In 2026, hosted AI customer service costs $0.49–$2.00 per AI-handled conversation at public list rates — before seats and platform fees. At 5,000 conversations a month, that compounds to roughly $88,000–$360,000 over three years. A self-hosted license flips the model: one payment, then about 1¢ per conversation in your own AI-model usage.
| Vendor | Published rate | 3 years @ 5,000 conv/mo | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Agentforce | $2.00 / conversation | $360,000 | vs Clare AI |
| Zendesk AI | $1.50 / resolution (committed) | $270,000 | vs Clare AI |
| Intercom Fin | $0.99 / resolution | $178,200 | vs Clare AI |
| Ada | Quote-based; reported ≈$1 / resolution + platform fee | ≈$180,000 | vs Clare AI |
| Gorgias | $0.95 / automated resolution | $171,000 | vs Clare AI |
| Freshworks Freddy | $0.49 / session | $88,200 | vs Clare AI |
| Clare AI (self-hosted) | One-time license + ~$0.01 / conversation | ≈$3,799 all-in | pricing |
List rates as published or reported in 2026; per-resolution totals = rate × 5,000 × 36 months. Figures exclude vendors’ seat fees, platform subscriptions and overages, so real invoices typically run higher. Ada does not publish prices — the figure uses reported 2026 estimates. Clare AI total = $1,999 Starter license + ~$0.01/conversation model usage billed by your own AI provider.
| Monthly volume | Intercom Fin (3 yr) | Zendesk (3 yr) | Salesforce (3 yr) | Clare AI (3 yr, all-in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 conversations | $71,280 | $108,000 | $144,000 | ≈$2,719 |
| 5,000 conversations | $178,200 | $270,000 | $360,000 | ≈$3,799 |
| 12,000 conversations | $427,680 | $648,000 | $864,000 | ≈$6,319 |
· Per-agent seat fees underneath the AI add-on
· A required base subscription before AI is even enabled
· Overage rates above committed resolution volumes
· Annual list-price increases at renewal
· Migration cost if you ever want your data out
· A VPS (often included year one; ~$10–40/month after)
· Your model usage — ~1¢/conversation, at cost
· Someone who can hold an admin password (or a care plan at $99/month)
· That’s the list. The license doesn’t renew, meter, or expire.
Take your last month’s conversation count, multiply by the per-resolution rate of the vendor you’re considering, then by 36 — that’s the honest three-year comparison figure, and it’s the number per-resolution pricing pages never show you. Then check what share of your inbox is repetitive (our resolution methodology shows a 10-minute way to estimate it) — that share determines how much of the bill AI actually takes over. For the self-hosted side, the total is one license plus about 36¢ per conversation per three years, at 1¢ each.
Set your volume in the calculator and we’ll email you the full breakdown — checked by a real person, with the tier we’d honestly recommend.
Among hosted tools at public list rates, Freshworks Freddy is lowest at about $0.49 per session, with Gorgias and Intercom Fin near $0.95–$0.99 per resolution. At meaningful volume, a self-hosted one-time license is cheaper than all of them within weeks: roughly one cent per conversation in model usage after a single purchase.
Per-resolution pricing ties the vendor’s revenue to your support volume, which grows with your business. It is marketed as “pay for results”, but the underlying AI cost to the vendor is typically a cent or two per conversation — the rest is margin that repeats every month.
A one-time license (Clare AI: $1,999 to $10,999 depending on tier), plus your own AI-model usage at roughly $0.01 per conversation, plus ordinary VPS hosting. At 5,000 conversations a month, that is about $3,799 all-in over three years.
Usually, yes: per-agent seat fees, required platform subscriptions underneath the AI add-on, overage rates when you exceed committed volumes, and annual price increases. Published per-resolution rates are the floor of the real invoice, not the ceiling.