Ten chat agents, priced per resolution
LiveChat alternatives and LiveChat pricing compared for ten agents
LiveChat's 2026 plans charge by seat and then by AI resolution: 200 a month included on Growth, $0.99 for every one after that. We priced eight alternatives from their own pricing pages for the same ten agent team at 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 chats a month, plus the option most comparison pages skip, a custom agent on the LiveChat seats you already have.
$2,572
LiveChat Growth + AI
$661
Olark, AI unlimited
Ten agents, 5,000 chats a month, AI resolving 40 percent, annual billing.
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the short answer
For ten agents with AI on every chat, the cheapest published LiveChat alternative is Olark at about $661 a month, because its AI website agent is a flat $400 with unlimited conversations. At 5,000 chats LiveChat Growth comes to about $2,572, and $1,782 of that is AI resolution packs. Help Scout ($1,750) and HubSpot Service Hub ($1,933) also come in lower; Intercom ($2,830), Freshdesk ($3,000) and Zendesk ($3,530) cost more. If the chat product is fine and only the AI bill hurts, a custom agent on your existing LiveChat seats is about $1,510 at the same volume, and it beats LiveChat's own AI above roughly 1,850 chats a month.
Assumptions: US list prices, annual billing. LiveChat, Olark and Crisp were read from their own pricing pages on October 8, 2026; the helpdesk figures come from our October 2 to 7 reads of each vendor's page. The AI handles every chat and resolves 40 percent.
LiveChat pricing
How much LiveChat costs per agent and per AI resolution
LiveChat now sells two self serve plans and an Enterprise contract. Essential is $19 per user a month on annual billing ($228 a year) or $25 month to month. Growth is $79 annual ($948 a year) or $99 monthly. Enterprise is custom and annual only. Both self serve plans have a 14 day trial with no card.
The seat is only half of the bill. Every plan includes LiveChat's AI agent, and the AI is metered by resolution: one resolution is a chat where the AI directly solved the customer's question, however many questions were in it. Essential includes 10 a month, Growth 200. After that you buy packs of 50 for $49.50 on either plan, which is $0.99 a resolution, the same unit price as Intercom Fin.
The plan gates matter for a ten person team. Essential allows one team, 60 days of chat history, three proactive campaigns and tracking of 50 live visitors. Growth adds chat supervision and takeover, shared canned responses, unlimited history, team reports, chat and ticket summaries and 400 tracked visitors. API calls are capped at 10,000 a month on Essential and 20,000 on Growth, with extra packs of 100,000 at $29.50, which matters if you plan to connect your own bot.
Ten agents on LiveChat Growth, annual billing, AI resolving 40 percent of chats
2,000 chats
$1,384
Seats $790, AI packs $594 (43 percent of the bill)
5,000 chats
$2,572
Seats $790, AI packs $1,782 (69 percent of the bill)
10,000 chats
$4,552
Seats $790, AI packs $3,762 (83 percent of the bill)
On monthly billing the seats are $990 instead of $790. LiveChat's own example, ten Growth users at 350 resolutions, adds three packs for $148.50.
The audit
LiveChat competitors and what their own pricing pages say
Most pages that rank for this search are written by a chat vendor that lists itself first, and several still quote LiveChat's old Starter, Team and Business plans. We do not sell chat software. Prices are US list prices per agent a month on annual billing unless the row says otherwise.
