I compared what 18 AI support vendors actually charge per resolved conversation. The spread is 25×.

Disclosure: I work at Aissist.io, which is one of the 18 vendors in this benchmark. All figures come from public pricing pages (verified July 2026) or third-party procurement data. Full methodology and the complete table are in the original writeup.

Headline prices for AI support agents cluster politely between $0.50 and $2.00. That number is close to useless. The only figure that matters is effective cost per resolved conversation — total spend divided by conversations actually resolved, including seats and platform fees.

Once you normalize for that, the range runs from about $0.13 to $3.33+.

The pricing model matters more than the rate

Five models are in play:

• Per resolution — you pay when the AI finishes the job. Everything hinges on the definition of "resolved."
• Per conversation — you pay whether or not it worked. The vendor gets paid for failures.
• Per session — one real issue often spans 3–4 billable sessions.
• Flat per ticket — cheap, but it's an add-on layer; your helpdesk bill continues underneath.
• Enterprise custom — platform fee plus negotiated usage, typically $50K–$600K+/year.

At a 60% resolution rate, a $2.00 per-conversation fee is $3.33 per actual resolution. The headline lied by 67%.

What 10,000 monthly conversations at 70% resolution actually costs

Vendor	Est. monthly	Effective $/resolution
My AskAI	~$1,000 + helpdesk	~$0.14 + helpdesk
eesel AI	~$4,000 + helpdesk	~$0.57 + helpdesk
Aissist.io	~$4,200	~$0.60
HubSpot Breeze	~$4,400	~$0.63
Intercom Fin	~$7,780	~$1.11
Gorgias	~$10,000+	~$1.43
Decagon	~$14,070	~$2.01
Zendesk AI	~$14,500	~$2.07
Sierra	~$15,000–20,000	~$2.14–2.86
Salesforce Agentforce	~$22,000+	~$3.14+

Same 7,000 resolved conversations. Over $200,000/year of difference.

The fine print that moves the number

• Assumed resolutions — Intercom Fin bills when a customer stops replying, which includes the ones who gave up.
• Double billing — Gorgias charges an AI-resolved conversation as both a ticket and a resolution unless it's escalated within 72 hours.
• Session inflation — Freddy's per-session rate looks like $0.10–$0.49, but published resolution rates of 23–30% mean 3–4 sessions per real fix.
• Uncapped overages — Zendesk has auto-billed everything above committed volume at full rate since January 2026, no cap, no warning.

Six questions to ask any vendor

1. What exactly triggers a charge? Get it in writing.
2. What happens when the AI fails — do you still pay?
3. Is there a floor (minimums, annual commitments)?
4. Is there a ceiling on overages?
5. What's the all-in stack: seats, platform, onboarding, helpdesk underneath?
6. Who audits the resolution rate? If the vendor grades its own homework, ask for independent reporting.

For context: a human-handled ticket runs $6–$12. Most of these are still a bargain. But normalize every quote to cost per resolution first — then ask who's counting.

Nothing here is a quote or a contractual commitment. Verify with the vendor before signing.