Free tool
What does it cost you when your AI support gets better?
On per-outcome pricing, every conversation your agent resolves adds to the bill. So the better it works, the more you pay, for the same customers asking the same questions. Two sliders below put a number on that.
300 resolved conversations
Your success tax
$594 / year
That is what it costs you on Intercom Fin if your agent gets better, from 60% to 70%. Same customers, same questions, bigger bill. On DeskClone that improvement costs nothing.
Both bars share one fixed scale (up to $4,950/mo, the most these sliders can reach). Move a slider and watch which bar moves.
300 outcomes at $0.99. Grows with every resolved conversation.
Flat. This bar does not move when you change either slider.
Across a year that is $2,856 more on Intercom Fin than on DeskClone Pro.
Like for like: this compares two AI agents, not two helpdesks. Fin standalone charges $0.99 per outcome with a 50-outcome monthly minimum and no platform or seat fees; DeskClone charges a flat monthly rate with unlimited team members. Neither figure includes human agent seats, because neither product charges for them. Rates verified against fin.ai/pricing in August 2026. Fin's $9.99 sales-qualification outcomes are not included, so a sales-heavy queue costs more there than shown. Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Tidio do not publish a comparable per-resolution rate, so we do not guess - choose "Custom" above and enter your own tool's pricing.
The short version
Usage-based AI support pricing charges per outcome, resolution or session, so the bill tracks how much work the AI does. The consequence people miss: when the AI gets better, you pay more for the same customers asking the same questions. Intercom Fin bills $0.99 per outcome with a 50-outcome monthly minimum and no seat fees. Flat pricing charges for capacity instead, so the bill does not move whether the agent resolves ten conversations or five hundred. Under about 50 resolved conversations a month the two are close enough that fit should decide rather than price. Above that, the gap widens with every point of resolution rate you gain.
How each vendor meters
The meter matters more than the rate, because it decides whether improving your AI raises your bill. The calculator above prices only against Fin, since it is the one like-for-like comparison with a published rate: an AI agent against an AI agent, with no seat charges on either side. The others are described rather than priced, because putting a number on them would mean inventing one.
Intercom Fin
Per outcome$0.99 per outcome, 50-outcome monthly minimum, no platform or seat fees. Sales-qualification outcomes are $9.99. Every additional thing the AI resolves is another $0.99.
Zendesk AI agents
Per verified resolution, plus per seatZendesk does not publish its per-resolution rate, so we do not put a number on it here. Suite seats are published at $55-$115/agent/mo (annual), with 5-15 resolutions per agent included by tier and the Copilot add-on a further $50/agent/mo.
Freshdesk Freddy AI Agent
Per session, plus per seatBills $49 per 100 sessions whether or not the session resolves, on top of per-agent Freshdesk plans ($19-$89/agent/mo). A better AI does not raise this bill, but a failing one does not lower it either. How many sessions the entry plan includes is disputed between Freshworks' pricing page and third-party analyses, so we do not model a total here.
DeskClone
Flat, by capacity$19 / $59 / $199 a month by conversation capacity. Unlimited team members on every plan, no per-seat charge. The bill is the same whether the agent resolves none of your conversations or all of them.
This compares price, not capability. It does not weigh integrations, migration effort or how well any of these products would actually handle your queue. For the full breakdown of how each model behaves at 500, 2,000 and 10,000 conversations a month, including what changed in 2026, see the pricing research.
Questions
What is the AI support success tax?+
On per-outcome pricing your bill rises every time the AI does its job well. Improve your resolution rate by ten points and you pay more for the same number of customer questions. That increase is the success tax. On flat pricing it is zero, because the price is tied to capacity rather than to outcomes.
What exactly is being compared here?+
Two AI agents, not two helpdesks. Intercom Fin standalone charges $0.99 per outcome with a 50-outcome monthly minimum and no platform or seat fees. DeskClone charges a flat monthly rate by conversation capacity, with unlimited team members. Neither figure includes human agent seats, because neither product charges for them.
Why is Zendesk not in the calculator?+
Zendesk does not publish its per-resolution rate. Rather than put an invented number in a calculator, we describe how they meter in the table below and leave the arithmetic out. You can see the structure without us pretending to a figure we do not have.
Why is Freshdesk not in the calculator?+
Two reasons. Freddy AI Agent bills per session rather than per resolution, so it answers a different question from the one this tool asks. And how many sessions their entry plan includes is disputed between Freshworks' own pricing page and third-party analyses, so a total would not be trustworthy. Their metering is described in the table below instead.
Is per-outcome pricing ever the cheaper option?+
Yes, at genuinely low volume. Under 50 resolved conversations a month you sit at Fin's minimum, and the absolute difference between the models is small enough that fit, integrations and support quality should decide rather than price. The calculator says so when you are in that band rather than hiding it.
How current are these prices?+
Fin's rate was verified directly against fin.ai/pricing in August 2026, and the source is linked under the result. AI support pricing has moved repeatedly through 2025 and 2026, including changes to what counts as a billable event, so check the linked source before relying on any figure for a contract decision.