| Tool | Seat price | AI price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveChat (baseline) | Essential $19, Growth $79 ($25 and $99 monthly), Enterprise custom | 10 or 200 AI resolutions a month included, then $49.50 per 50 ($0.99 each) | Staffed sales and support chat with ticketing and a large app marketplace |
| Olark | Human only chat $29 an agent | AI website agent $400 a month billed annually, unlimited conversations, one seat included, extra seats $29 | Teams that want AI on every chat for a flat bill |
| Crisp | Mini $45 (4 seats), Essentials $95 (10 seats), Plus $295 (20 seats) per workspace a month, extra seats $10 | AI credits included: about 90, 450 and 1,350 automated conversations; more bought in app | Small teams that want many seats for a flat workspace price |
| Tidio | Priced by conversations: Starter $29 for 100 up to Growth $349 for 2,000 | Lyro $39 for 50 to $700 for 1,000 AI conversations, billed per conversation handled; above that by sales | Small online stores with one or two people on chat |
| Intercom | Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132 | Fin from $0.99 per outcome | Chat, tours and onboarding inside a software product |
| Help Scout | Standard $25 (up to 25), Plus $45 (up to 50), Pro $75 | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution; handoffs not billed | Teams that answer mostly by email with chat on the side |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Starter $20, Professional $90 plus $1,500 onboarding | Customer Agent 50 credits ($0.50) per resolved conversation, 3,000 credits a month on Professional | Teams whose CRM is HubSpot |
| Freshdesk | Growth $19, Pro $55, Enterprise $89 | Freddy AI Agent $0.49 per session, resolved or not | A full helpdesk with chat, email and portal in one place |
| Zendesk | Support Team $19, Suite Team $55, Suite Professional $115 | $1.50 per verified resolution committed, $2.00 pay as you go | Chat plus native voice and workforce management |
| Custom agent on your LiveChat | Keep Essential or Growth seats | Build 60 to 160 hours, then about $0.05 of model tokens per chat; no resolution packs | Teams happy with LiveChat whose AI bill or answers are the problem |
Two caveats. Crisp publishes how many automated conversations its included credits cover but not the price of extra credits, so its bill past the allowance is unknown until you see it in the app. And Olark's unlimited conversations apply to its AI website agent on annual billing; check the fair use terms in the order form before you route a high volume store through it.
The unit that matters
What one AI resolved chat costs on each alternative to LiveChat
Seat prices are easy to compare and nearly irrelevant once AI is on. What separates these tools is what each one charges when the bot closes a chat, and whether it charges when the bot fails. LiveChat, Intercom, Help Scout, HubSpot and Zendesk bill only resolutions. Freshdesk bills every session and Tidio every conversation the AI touches, so at a 40 percent resolution rate their real cost per resolution is 2.5 times the sticker.
Flat pricing turns the unit upside down. Olark's $400 AI agent costs $0.50 per resolution at 2,000 chats and $0.10 at 10,000. A custom agent pays only for model tokens, about $0.13 per resolution, but you pay for the build and someone has to maintain it.
Cost per AI resolved chat, 40 percent resolution rate
Crisp is left out because its extra credit price is not published; its included credits work out to about $0.14 per resolution at this rate. Tidio uses its $700 for 1,000 tier.
Scale it
Monthly cost for ten agents at 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 chats
Ten agents, annual billing, AI on every chat and resolving 40 percent. Included allowances are subtracted, resolution packs are rounded up to whole packs, and HubSpot's $1,500 onboarding fee is spread over 24 months. The custom agent rows keep LiveChat seats, spread the build over two years and assume about five API calls per chat, so they include one $29.50 pack of extra calls where the allowance runs out.
| Ten agents, per month | 2,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveChat Growth + AI agent | $1,384 | $2,572 | $4,552 |
| LiveChat Essential + AI agent | $982 | $2,170 | $4,150 |
| Crisp Essentials, included credits only | $95 + credits | $95 + credits | $95 + credits |
| Olark AI website agent + 9 seats | $661 | $661 | $661 |
| LiveChat Essential + custom agent, lean build | $730 | $910 | $1,160 |
| Help Scout Standard + AI Answers | $850 | $1,750 | $3,250 |
| LiveChat Growth + custom agent, lean build | $1,330 | $1,510 | $1,760 |
| HubSpot Service Hub Pro + Customer Agent | $1,333 | $1,933 | $2,933 |
| Freshdesk Pro + Freddy AI Agent | $1,530 | $3,000 | $5,450 |
| Intercom Advanced + Fin | $1,642 | $2,830 | $4,810 |
| Zendesk Suite Team, committed resolutions | $1,730 | $3,530 | $6,530 |
| LiveChat Growth + custom agent, expensive build | $2,640 | $2,820 | $3,070 |
Where a custom agent overtakes LiveChat's own AI
On the same Growth seats, LiveChat's AI costs $0.99 for each resolution past 200. A lean custom agent costs about $440 a month in build and upkeep plus $0.05 of tokens per chat. The two lines cross at roughly 1,850 chats a month, about 740 resolutions. Below that, LiveChat's built in agent is the cheaper and simpler choice. Above it, every extra 1,000 chats widens the gap by about $346 a month.
