AI agent pricing for customer service falls into three models: per resolution (you pay when the agent solves the issue), per conversation (you pay for every conversation it touches), and per action or credit. Of the big vendors, Fin ($0.99 per outcome), Zendesk ($1.50 to $2.00 per automated resolution) and Salesforce Agentforce ($2 per conversation) publish rates. Decagon, Sierra and Ada quote every deal privately.
The table below puts all of them side by side with the source for each figure, checked on 12 November 2026. Below it, we explain how outcome-based pricing works, what a "resolution" means at each vendor, and what the same workload costs on each published price.
TL;DR
- Published per-resolution prices: Open $0.75 to $0.90, Fin $0.99, Zendesk $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go.
- Per-conversation pricing: Agentforce $2 per conversation. Ada mostly bills per conversation, quote only.
- Quote only: Decagon (third-party median around $400,000 a year), Sierra (estimates from about $150,000 a year), Ada (Vendr median about $75,000 a year).
- Escalation billing differs. Zendesk, Sierra (in most cases) and Open don't bill handoffs. Fin bills a handoff when a configured Procedure ends in one. Per-conversation plans bill every conversation.
- The resolution definition matters more than the rate. "Customer didn't reply" and "an LLM verified the issue was solved" produce very different bills.
AI agent pricing table (checked 12 November 2026)
| Vendor | Price per resolution or conversation | Seat or platform fees | Escalations billed? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | $0.75 to $0.90 per resolution, by volume | No seat, per-message or platform fees listed. Carrier costs passed through at cost | No | open.cx/pricing |
| Fin (Intercom) | $0.99 per outcome | On Intercom: helpdesk seats from $29 to $132 per seat per month. On other helpdesks: no seat or platform fee, 50 outcomes per month minimum | Yes, when a configured Procedure hands off ($0.99). Handoffs without an outcome are free | fin.ai/pricing, intercom.com/pricing |
| Zendesk AI agents | $1.50 per automated resolution (committed), $2.00 (pay-as-you-go) | Suite seats $55 to $115 per agent per month (annual). Plans include 5 to 10 automated resolutions per agent per month. Copilot $50 per agent per month | No. Only "Verified" resolutions are billed since 18 May 2026 | zendesk.com/pricing, Zendesk help center |
| Salesforce Agentforce | $2 per conversation, or Flex Credits at $500 per 100,000 (about $0.10 per standard action, $0.15 per voice action) | Agentforce add-ons $125 per user per month for employee use. Builder tools included in Foundations at $0 | Conversations are billed by count, not outcome. The pricing page doesn't define a conversation, so confirm handoff treatment | salesforce.com/agentforce/pricing |
| Decagon | Quote only. Per conversation or per resolution | Quote only. Third-party median about $400,000 per year (Vendr data via eesel) | Per-conversation plans: yes. Per-resolution plans: escalations not charged | decagon.ai/vs/sierra, eesel.ai |
| Sierra | Quote only. Per outcome, with consumption pricing for routing flows | Quote only. Third-party estimate from about $150,000 per year (SelectHub via Featurebase) | "In most cases, there's no charge" | sierra.ai blog, featurebase.app |
| Ada | Quote only. Mostly per conversation. Ada's own illustrative figures: $0.35 per conversation, $1.50 per resolution | Quote only. Vendr median about $75,000 per year, implementation $15,000 to $100,000+ (estimate) | Per-conversation plans: yes. Resolution plans exclude escalated conversations | ada.cx blog, vendr.com |
Prices change often. Zendesk changed how it bills resolutions in May 2026, for example, so check each source before you budget.
What is outcome-based pricing?
Outcome-based pricing means you pay the AI vendor only when the agent achieves a defined result, usually a resolved customer conversation. If the agent fails or hands the customer to a human, you generally aren't charged. Per-resolution pricing is the most common form in customer service.
Sierra describes it plainly: "Sierra gets paid only when we complete a task for you." Its outcomes can also include saved cancellations and upsells. Fin uses "outcome" too, but its definition includes some handoffs. Zendesk calls its unit an "automated resolution." The labels sound alike and the billing rules don't.
The four AI agent pricing models
Per seat
You pay per human agent per month, sometimes with AI features bundled. This is how helpdesks like Zendesk and Intercom charge for the humans on the platform. Seat pricing on its own says little about AI cost, but it adds to the total when the AI agent is sold inside a helpdesk.
Per conversation
You pay for every conversation the AI handles, resolved or not. Agentforce ($2 per conversation) and most Ada contracts work this way. It's predictable: your bill tracks traffic. It's also the model where you pay for failures, since a conversation that ends with a human costs the same as one the agent closed.
Per resolution or per outcome
You pay only when the agent resolves the conversation. Open, Fin, Zendesk and Sierra use versions of this. The unit price is higher than per conversation, but the bill only grows when the agent does useful work.
Per action or credit
You buy credits and spend them on actions the agent takes. Agentforce Flex Credits cost $500 per 100,000, with a standard action at 20 credits (about $0.10). A single conversation can trigger several actions, so cost per conversation depends on how your agent is built.
