Intercom

Intercom bundles conversational support, help content, and automation in one stack. The headline commercial model (intercom.com/pricing, March 2026) pairs seat-based plans with Fin AI Agent usage: Fin is about $0.99 per outcome, where an outcome is broadly a resolved conversation or completed procedure path (see Intercom’s FAQ for counting rules). You need at least one full seat on Essential, Advanced, or Expert to use Fin on Intercom’s platform.

Published annual seat pricing (USD, billed annually on the pricing page) includes Essential ~$29/seat/month, Advanced ~$85/seat/month, and Expert ~$132/seat/month, each “includes Fin AI Agent” with the per-outcome charge on top. Fin standalone for existing Zendesk/Salesforce desks is also listed at ~$0.99/outcome with stated minimum commitments. Lite seats appear as included allowances on higher plans (e.g. Advanced includes 20 free Lite seats; Expert 50—confirm live copy).

Add-ons are material: Pro (~$99/mo, includes analysis of 1,000 conversations/mo), Copilot (~$29/agent/mo billed annually for unlimited usage after included trial conversations), and Proactive Support Plus (~$99/mo, includes 500 messages sent/mo). Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone channels are pay-as-you-go beyond included messaging.

Compare Zendesk when ticket scale and SLAs dominate; compare Help Scout for simpler shared inboxes; compare plain chat widgets when you do not need Fin or cross-channel ops.