Last updated: October 2026 · Prices come from vendor pricing pages and may change. No hands-on testing is claimed.
What is an AI customer support chatbot?
An AI customer support chatbot answers customer questions on your website, email or messaging channels using your help articles and documents, and hands the conversation to a human when it cannot resolve it. For a small business, the goal is fewer repetitive tickets without hiring more agents.
Best AI customer support chatbots compared (pricing as of October 2026)
| Tool | Best for | How it is priced |
|---|---|---|
| Tidio | Small stores and service businesses | Free; Starter $24.17; Growth from $49.17 per month; Lyro AI Agent add-on from $32.50 per month |
| Intercom (Fin AI Agent) | Teams with an existing helpdesk | Fin from $0.99 per outcome; seats Essential $19, Advanced $85, Expert $132 per seat per month |
| Chatbase | Chatbots trained on your own content | Hobby $32, Basic $120, Business $400 per month billed yearly |
Tidio’s page does not state the billing period for its listed prices but offers an annual option with two months free, so the figures likely reflect annual billing. Intercom’s page does not state the billing period for seat prices either.
1. Tidio: best for most small businesses
Tidio’s Free plan includes live chat and ticketing, email management and 10 seats, with 50 billable conversations and 50 lifetime Lyro AI conversations. Starter ($24.17) adds operating hours, offline auto-reply and a 7-day trial. Growth (from $49.17) adds advanced analytics, user permissions, automatic chat assignment and macros, and lets you upgrade to 50 to 1,000 Lyro AI conversations per month. Plus starts at $300 plus usage. The standalone Lyro AI Agent add-on starts at $32.50 per month for 50 conversations.
2. Intercom Fin: best if you already have a helpdesk
Fin works on top of your current helpdesk and, per Intercom’s page, can be set up in under an hour. It answers email, live chat and phone, can take actions on external systems and hands off to your agents. You pay from $0.99 per Fin outcome, with no seats required for Fin itself. If you want Intercom’s own inbox, seat plans include Fin: Essential at $19 per seat, Advanced at $85 (workflow builder, multiple inboxes, 20 free Lite seats) and Expert at $132 (SSO, HIPAA support, SLAs).
3. Chatbase: best for training a bot on your documents
Chatbase lets you train agents on your own content and prices by message credits. Hobby is $32 per month billed yearly for 700 credits and 2 seats. Basic is $120 for 4,000 credits and 3 seats and adds helpdesk inbox, voice and API access. Business is $400 for 15,000 credits and 5 seats and adds advanced analytics. Extra credits cost $40 per 1,000, and removing the “Powered by Chatbase” label costs $1,188 per year.
How much does an AI support chatbot cost at 1,000 AI resolutions a month?
Illustrative maths from published list prices:
| Option | Basis | Approximate monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom Fin | 1,000 outcomes at $0.99 each, before seat plan | $990 plus helpdesk |
| Tidio Growth with Lyro | Lyro upgradable to 1,000 conversations; Growth starts at $49.17 | Quote based on selected Lyro tier |
| Chatbase Basic | 4,000 message credits, $120 | $120 (credits are messages, not resolutions) |
These are not like for like: Intercom bills per resolved outcome, Chatbase per message credit and Tidio per Lyro conversation tier. Model your own volume before buying.
How do you choose an AI support chatbot?
- Look at your billing unit. Per-resolution, per-conversation and per-message pricing scale very differently.
- Check where answers come from. Quality depends on the help articles and documents you feed the bot.
- Test the human handoff. A bot that cannot escalate frustrates customers.
- Confirm your channels (website chat, email, social, phone).
- Pilot on one topic such as order status, then expand.
What features matter most?
- Training on your own content (help center, PDFs, website).
- Human handoff with full conversation context.
- Actions such as order lookups through integrations.
- Analytics showing resolution rate and unanswered questions.
- Branding and privacy controls.
Which tool fits which business?
- Small online store: Tidio.
- Company with an existing helpdesk: Intercom Fin.
- Documentation-heavy product or service: Chatbase.
Common mistakes
- Launching without clean, current help content.
- Comparing per-seat and per-outcome prices as if they were equal.
- Hiding the human option from customers.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI chatbot for small business customer support?
Tidio is the best fit for most small businesses because it has a free plan, paid plans from about $24 per month and an optional Lyro AI agent from $32.50 per month.
How much does Intercom Fin cost?
Fin AI Agent starts at $0.99 per outcome with no seats required, per Intercom’s pricing page. Intercom’s own seat plans start at $19 per seat per month.
Is there a free AI customer support chatbot?
Tidio has a Free plan with 50 billable conversations and 50 lifetime Lyro AI conversations. Check the limits before relying on it.
Can I train a chatbot on my own documents?
Yes. Chatbase is built for training agents on your own content, with plans from $32 per month billed yearly.
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