Key takeaways
- Intercom has no free plan, and seats start at $29 a month. Essential is $29 per seat, Advanced $85, and Expert $132 on annual billing. Monthly billing is $39, $99, and $139.
- Fin is a second meter. The AI agent costs $0.99 per outcome on every plan, on top of the seat price, and an outcome is charged at most once per conversation.
- The company changed hands. Intercom now sells under the Fin name, and Salesforce completed its purchase on September 10, 2026. The plans on the pricing page did not change.
- Users rate it well. G2 shows 4.5 out of 5, and Capterra shows 4.5.
- The recurring complaint is cost and complexity. G2 reviewers name missing features, AI limitations, and a learning curve, and Capterra reviewers describe add-on pricing that is hard to forecast.
- It fits teams that want chat and an AI agent first. It is a heavy choice for a small team that wants one flat price.
Intercom is a chat-first customer support platform with a shared inbox, tickets, a help center, and Fin, its AI agent. Reviewers like how fast Fin answers and how clean the inbox feels. The same reviewers say the bill has several meters and the setup takes work. We reviewed it from Intercom’s public pricing, product, and help pages and from G2 and Capterra, without running a trial. Tidio appears only as one alternative near the end.
Intercom at a glance
| Intercom | |
|---|---|
| What it is | Support platform with a shared inbox, tickets, live chat, a help center, workflows, and the Fin AI agent |
| Best for | SaaS and product-led teams that want chat-first support, an AI agent, and proactive messages |
| Not ideal for | Small teams that want one predictable price, or teams that need deep ticket routing and SLAs on a low plan |
| Free plan or trial | No free plan; 14-day free trial, no credit card |
| Starting price | Essential from $29 per seat per month, billed annually ($39 monthly), plus $0.99 per Fin outcome |
| AI | Fin AI agent on every plan; Copilot for agents is a $29 per seat add-on |
| G2 / Capterra rating | 4.5 out of 5 / 4.5, observed October 2026 |
| Our verdict | A polished, AI-first platform that rewards teams who watch usage and gets expensive when they do not |
What Intercom is and who it is built for
Intercom pulls email, live chat, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into one inbox, with tickets, workflows, a help center, and Fin on top. Its own pages list more than 450 apps and integrations, and the company says it holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and several ISO certifications.
Reviewers come from teams of every size. The strongest fit shows in the review text: product and SaaS teams that talk to users inside the app, and support teams that want an AI agent doing the first line.
What changed in 2026
Intercom now calls itself Fin. Salesforce signed an agreement to acquire the company on June 15, 2026, for approximately $3.6 billion, and completed the deal on September 10, 2026. Salesforce said Fin will continue within its AI Labs and has a customer base of more than 30,000 companies. G2 and Capterra now list the product as Fin.
The pricing page still sells Essential, Advanced, and Expert under the Intercom name, and this review says Intercom because that is what the plans are called and what most buyers search for. What the acquisition means for roadmap and contracts is a question for Intercom’s sales team, not a fact we can state. We saw no price change between our checks.
Intercom features, capability by capability
Shared inbox and live chat
Every plan includes the shared inbox and the Messenger live chat. Intercom says all plans include free, unlimited live chat, support email, in-app chats, banners, and tooltips. Email, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook all route to the same inbox, with saved replies, keyboard shortcuts, and instant translation into more than 45 languages.
The limit: chat is free, but the channels around it are not. WhatsApp, SMS, email campaigns, and phone are pay-as-you-go on top of the plan.
Tickets
Tickets sit in the same inbox. Agents convert a conversation into a ticket, send customers a ticket form through the bot or inside the product, and set custom ticket states that customers see as plain-language updates. Back-office teams get a separate ticket with private notes, and one tracker ticket can cover many customers who report the same problem.
The limit: this is a conversation-first ticketing layer. SLAs start on Expert, and we found no skills-based routing on Intercom’s pricing page.
Fin AI agent
Fin answers customers across chat, email, phone, social channels, and Slack, trained on your help center, website, PDFs, or connected sources such as Notion and Confluence. Procedures let you describe a multi-step task in plain language, such as a transaction dispute, and connect it to your systems with data connectors. Intercom markets an average resolution rate of 76% across more than 12,000 customers, which is Intercom’s own figure, not a measured average of every deployment.
Fin bills per outcome: $0.99 each. An outcome counts when a customer confirms the issue is resolved, does not ask for more help after Fin replies, or Fin completes a workflow, including handoffs. It is charged once per conversation, and Intercom says you pay nothing if Fin cannot answer or the customer asks for a human.
The limit: reviewers say Fin needs setup and tuning before it works well. Set a spending limit and read a sample of billed outcomes before you scale.
Copilot
Copilot is the assistant for agents. It reads the conversation, summarizes it, drafts a reply from your help center and past conversations, and can pull context from tools such as GitHub, Linear, and Notion. Each agent gets 10 Copilot conversations and 10 AI translation conversations free every month. Unlimited use is $29 per agent per month billed annually, or $35 billed monthly.
