. Three people on the add-on is $1,650 a month, set against $144 of actions, so the month is $1,794. A buyer who weighed $144 against $799.80 weighed the smallest line of one vendor against most of another.

## The line nobody quotes: the tokens

Fin, Zendesk and Agentforce each price a unit of work the vendor defines. None of them quotes what the model costs when the agent has to read the invoice, the code path or the order history. That cost does not vanish. It lands in the vendor's margin or in a usage bill, depending on the contract, and it grows when the ticket is hard.

Kortix meters it. Credits pay for the model calls and the sandbox time a session uses, listed on the [credits page](https://kortix.com/docs/credits). The plan starts at $50 a month, at 100 credits per dollar, so 5,000 credits at that price. Members are unlimited and share one credit pool, and unused monthly credits roll over one month ([kortix.com/pricing](https://kortix.com/pricing)). Managed models are on the Credits plan only. The free plan is $0: 500 credits a month, 1 project, your own API key for any premium model, or your ChatGPT subscription. On the paid plan you can also bring any model provider with your own keys, or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for.

That sits awkwardly beside every other row of a price table. Kortix has no per-outcome price to put in one. A session that reads the billing account and the repository spends more than one that reads a single article. How far 5,000 credits go is not a division anyone can do in advance. Run a week at your own volume, then read the billing breakdown. That figure follows your queue rather than an average.

## What a credit pool does not tell you

The pool is not an outcome meter. It will not tell a board what one resolved ticket cost, and the figure moves as the mix of tickets moves. A team that needs a fixed price per resolution, signed before the quarter starts, will find that easier to buy from a vendor that sells one. That is a fair reason to choose Fin or Zendesk, and it is the trade the credit model makes.

What the pool buys is the whole working session under one meter, with no seat to count and no edition to agree first. For a support agent that has to reach the billing account, the repository and the thread, those are the expensive parts. They are also the parts a per-outcome price leaves to somebody else.

## Ask for a month, not a price

Ask each vendor for one month at your own numbers, with every line named: seats, editions, add-ons, and whatever the model costs when the agent reads. The published unit prices are a starting point and nothing more.

Three questions separate the quotes faster than a demo. First, what exactly is counted: Fin counts a resolution, Agentforce counts a step, Zendesk counts an automated resolution past the plan. Second, what the agent needs around it that is billed separately, a seat or an edition. Third, who pays when the ticket needs three systems read before anyone can answer.

Then run a week and read the invoices beside the queue. The vendor that survives is the one whose second bill you understood before you signed.

## Four questions the price pages raise

Short answers, and the number to ask for on the quote.

### Is Intercom Fin really $0.99 with no seat cost?

Yes, for Fin itself. It is $0.99 per outcome, with a $49 a month minimum that includes 50 outcomes, and no seat costs for Fin. The helpdesk around it is billed per seat: $29 on Essential, $19 a seat a month on annual billing for new customers, and $85 on Advanced.

### Does the free Kortix plan include the managed models?

No. Managed models are on the Credits plan only. The free plan runs your own API key for any premium model, or the ChatGPT subscription you already pay for.

### How do I compare a euro quote with a dollar one?

Ask each vendor for a quote in the currency you are billed in, for the same month of volume, and keep the published currency in the table until it arrives. Converting at the day's rate compares exchange rates as much as agents.

### Why is there no Kortix price per resolved conversation?

Because a session's cost follows what it reads and how long its machine runs, not how many conversations pass through. The credits page lists what the pool pays for, and your own billing breakdown after a week is the figure to use.

## Price your own month before you sign one

Start on Credits at $50, run a week of real tickets, then read what the pool spent.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Read the docs](https://kortix.com/docs/credits)