A $200 software subscription and a $7,500 agent deployment put different things in your budget. Before comparing them, establish who will connect the systems, test the work and maintain it after launch.
Suppose your team wants an agent to research accounts in the CRM and handle service requests that require billing changes. A product that answers questions from help documents covers part of that assignment. Engineering still needs to price the connections, account checks and updates that move the request through the business.
Published rates give the budget a starting point: Microsoft Copilot Studio offers a $200 monthly credit pack, Salesforce lists a $2 conversation option, and Intercom Fin starts at $0.99 per outcome. Managed deployments add an explicit build fee; Coryntas lists a $7,500 starting deployment with monthly usage and operations from $500.
Here is what those prices cover, and how to turn them into a budget you can review.
Published prices, with the conditions that change the bill
Prices checked 3 November 2026, in USD. These are selected public offers, not complete quotes. Applicable taxes and purchasing terms need to be checked for each offer; Coryntas prices exclude tax.
| Provider and approach | Published price | What remains to budget or confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot Studio: agent-building platform | $200/month for 25,000 Copilot Credits, billed annually. Pay-as-you-go: $0.01/credit. | Implementation and administration. Functions consume different amounts of credits; unused monthly pack credits do not roll over. |
| Salesforce Agentforce: agents in the Salesforce ecosystem | $500/100,000 Flex Credits, or $2/conversation under the conversation option for customer-facing agents. | The applicable purchasing model, required licenses, connected services and implementation. |
| Intercom Fin: customer-service AI agent | From $0.99/outcome. Existing-helpdesk use has a minimum monthly commitment and no required Intercom seats. | Existing helpdesk costs, or seats when buying Intercom; optional channels and add-ons. The existing-helpdesk offer lists no setup, integration or platform fees. |
| Relevance AI: enterprise AI workforce platform | Enterprise: quote required. The main pricing page lists custom Actions and Vendor Credits without a fixed price. | Allowances, implementation responsibilities, ongoing support and contract terms. |
| Coryntas: build and managed operation | Deployment: $7,500; broader packages from $20,000 and $50,000. Monthly Core/Growth/Scale: $500/$5,000/$15,000. | Agreed workload, included operations, third-party charges and expansion. Deployment and monthly package are selected separately. |
Microsoft's $200 monthly pack means $200 × 12 = $2,400 a year in subscription cost before other expenses. Pay-as-you-go has different commitment terms. Salesforce's conversation and Flex Credit options are alternatives to evaluate for a deployment; do not add both charges automatically.
The billing units also describe different events. A conversation can involve several actions. A credit allowance depends on the supplier's consumption rules. Neither tells you how many business requests your implementation will finish.
Fin makes that distinction particularly visible. Its pricing FAQ lists resolutions, completed Procedure handoffs, qualification and disqualification as outcome types. A configured Procedure can finish with a handoff to a person or workflow. That can be billable while an employee still has work to complete. Confirm the relevant outcome type and rate before forecasting from a total conversation count.
The integration estimate starts after you choose the job
For the hypothetical CRM and billing assignment, the first engineering question is which changes the agent must make. Reading an account history requires different access and testing from changing a subscription or recording a payment-related decision.
Write the expected result in terms the receiving team can check. An account brief needs enough information for a seller to continue the conversation. A billing request needs an identified account, a permitted change and confirmation of what actually happened. Those requirements give the implementation estimate something concrete to price.
Data preparation can be substantial even when a connector exists. The helpdesk may identify a customer by email while billing uses a separate account ID. Someone has to establish the mapping and decide what happens when the lookup returns two matches. Conflicting policy documents need an owner who can choose the current version.
Then test the paths that create repeat work. A tool call can time out after the remote system has accepted a change. Retrying without checking the result can duplicate the action. A quote should identify who will test that behavior, how the result is checked and where the request goes when the agent cannot continue. These are design considerations for this scenario, not claims about a particular vendor's implementation.
The published usage rates do not price all of that work. Where a supplier does not publish an implementation fee for the required scope, record “quote required”. If your own team will do it, estimate its time separately. Intercom's absence of setup fees for the existing-helpdesk offer does not remove the buyer's configuration, content preparation and testing effort.
A build estimate should cover the agreed workflow, data preparation, integrations, testing, deployment and handover. Ask what changes the price: an extra system, another department, new actions or a requirement discovered during testing. A lower initial fee is difficult to evaluate when those boundaries are missing.
Monthly spending includes the work of keeping it running
For a platform your team operates, list the subscription, metered usage, connected software, model or tool charges and any separately required infrastructure. Mark what the offer already includes before adding allowances. Otherwise, the same hosting or model usage can appear twice.
Usage forecasts need representative requests. Account research might query several sources and update the CRM; a service investigation might retry a lookup and then require a specialist. Ask which steps consume the billed unit, and whether unsuccessful attempts are charged. Do not turn an undefined “task” count into a monthly forecast.
Keep maintenance visible as well. A billing API changes a field, the business revises a policy or a new product makes old answers wrong. Someone has to diagnose the problem, update the behavior and check that existing requests still work. Put that person's time in the budget, even if they are already employed.
In Coryntas's published terms, monthly packages include models and agreed basic infrastructure, monitoring, backups and operations. Customer software, third-party model accounts and substantial expansion can add separate costs. The proposal defines the workload covered.
That division of responsibility matters to the comparison. A team with the skills and capacity to run the platform can price its own operating work. A team buying managed operation needs to examine what the supplier will maintain and what employees will still have to handle.
Three calculations, each with its own scope
These are separate planning examples. They are not equivalent workloads or measured customer bills.
Fin: 1,000 qualifying outcomes at $0.99
At the stated service-outcome rate:
1,000 × $0.99 = $990 in Fin usage.
This excludes the applicable helpdesk, optional channels and add-ons. Fin's existing-helpdesk offer does not require Intercom seats, but the existing helpdesk still has its own bill. Check the minimum commitment and selected outcome rate against Intercom's offer.
Agentforce: 1,000 conversations at $2
Under the applicable conversation-based option:
1,000 × $2 = $2,000 in conversation charges.
Required licenses, implementation and other services remain outside that subtotal. This calculation does not apply to Flex Credit billing. Salesforce lists the purchasing options separately.
Coryntas: the first 12 operating months
Assume a $7,500 Focused deployment with paid continuation on Core at $500/month. The offer includes one Core month from go-live, leaving 11 paid months:
$7,500 + (11 × $500) = $13,000.
This assumes monthly billing and an agreed workload that fits Core. It excludes tax, third-party costs, expansion and buyer staff time. Preparation precedes the operating period. Annual prepayment covers a different term and needs a separate calculation.
Give suppliers the same work to price
A helpdesk product can fit a service need. A platform can suit a team prepared to configure and operate it. A managed deployment can fit a business that wants the supplier to build and maintain the system. The appropriate choice depends on the job and the people available to own it.
Send each supplier the same responsibilities, expected volume, systems and completion criteria. Ask for implementation and recurring charges, usage assumptions, expansion costs and the work your staff will retain. Compare year one with the following year so the build fee and continuing expenses stay visible.
The proposal should let an engineer trace the estimate from an ordinary request through the connected systems, including the points where someone must intervene. If it cannot, there is still work to price before the headline rate becomes a dependable budget.
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