The expensive build ($1,750 a month amortized) never wins on cost at these volumes. It pays off only when the agent must read and act on your own systems, such as refunds, order changes or account lookups, which a packaged AI agent cannot do without the same integration work.
$1,384
$1,330
$2,572
$1,510
$4,552
$1,760
Ten agents, 5,000 chats, AI resolving 2,000 of them
- 10 users x $79$790
- First 200 resolutions$0
- 36 packs of 50 x $49.50$1,782
- API calls$0
AI is 69 percent of this bill. If the AI resolves 25 percent instead of 40, packs drop to 21 and the bill to $1,830, but your agents answer 750 more chats.
Where LiveChat wins
When staying on LiveChat is the right call
LiveChat is built for chat teams that sell. Proactive campaigns, live visitor tracking, Shopify selling inside the chat and a large marketplace of integrations are in the plan, and agents who have used it for years are fast in it. None of the cheaper options above matches all of that, and Olark and Crisp have far thinner reporting.
Its AI bills nothing when it hands a chat to a person, and Growth includes 200 resolutions before the meter starts, the largest included allowance among the resolution priced tools here. A team below about 500 chats a month on Growth pays the seat price and nothing else.
Moving costs time no pricing page shows: canned responses, routing rules, campaigns, chat history and every integration have to be rebuilt. Before you switch, pull last month's numbers: chats by source, how many the AI resolved, how many it passed on. If the problem is the AI bill or the answers, fix the AI. If it is a missing channel or a CRM, the table above prices the move.
Pick by situation
Which alternative live chat tool fits your team
AI on every chat, flat bill
Olark. $400 a month on annual billing for the AI website agent with unlimited conversations, plus $29 per extra human seat. Ten agents pay $661 at any volume.
Many seats, small budget
Crisp. Essentials is $95 a month for a whole workspace with 10 seats and about 450 automated conversations of AI credits. Extra seats are $10.
Mostly email, some chat
Help Scout. $25 a seat for up to 25 users, AI Answers at $0.75 a resolution, and handoffs are not billed.
CRM is HubSpot
Service Hub Professional. $90 a seat plus $1,500 onboarding, chats on the same record as deals, and Customer Agent at $0.50 a resolution.
Chat inside your software
Intercom. Advanced at $85 a seat with Fin at $0.99 per outcome, product tours and in app messages. About $2,830 for ten agents at 5,000 chats.
The AI bill is the problem
Keep LiveChat and hire a developer. A custom agent on your seats beats the $0.99 resolution meter above about 1,850 chats a month, and it can read your own systems.
Comparing from the other side? Our Tidio alternatives, Intercom alternatives, Help Scout alternatives and Zoho Desk alternatives pages run the same unit math for other teams, and the HubSpot Service Hub pricing breakdown prices seats, onboarding and Customer Agent credits for 5 to 20 agents.
Fix it in place
What a developer builds on LiveChat instead of a migration
LiveChat exposes its chats, customers and agents through public APIs and webhooks, so a bot that lives outside LiveChat can join a chat, answer and transfer to a person the same way the built in agent does. A lean build that answers from your help center and passes the rest on is 60 to 80 hours. A build that also reads orders, billing or accounts and takes limited actions is 100 to 160 hours. At $100 to $150 an hour that is $6,000 to $24,000 once.
Test it on a few hundred past chats before it talks to customers; our guide to evaluating an AI agent before you ship it covers the test set, and the AI customer service page compares build and buy across more vendors.
-
1
Answers and tone
10 to 20 h
Turns your help center and canned responses into the sources the agent answers from, and lists the topics it must hand over.
