How AI customer-messaging tools are priced: per conversation, per seat, per contact, or per workspace
The pricing pages of these tools all look alike: three columns, a "popular" plan, a button. The difference is the unit you are billed in. It decides what a good month costs.
There are four units. Each is illustrated here with a real price, read on the vendor's page in September 2026. Prices change; check before you sign.
Per conversation
Tidio bills its Lyro agent per conversation: "starts at $32.50 a month from 50 conversations", with tiers up to 1,000. The free plan includes 50, once.
The model is readable and it punishes success. The month your campaign works, the bill follows, and there is a quota to watch. Chatling does the same with credits: 200 on Free, 1,750 on Starter at $25 a month.
Per seat
Intercom bills each person: Essential at $29 per seat per month, Advanced at $85, Expert at $132, on annual billing. The Fin agent is added per outcome, "from $0.99" per resolved conversation, with a usage minimum when used standalone.
The total tracks both team size and volume. For a fifty-person support team that is coherent. For a three-person shop, every new hire costs a seat.
Per active contact
respond.io counts monthly active contacts: Starter at $79 a month with 5 users, Growth at $159 with 10 users and "starts with 1,000" active contacts. AI is included from Growth up.
This is the model of brands that broadcast: the price follows the audience, not the work. A shop receiving five hundred messages from three hundred customers pays for the three hundred.
Per workspace
Crisp advertises "a flat pricing per workspace": Mini at $45 a month, Essentials at $95, Plus at $295, with a seat count per tier and an extra agent at $10. AI there is an included credit budget, around 90 automated conversations on Mini.
The price does not move with volume. It moves with seats, and the AI has its own meter. It is the most predictable model, provided you watch both meters.
The four, side by side
| Unit | Published example | What drives the bill up |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation | Tidio, Lyro from $32.50 for 50 | A good month |
| Seat | Intercom, $29 to $132 per seat, Fin at $0.99 per outcome | A hire, then every resolution |
| Active contact | respond.io, Growth at $159 with 1,000 contacts | A growing audience |
| Workspace | Crisp, $45 to $295 per workspace | Seats, and the AI credit meter |
What a busy month does to each
Take a shop going from 300 to 900 conversations in December. Per conversation, the bill triples or the quota runs out mid-month. Per active contact, it rises with the new customers. Per seat, it stays put, but every Fin resolution counts. Per workspace, it stays put, until the credit meter.
None of the models is dishonest. Each is designed for a type of customer. Yours is the one whose busy month does not show on the bill.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What happens the month I go over? A block, an overage, or an automatic move to the next plan?
- Is AI included in the entry plan, or only from the second one?
- Does one more person in the inbox cost a seat?
- Are stock and prices read live, or copied into a knowledge base?
- Can we test on our real conversations before publishing?
Where Magnitude sits
Magnitude sells a workspace: the five channels, the agent, the inbox and the CRM together. The price is not published; it is agreed on your channels and volume, and the 14-day trial asks for no card. We do not claim to be the cheapest. We claim that the busy month does not show on the bill.
The detailed comparisons, with the same eight rows for every tool, are here: Tidio, Crisp, Intercom, respond.io and Chatling. And the platform page shows what the workspace contains.
Build your agent, test it, publish it. 14-day free trial.