Most support tools now charge for AI by the answer, at published rates from $0.05 to $1.25, and the resolution rates they advertise are roughly double what their own case studies show. The 2026 state of AI customer support, built from dated evidence.
Nick Timms · Sep 15, 2026 · 12 min readZoho Desk pricing in 2026: five plans from free to $40 a seat, a 5-user cap on the cheapest paid plan, AI token allowances, and an annual vs monthly gap that hits the popular plan hardest.
Nick Timms · Sep 7, 2026Gorgias pricing 2026: a $10 to $900 helpdesk ladder, a default-on AI Agent toggle that raises every sticker, and two usage meters. Fully receipted.
Nick Timms · Sep 3, 2026Crisp charges per workspace, not per seat: cheap at a full workspace, a 111 or 211 percent jump at the next hire. Every plan, the AI credits, and the archives.
Nick Timms · Aug 27, 2026Google's own docs say only you can access your labels, so every team label setup is a workaround. What each trades away, and when to switch to a shared inbox.
Nick Timms · Aug 26, 2026Tidio's 2026 plans run $0 to $300-plus a month, but the sticker is the least useful number: billing moved from per-operator to per-conversation, and the AI meters on top. Archived receipts from 2021 to today.
Nick Timms · Aug 26, 2026Freshdesk's 2026 plans run $19 to $89 an agent. This page adds what the others skip: the archived history showing the first entry-price raise in five years, the shrinking free tier, and the real Freddy AI math.
Nick Timms · Aug 15, 2026The four AI assistants for shared inboxes worth ranking in 2026, judged on attribution, governance, voice, open connections, and honest pricing, plus the autonomous agent class and who it is really for.
Nick Timms · Aug 6, 2026Original shared inbox statistics from five years of archived pricing data: median prices, the tools that raised them, how the category compares to inflation, and what AI support pricing really looks like in 2026. Every figure carries a receipt.
Nick Timms · Aug 6, 2026What an AI shared inbox actually does for a team, the three types of tool that share the name, the three ways vendors bill for AI, and the six things to check before you buy.
Nick Timms · Aug 5, 2026Every Missive plan priced for 2026, the 5-user cap on the $14 tier, and the unadvertised free plan with a 15-day memory its pricing page no longer shows.
Nick Timms · Aug 18, 2026Zendesk's 2026 plans from $19 to $115 an agent, the add-ons that stack on top, and the AI meter whose rate Zendesk does not publish anywhere.
Nick Timms · Sep 7, 2026
