# How is AI customer service priced?

Per seat, per resolution, per conversation or per AI reply. The unit decides what you pay in a quiet month and in your busiest week.

AI customer service is priced per agent seat, per resolution, per conversation or per AI reply, and the unit decides what you pay for and who decides it counted. Aide charges per AI reply, with plans from $0 to $499 a month and your team's replies always free.

Source: https://aide.app/guides/ai-customer-service-pricing · Updated 2026-11-01 · By Ziyad Basheer

| | |
|---|---|
| Aide's unit | One AI reply: each customer message Aide writes a reply or draft for. |
| Never counted | Your team's replies and notes, previews, failed turns and spam. |
| Plans | Free $0, Starter $39, Pro $149, Scale $499, Enterprise custom pricing. |
| Spending cap | Extra AI replies stop at $110, $350 or $1,000 a month, by plan. |
| Annual | About 20% less: $372, $1,428 or $4,788 a year. |
| Seats and features | No seat fees on paid plans. Every plan includes every feature. |

Every AI customer service tool has to decide what to count. The unit matters more than the headline price. It decides what you pay in a quiet month, what you pay in your busiest week, and who gets to say whether the work counted.

This guide walks through the four common models with neutral examples, gives you the questions to ask any vendor, then sets out exactly how Aide bills.

## Four ways to count

All four examples use one imaginary store: 4 support agents, 2,000 conversations a month, and an AI that writes about 2.5 messages in each conversation it handles. The prices are made up to show how each unit behaves, not taken from any vendor.

### Per seat

You pay for each person who logs in, say $50 per agent a month. Four agents cost $200, whether the AI handles 100 conversations or 1,900.

- Easy to budget.
- The bill follows headcount, not the AI's work. A seasonal teammate for December adds a seat.
- Check whether the AI is sold as an add-on on top of the seat.

### Per resolution

You pay when the AI resolves a conversation, say $1 each. If it resolves 900 of the 2,000, that is $900.

- You pay for outcomes, which sounds fair.
- The vendor defines "resolved". A customer who stopped replying may count, even if they gave up.
- Conversations the AI worked on and then handed over usually cost nothing, so the price per resolution tends to be set higher to cover them.

### Per conversation

You pay for every conversation the AI takes part in, say $0.50 each. If it touches 1,500, that is $750, resolved or not.

- Simple to count and hard to dispute.
- A one-line tracking question costs the same as a long exchange about a damaged item.

### Per AI reply

You pay for each message the AI writes, say $0.10 each. At 2.5 messages across 1,500 conversations, that is 3,750 replies, or $375.

- The bill follows the AI's actual work. A short answer costs less than a long back-and-forth.
- Human work is free, so a team that keeps more conversations for itself pays less.
- Check whether drafts count, and whether there is a cap.

## Questions to ask any vendor

1. What exactly is one unit, and who decides when it counts?
2. Are drafts your team reviews counted? Are handoffs?
3. Is there a monthly cap, and what happens at it: a bigger bill, or a pause?
4. Are seats charged on top? Are any features held back for higher plans?
5. Where do you see usage before the invoice arrives?

## How Aide counts

The helpdesk is free. You pay for AI replies.

An AI reply is each customer message Aide writes a reply or a draft for, sent or not, including a handoff where Aide drafted something for the customer. Each draft, rewrite or summary Copilot writes for your team counts as one, and so does each answer from Aide Superintelligence. A customer message counts once even if it gets a draft and later a sent reply, and retries never count twice.

What is never counted: your team's replies and internal notes, a handoff where Aide wrote nothing for the customer, a note saying Aide couldn't draft, failed turns, previews and spam conversations. Looking up an order or offering a refund is part of the reply, not a separate charge.

## Aide's plans, worked through

| Plan | Monthly | AI replies a month | Extra AI replies | Most extra in a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 150 | AI pauses | $0 |
| Starter | $39 | 1,000 | $0.15 each | $110 |
| Pro | $149 | 4,000 | $0.10 each | $350 |
| Scale | $499 | 15,000 | $0.07 each | $1,000 |
| Enterprise | custom, contact us | 50,000 and up | quoted | quoted |

Plans differ by AI replies, team members on Free (2), stores (1 on Free and Starter, up to 3 on Pro, unlimited on Scale), your own branding on Aide Chat, and services: a setup call on Pro, an account lead on Scale. Shopify order actions, Copilot and the Zendesk, Gorgias and Front connectors are on all of them.

Some real months:

- A store on Starter whose AI writes 1,500 replies pays $39, plus 500 extra replies at $0.15 ($75), for $114.
- Starter's extras stop at $110, which buys 733 replies. So Starter carries up to about 1,733 AI replies for at most $149, the price of Pro, which includes 4,000.
- A store on Pro at 6,000 AI replies pays $149, plus 2,000 extra at $0.10 ($200), for $349.
- On Free, the 151st AI reply never arrives. AI pauses until next month and nothing is billed.

## Annual plans and usage alerts

Starter, Pro and Scale can be paid yearly: $31, $119 and $399 a month. The allowance still resets every month; it is not pooled across the year. Extra replies are billed monthly on their own invoice, at the plan's rate and up to its cap. Cancelling stops the renewal, and the plan runs to the end of the year without a refund for the rest.

You see usage before the invoice does. The billing page shows the month so far and, from the third day of the cycle, a projection of AI replies by the reset date and how far over the allowance that would land. Owners and admins get one email at 80% and one at 100% of the included AI replies, saying what happens next on their plan. Each paid plan starts with a 7-day trial. The live card is on [pricing](https://aide.app/pricing).

## Frequently asked questions

### Do AI support tools charge per conversation, per resolution or per seat?

All three exist, plus a fourth, per AI reply. Seat pricing charges for people, resolution pricing charges when the vendor counts a conversation as resolved, conversation pricing charges for every conversation the AI touches, and reply pricing charges for each message the AI writes.

### Does a handoff count as an AI reply in Aide?

Only when Aide wrote something for the customer, such as a draft above the handoff summary. A handoff message or summary on its own is not counted.

### Can the bill run away in a busy month?

No. Each paid Aide plan caps extra AI replies per month. At the cap, AI pauses and your team keeps answering, and on Free AI pauses when the month's allowance is used.

### Are drafts that nobody sends counted?

Yes. A draft is work Aide did on a customer message, so it counts whether or not your team sends it. Each customer message counts once, even if it gets a draft and later a sent reply.

### Do we pay for order lookups or refunds separately?

No. Actions Aide takes inside a reply, such as looking up an order or offering a refund, are part of that reply.

### Is there a flat fee with unlimited AI replies?

No. Every Aide plan has a monthly allowance and a cap on extras. Teams that need one fixed annual figure can get an Enterprise contract with custom pricing: contact us for a quote.

## Related
- [A free helpdesk with AI](https://aide.app/guides/free-helpdesk-with-ai)
- [A free AI chatbot for Shopify](https://aide.app/guides/free-ai-chatbot-for-shopify)
- [Aide pricing](https://aide.app/pricing)

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