The limit: Copilot is a separate line on the bill, so price it for every seat that will use it.
Help center and knowledge
The public help center is included from Essential, and a private and multilingual help center starts on Advanced. A Knowledge Hub keeps the content that Fin, Copilot, and the help center all draw from in one place, and reports show how each piece performs.
The limit: multibrand help centers and Messenger are an Expert feature, so the plan decides how many portals you get.
Reporting
Intercom ships 12 pre-built reports and lets you build custom ones from up to ten chart types, with filters, period comparisons, CSV export, and bulk API access. One report shows human and AI support side by side, including Fin’s resolution rate.
The limit: reporting depth is a recurring complaint. One Capterra reviewer wrote: “I find Intercom’s reports to not be easy to understand and read.”
Proactive messaging and the Messenger
Intercom also sells outbound tools: product tours, checklists, surveys, posts, and a Series campaign builder. Those live in Proactive Support Plus, which starts at $99 per workspace per month and includes 500 outbound messages. One Capterra reviewer wrote: “Our proactive engagement efforts have been good because of the ability to segment users and send them targeted messages.”
The limit: extra messages are billed per unit, and email campaigns, SMS, and WhatsApp are metered separately.
Intercom pricing in 2026
Intercom publishes prices for three plans and says contracts are optional, needed only for enterprise terms, premier support, or custom terms. All prices are per seat per month in US dollars. The page defaults to annual billing, and the structured data on the page lists the monthly prices. Fin is not in the seat price: it is an add-on charged per outcome.
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | What the tier adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $29 per seat | $39 per seat | Messenger live chat, shared inbox and ticketing, pre-built reports, public help center, basic automation |
| Advanced | $85 per seat | $99 per seat | Workflow builder, multiple team inboxes, round robin assignment, private and multilingual help center, 20 free Lite seats |
| Expert | $132 per seat | $139 per seat | SSO, HIPAA support, SLAs, multibrand Messenger and help center, 50 free Lite seats |
Full seats are paid, and Lite seats, which cannot send messages to customers, are free on Advanced and Expert. Fin can also run on top of another helpdesk with no seats: $0.99 per outcome, with a minimum monthly commitment (Intercom gives 50 outcomes as an example).
The add-ons are Copilot at $29 per agent, Proactive Support Plus from $99 per workspace, and Pro from $100 per workspace, which includes Operator, an agent for customer operations, and advanced analysis of Fin. Fin Voice is sold through sales at $1.99 per voice outcome.
What you will actually pay
These examples use annual billing and list prices. They leave out taxes, WhatsApp, SMS, and phone usage, and they assume every Fin outcome is billed.
- 5 seats on Essential, 500 Fin outcomes a month: 5 × $29 = $145, plus 500 × $0.99 = $495. The total is $640 a month ($690 on monthly billing, with seats at $39).
- 10 seats on Advanced, 1,000 outcomes, Copilot for everyone: 10 × $85 = $850, plus $990 for Fin and 10 × $29 = $290 for Copilot. The total is $2,130 a month.
- 25 seats on Expert, 3,000 outcomes: 25 × $132 = $3,300, plus 3,000 × $0.99 = $2,970. The total is $6,270 a month.
Four details change the total more than the table does:
- The AI meter can outgrow the seats. In the first and third examples Fin costs about as much as, or more than, the seats. A better resolution rate raises the bill.
- Useful features start higher up. The workflow builder and round robin assignment start on Advanced, almost three times the Essential price. SLAs and SSO need Expert.
- Usage is capped only if you cap it. Intercom offers spending limits and alerts for Fin and credit limits for Pro. Turn them on.
- A trial is the free option. The 14-day trial includes all features, Fin, and the add-ons, with no card. Startups under $10 million raised with 15 employees or fewer can apply to the Early Stage program for up to 93% off, plus a year of Fin free.
On value, Capterra reviewers score Intercom 4.0 out of 5 for value for money. One Capterra reviewer wrote: “Intercom is expensive, especially for startups and small businesses.”
What real users say about Intercom
Intercom holds 4.5 out of 5 on G2 and 4.5 on Capterra, both observed October 2026. Both profiles now carry the Fin name and cover the Intercom helpdesk and Fin together, so the scores mix the two.
What reviewers praise
The top G2 praise themes are helpfulness, ease of use, and features. One G2 reviewer wrote that “Fin stands out for delivering fast, accurate AI-powered customer support while maintaining a natural conversational experience.” On Capterra, ease of use scores 4.4 and customer service 4.3, and reviewers single out workflows and proactive messaging.
What reviewers criticize
The complaints repeat: missing features, AI limitations, a learning curve, and price. The same G2 reviewer noted that “initial setup and optimization take time to achieve the best results.” On Capterra, one reviewer wrote: “What I like least about Intercom is its complicated pricing structure.” Support and CRM use get mixed marks.
G2 and Capterra reviews come from invited users, so they lean positive.
Intercom pros and cons
Pros
- A fast, polished inbox. Every channel lands in one place with saved replies, shortcuts, and translation into 45-plus languages.