-
2
Chat connection
15 to 30 h
Connects the agent to LiveChat through its APIs and webhooks, so it joins new chats, replies and transfers to the right team.
-
3
Lookups and actions
20 to 80 h
Reads order, billing or account status and takes the safe actions you allow, each one logged with the chat it came from.
-
4
Handoff and reporting
10 to 30 h
Passes what it cannot close with a summary, and reports resolution rate, token spend and API calls each week.
The honest version
Where BotGigs fits, and where it does not
BotGigs does not sell chat software. It is where you hire the developer who builds a custom agent on your LiveChat seats, connects LiveChat to the systems your answers depend on, or moves your chats, canned responses and integrations to the tool you picked above. Describe your volume, your plan, the systems the agent must read and the actions it may take, and get back a scoped hire brief with matched chatbot developers, their rates and their delivery location. Posting the job is $99 a month.
If your team handles under about 1,850 chats a month and LiveChat's AI answers the common questions well, you do not need us or a new tool. Hiring pays off when the resolution packs have become the biggest line on the bill, when answers depend on data outside LiveChat, or when you have decided to move and want it done in weeks.
Put in the hire brief
- Monthly chats and how many LiveChat AI resolves today
- Your plan, agent count and last month's resolution pack spend
- Systems the agent must read: orders, billing, CRM, product data
- Actions it may take and the limits on each
- Go live date and who reviews its answers in week one
Questions
LiveChat alternative questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to LiveChat?
For a staffed chat team that wants AI on every conversation, Olark is the cheapest published option: $400 a month on annual billing for its AI website agent with unlimited conversations and one seat, plus $29 per extra agent, so ten agents pay $661. HubSpot Service Hub fits teams whose CRM is HubSpot, and Help Scout fits teams that answer mostly by email.
How much does LiveChat cost per month?
LiveChat Essential is $19 per user a month on annual billing or $25 monthly, and Growth is $79 annual or $99 monthly. Essential includes 10 AI resolutions a month and Growth 200, and extra resolutions cost $49.50 per pack of 50. Ten agents on Growth at 5,000 chats with AI resolving 40 percent pay about $2,572 a month.
Is there a cheaper alternative to LiveChat?
Yes. Crisp Essentials is $95 a month per workspace with 10 seats included, and Olark is $661 a month for ten agents with unlimited AI conversations. Both undercut LiveChat Growth, which costs $790 for ten seats before any AI resolutions. The trade off is reporting depth, the integration marketplace and the ticketing that LiveChat bundles.
What counts as an AI resolution in LiveChat?
LiveChat counts one resolution when its AI agent directly solves a customer question, and several questions in the same chat still count as one. Chats the AI hands to a person are not counted. Essential includes 10 resolutions a month, Growth includes 200, and each extra pack of 50 costs $49.50, which works out to $0.99 per resolution.
Is LiveChat better than Intercom?
For a website chat team that sells, LiveChat is cheaper on seats: $79 for Growth against $85 for Intercom Advanced, and both charge $0.99 per AI resolution. Intercom is the stronger choice for chat inside a software product, onboarding tours and a deeper AI agent. Ten agents at 5,000 chats cost about $2,572 on LiveChat and $2,830 on Intercom.
Is LiveChat better than Tidio?
LiveChat prices by agent seat and bills AI only when it resolves a chat, while Tidio prices by conversation volume and bills its Lyro AI for every conversation it handles, from $0.70 each. For a team of several full time agents LiveChat is usually simpler to budget. For a small store with one or two people, Tidio is usually cheaper.
How much does it cost to hire a developer to build a chat agent on LiveChat?
A custom AI agent that reads your order, billing or account data and replies through the LiveChat APIs is typically 60 to 160 hours of work, about $6,000 to $24,000 at $100 to $150 an hour. Spread over two years with hosting and upkeep that is $440 to $1,750 a month, plus about $0.05 of model tokens per chat on a commercial model.
LiveChat replaced its Starter, Team and Business plans with Essential and Growth and moved AI to a resolution meter, so many comparison pages still quote the old plans. Check each rate again before you sign, and put the AI unit price in the contract, not just the seat price.
Get started
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