The Gorgias alternative that doesn't bill per ticket
Gorgias is a strong e-commerce helpdesk, and it doesn't charge per agent. What it meters is volume: a ticket allowance per plan, then $0.90 per AI Agent interaction on Pro and Advanced ($1.00 on Basic), or a prepaid AI bundle that bills $1.50 per interaction past its allowance. Every automated interaction also counts as a ticket. Kerux prices per agent and lets you connect your own AI key, so busier months don't raise the Kerux bill.
| Dimension | Kerux | Gorgias |
|---|---|---|
| AI pricing | Bring your own API key. Pay your AI provider directly, at cost | $0.90 per automated interaction on Pro and Advanced, $1.00 on Basic; prepaid AI bundles bill $1.50 past their allowance |
| What you're billed on | Agents × your tier. Ticket count never changes the price | Ticket volume: $50–$750/mo billed annually for 300 to 5,000 tickets across Basic, Pro and Advanced |
| Past your allowance | Priced per agent only. AI volume never changes your bill | Extra tickets bill $0.40 each on Basic and $0.36 each on Pro and Advanced |
| AI reply control | Auto-resolves above your confidence threshold, hands everything below it to your team, on every plan | AI Agent resolves conversations; each resolution is billed |
| Bill predictability | Priced per agent only. AI volume never changes your bill | Moves with ticket and AI volume. A busy month costs more |
What it costs in practice
5 agents, 1,800 tickets a month, 500 of them resolved by AI
- Pro plan (2,000 tickets), billed annually
- $300
- 500 AI Agent interactions × $0.90
- $450
- 5 Growth seats × $49
- $245
- 500 AI replies on your own key
- ≈ $15 to your provider
- Gorgias priced at Pro on annual billing ($300/mo); monthly billing costs more. The 1,800 tickets include the AI-resolved ones, since Gorgias counts each automated interaction as a ticket.
- Gorgias's prepaid Helpdesk + AI bundle (Pro, $471/mo annual, 190 interactions included, then $1.50 each) would come to $936/mo at this volume, so the pay-per-interaction route is the cheaper Gorgias option here.
- Gorgias doesn't charge per agent, so the team size only changes the Kerux side. With a team much smaller than 5, Gorgias's flat plan price gets relatively more competitive.
- AI cost on your own key is measured at roughly 3¢ per reply on a small, fast model, and realistically runs 1–5¢ depending on provider, model, ticket length and how much help-centre content the AI reads.
- Every Gorgias figure verified on Gorgias's own pricing page; see the date at the foot of this page.
Which one should you actually pick?
We'd rather you chose correctly than chose us.
Stay with Gorgias if…
Gorgias is built around e-commerce support, with order data and actions inside the helpdesk. Kerux has a Shopify integration but is a general support inbox, not an e-commerce specialist.
Gorgias doesn't charge per agent. If many people share a low ticket volume, a flat ticket-based plan can cost less than per-seat pricing.
If a human replies within 72 hours of an AI resolution, Gorgias bills it as a ticket only, not as an automated interaction.
Switch to Kerux if…
Gorgias bills per ticket past each plan's allowance and per AI interaction past the included ones. On Kerux, handling twice the tickets costs the same per agent plus a few cents more to your AI provider.
Kerux connects to Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google Gemini, Mistral, DeepSeek, OpenRouter or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and you can switch whenever you like.
Kerux auto-resolves only above a confidence threshold you choose, and hands everything below it to your team with a note saying why.
How switching actually works
- 1Forward your support address to your Kerux forwarding address.
- 2Settings → Import tickets doesn't have a Gorgias connector yet, so your Gorgias history doesn't come across automatically. Keep Gorgias read-only for look-ups while new tickets land in Kerux.
- 3Bring your help-centre articles over as .md files, or write them in Kerux. The AI answers from them.
- 4Start with a high confidence threshold so the AI only sends what it's sure of, then lower it as you build trust.
Questions people ask
Gorgias's pricing page lists $1.00 per automated interaction on Basic and $0.90 on Pro and Advanced. Its Helpdesk + AI bundles ($77, $471 and $1,227 a month on annual billing) include 30, 190 or 530 interactions and bill $1.50 for each one past that. Each automated interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket.
It depends on your volume and team size. Gorgias doesn't charge per agent, so a large team with few tickets can be cheaper there. As tickets and AI resolutions grow, Gorgias's per-ticket and per-interaction charges grow with them, while Kerux stays flat per agent with AI on your own key.
Not yet. Settings → Import tickets supports Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout and Freshdesk. Gorgias isn't one of them, so history stays in Gorgias.
Yes, Kerux has a Shopify integration on every plan. It is not an e-commerce-specific helpdesk, so if deep order actions inside the inbox are your priority, Gorgias is the more specialised tool.
Try it on your own tickets
30 days free, no credit card. Forward one address and see how it does.