- A strong AI agent. Fin works across chat, email, phone, and social channels, with procedures and data connectors for multi-step tasks.
- Pay only for resolutions. Fin’s $0.99 per outcome is charged only when it resolves or completes a workflow, with spending limits.
- Proactive tools. Product tours, checklists, surveys, and outbound messages sit next to support.
- Compliance and ecosystem. More than 450 apps, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA support on Expert, and several ISO certifications.
Cons
- A bill with several meters. Seats, Fin outcomes, Copilot, Proactive Support Plus, Pro, and channel usage each add a line.
- Features are gated by plan. Workflows start on Advanced, and SLAs, SSO, and multibrand setups on Expert.
- No free plan. The only free route is the 14-day trial.
- Setup and tuning take work. G2 reviewers name a learning curve and AI limitations, and Fin needs good content to perform.
- Price signals are unstable. The Essential price differed between page loads on the day we checked.
Who should choose Intercom, and who should not
Choose Intercom if:
- You sell software and want chat, product tours, and support in one tool, with an AI agent that handles the first line.
- You can watch usage, set spending limits, and treat Fin as a cost that grows with success.
- You have someone who will train Fin, tune workflows, and read the reports.
Do not choose Intercom if:
- You want one flat monthly price. Seats, Fin outcomes, and add-ons are separate lines.
- You need SLAs, deep routing, or multibrand setups without moving to the $132 Expert plan.
- You run a small store or service team that wants live chat and an AI agent without a per-outcome fee. Tidio starts on a free plan.
See Tidio plans and Lyro pricing
Intercom alternatives, briefly
Teams usually leave Intercom because the bill grows with usage, useful features sit on higher plans, or a small team needs something lighter. These are the tools we cover on the blog.
| Tool | Best for | Read our take |
|---|---|---|
| Tidio | Small and mid-sized teams, especially Shopify stores, that want live chat, email, and an AI agent in one inbox | Tidio help desk |
| Zendesk | Larger teams with several channels and complex routing | Zendesk review |
| Freshdesk | A full ticketing desk for teams that outgrew a shared inbox | Intercom vs Freshdesk |
| Help Scout | Small teams that want an email-first shared inbox | Intercom vs Help Scout |
| Crisp | Small teams that want flat workspace pricing instead of per-seat fees | Crisp review |
Tidio takes a different route on cost. The Free plan covers up to 10 seats and 50 billable conversations a month, and paid plans start with Starter at $24.17 a month billed annually (October 2026). Lyro, the AI agent, is sold separately with its own conversation quota, and it can resolve up to 75% of support requests. Tidio holds 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 1,968 reviews. Shopify stores get live cart preview and order history next to the chat. The trade-off is scope: Tidio is built around chat and support rather than in-app product tours, and it suits small and mid-sized teams more than a large multi-brand service operation. If you decide to move, Tidio has a guide to migrating from Intercom, and the Tidio vs Intercom page compares the two side by side. For a longer list, see our Intercom alternatives.
Bottom line
Intercom is a well-rated, chat-first platform with a capable AI agent and a polished inbox. Its cost climbs with seats, Fin outcomes, and add-ons, and some of its best features start on Advanced. It rewards teams that talk to users in the product and will watch usage. Price the plan you need plus your expected Fin outcomes, set a spending limit, and run the 14-day trial on your hardest queries. If chat and an AI agent are most of what you need, a lighter tool can be live sooner.
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Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Intercom is a customer support platform that combines live chat, a shared inbox, tickets, a help center, and the Fin AI agent. It runs as a cloud service, with seats from $29 a month on annual billing, and it now sells under the Fin name after Salesforce completed its acquisition.
No. Intercom has no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial with all features and no credit card, and an Early Stage program for startups with up to 93% off plus a year of Fin free.
On annual billing, Essential is $29, Advanced $85, and Expert $132 per seat per month. Monthly billing is $39, $99, and $139. Fin adds $0.99 per outcome, and Copilot adds $29 per agent.
The seat price is only one line. Fin charges per outcome, so a better resolution rate raises the bill, and Copilot, Proactive Support Plus, and channel usage add more. Reviewers on Capterra also call the pricing structure complicated.
It is worth it for teams that want chat-first support, an AI agent, and proactive messages, and that will watch usage. Users rate it 4.5 on G2 and on Capterra. It is harder to justify for a small team that wants one predictable price.
Yes. Fin works across chat, email, phone, social channels, and Slack, and costs $0.99 per outcome on every plan. Copilot, the assistant for human agents, is a separate $29 per agent add-on.
Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Crisp, and Tidio are the ones we compare most. Zendesk and Freshdesk are ticketing desks, Help Scout suits small shared inboxes, Crisp prices per workspace, and Tidio suits small and mid-sized teams that want chat and an AI agent.
Tidio is a customer service platform with AI at its center, aimed at small and mid-sized businesses. Live chat, email, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, the Lyro AI agent, and automation flows share one inbox, and a free plan covers the basics.
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