Why the resolution definition matters
Two vendors at the same price can send very different invoices. Here's how the published definitions differ:
- Zendesk splits outcomes into three tiers. Only a Verified resolution, where an LLM review confirms the request was solved without human help, is billed. A Contained resolution (customer got an answer and didn't follow up, but it wasn't verified) is free, and so is an Assisted escalation.
- Fin counts a resolution when the customer doesn't ask for more help after Fin's last answer. A Procedure that ends in a human handoff also counts as a $0.99 outcome.
- Sierra agrees outcome criteria per contract and says most unresolved or escalated conversations aren't charged.
- Open bills resolved tickets only. Handoffs to your agents aren't billed, and the resolution definition is agreed in writing during onboarding.
When you compare quotes, ask each vendor how a silent customer is counted, whether handoffs are ever billable, and whether you can audit the classification.
What the same workload costs on each published price
Take 10,000 AI-handled conversations a month, with the agent resolving 60% (6,000) and handing off 40% (4,000). Usage cost only, before seats, platform fees or included allowances:
| Vendor | Calculation | Monthly usage cost |
|---|---|---|
| Open | 6,000 × $0.75 to $0.90 | $4,500 to $5,400 |
| Fin (other helpdesk) | 6,000 × $0.99, plus up to 4,000 Procedure handoffs × $0.99 | $5,940 to $9,900 |
| Zendesk (committed) | 6,000 × $1.50, if all are Verified | up to $9,000 |
| Agentforce (per conversation) | 10,000 × $2 | $20,000 |
| Ada (illustrative rate) | 10,000 × $0.35, plus platform fee | $3,500 plus platform fee |
Decagon and Sierra can't be modelled from public data.
Two things stand out. First, per-conversation pricing only wins when the per-conversation rate is low and the resolution rate is high. At Ada's illustrative $0.35, it beats a $0.90 per-resolution rate once about 39% of conversations are resolved, but platform fees shift that line. Second, how handoffs are counted can move a Fin bill by two-thirds. Run your own volumes, resolution rate and human cost per ticket through the ROI calculator to see where you land.
Hidden costs to ask about
The rate card is only part of the bill. Before you sign, ask every vendor about:
- Platform or minimum fees. Fin's 50-outcome minimum is small. Enterprise contracts at Decagon, Sierra and Ada are reported in the tens or hundreds of thousands a year.
- Implementation and services. Vendr estimates Ada implementation at $15,000 to $100,000+. Ask for a fixed scope.
- Voice. Fin Voice is custom-priced for select customers. Ask whether voice is priced per minute, per conversation or per resolution, and whether carrier costs are marked up.
- Overage and unused volume. What happens above your commitment, and what happens to volume you don't use?
- Renewal terms. Auto-renewal, notice periods and annual escalators.
Where Open fits
Open charges $0.75 to $0.90 per resolution depending on monthly volume, published on its pricing page. The rate is locked in writing before go-live. Handoffs to a human aren't billed, there are no seat or per-channel fees, and carrier costs for voice are passed through at cost. One agent, Agent 5, handles voice, chat, email, WhatsApp, social and Slack, on top of the helpdesk you already run.
That makes Open the lowest published per-resolution rate in this table, with the simplest escalation rule. FareHarbor's agent handles 87% of support across email, chat and voice.
Where another vendor may fit better: if you're all-in on Salesforce and want employee-facing agents too, Agentforce keeps everything in one contract. If your resolution rate is already high and stable, a low per-conversation rate can beat any per-resolution price. If you want the vendor to build and run the agent for you, Sierra's managed model is designed for that.
Sources
- Open, "Pricing," https://www.open.cx/pricing, checked 2026-11-12
- Open, "FareHarbor customer story," https://www.open.cx/customer-stories/fareharbor, checked 2026-11-12
- Fin, "Pricing," https://fin.ai/pricing, checked 2026-11-12
- Intercom, "Pricing," https://www.intercom.com/pricing, checked 2026-11-12
- Zendesk, "Pricing," https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 2026-11-12
- Zendesk, "About automated resolution tiers," https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9570369117338-About-automated-resolution-tiers, checked 2026-11-12
- Salesforce, "Agentforce pricing," https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/pricing/, checked 2026-11-12
- Decagon, "Decagon vs Sierra," https://decagon.ai/vs/sierra, checked 2026-11-12
- eesel AI, "Decagon AI pricing in 2026" (cites Vendr; competitor-authored), https://www.eesel.ai/blog/decagon-ai-pricing, checked 2026-11-12
- Sierra, "Outcome-based pricing for AI agents," https://sierra.ai/blog/outcome-based-pricing-for-ai-agents, checked 2026-11-12
- Featurebase, "Sierra AI Pricing 2026" (cites SelectHub; competitor-authored), https://www.featurebase.app/blog/sierra-ai-pricing, checked 2026-11-12
- Ada, "Unpacking AI agent pricing: resolution-based vs conversation-based models," https://ada.cx/blog/unpacking-ai-agent-pricing-resolution-based-vs-conversation-based-models/, checked 2026-11-12
- Vendr, "Ada" marketplace listing, https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/ada, checked 2026-11-12
- Chatbase, "Ada CX pricing: What does it cost in 2026?" (reports Ada's billing models), https://www.chatbase.co/blog/ada-cx-pricing, checked 2026-11-12