The three units
- Per seat (also called per agent or per user). You pay for each person who logs in to answer tickets. The bill moves when you hire or let someone go, and not otherwise. Every vendor in this post charges for seats.
- Per resolution or outcome. You pay each time the AI does something billable. Intercom counts outcomes at $0.99 (checked 2026-11-05). Zendesk counts automated resolutions at $1.50 committed (checked 2026-11-05). Help Scout's AI Answers counts resolutions at $0.75 (checked 2026-11-05).
- Per session. You pay per AI conversation window. Freshdesk's Freddy AI Agent bills $49 per 100 sessions after a one-time free 500 (checked 2026-11-05), and a session is a 72-hour window, so several messages with one customer count once.
In practice nobody uses just one. The big helpdesks charge seats and a meter on top for AI. So the real question is not which unit, but how much of your bill sits on each.
One team, worked through
Take a small team: 5 agents, mostly email, with the AI handling 1,500 answers a month. For each vendor I used the middle of its three listed plans, since that is where a team with an AI agent usually lands. Which plan your AI feature actually needs varies, so check that before you trust any total.
| Vendor, plan | 5 seats | AI, 1,500 / mo | Month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom Advanced$85 per seat/mo · $0.99 per outcome | $425 | $1,485 | $1,910 |
| Zendesk Suite Team$55 per agent/mo, billed yearly · $1.50 per committed resolution | $275 | $2,250 | $2,525 |
| Help Scout Plus$45 per user/mo · $0.75 per AI Answers resolution | $225 | $1,125 | $1,350 |
| Freshdesk Pro$55 per agent/mo, billed annually · $49 per 100 sessions, free 500 used | $275 | $735 | $1,010 |
| Kerux Growth$49 per agent/mo · AI on your own key, about 3¢ an answer | $245 | $45 | $290 |
Seats × published price, plus answers × published AI rate. Zendesk and Freshdesk list annual-billing prices. The 3¢ is a measured cost on a small, fast model, runs 1 to 5¢ by model and ticket length, and is paid to your AI provider, not to Kerux. Taxes not included.
Two things jump out. First, at this volume the AI line is bigger than the seat line for every metered vendor. The part of the bill you think of as "the helpdesk" is the smaller part. Second, the order changes with the inputs: double the answers and the metered rows roughly double their AI line, while the seat rows don't move.
What happens when volume moves
A per-seat bill is easy to forecast: headcount × price. You can set it in January and it is still right in December.
A metered bill follows your volume, and support volume is not steady. A product launch, a shipping delay, a busy season, and the AI handles more, which is exactly what you bought it for. The invoice follows. That is one of the most common complaints about metered pricing in public reviews: not the rate, but the surprise.
The fix on a metered plan is to watch usage closely and, where the vendor offers it, commit to a volume or set limits. The fix on a per-seat plan is that there is nothing to watch, because answers aren't billed.
The catch with per seat
Seats have their own trap: paying for people who don't answer tickets. A manager who reads reports, a developer who checks a bug thread, an agent who left in March. On some plans each of them is a full seat, and on an annual plan you may not be able to drop the count until renewal.
When you compare per-seat prices, ask three questions:
- Are read-only users free? If not, every observer costs as much as an agent.
- Can I reduce seats mid-term, and do I get a credit when I do?
- Is there a seat minimum? Check whether the plan you want starts at a fixed number of seats.
When metered is the better deal
Honestly, sometimes it is.
- Low AI volume. A couple of hundred AI answers a month is a small line on any of these bills. If the rest of the platform fits, the meter alone isn't a reason to move.
- You don't need an AI agent. Support Team starts at $19/agent/mo. Cheaper per seat than Kerux's entry plan if you don't need the AI.
- You only want help writing replies. The everyday AI features, drafting, summarising, tone editing, are included in the seat price, not metered.
- Very small teams. There's a genuinely free plan for up to 5 users, which none of the others offer.
The flat model, and how Kerux does it
Kerux is per seat only. You pay one flat price per agent, and the AI runs on a key you own, so there is no per-answer line from us at all. Your AI provider bills you directly, usually a few cents an answer.
On the seat questions above:
- Viewers are free and don't use a seat. Owners, admins and agents do.
- The seat count follows your real team. Add or remove someone and billing follows; a removed seat becomes a prorated credit.
- No contract, and you can cancel from Settings → Billing.
And because your own AI bill still follows volume, you can cap it: set a monthly AI spend limit in Settings and the AI stops at the cap instead of running on. New tickets past the cap go to your team with a note saying why.
If you want the maths for your own volume rather than mine, see your number on the calculator. Every plan's per-agent price is on the pricing page.
Sources: Intercom pricing (checked 2026-11-05) · Zendesk pricing (checked 2026-11-05) · Help Scout pricing (checked 2026-11-05) · Freshdesk pricing (checked 2026-11-05). Kerux prices from our own pricing page.