Tidio and Intercom both put a chat box on your website, collect messages in one inbox, and can answer customers with an AI agent. They are priced in very different ways. Tidio charges by the number of conversations and has a free plan. Intercom charges per seat, plus a fee each time its AI resolves a question.
The short verdict
Pick Tidio if you are a small online shop or service business, you want a free or low-cost start, and several people need to log in.
Pick Intercom if you run a software product or a larger support team, and you want more workflow, help centre and reporting features in the same tool.
Both have a free trial. Test each with real visitors for a week.
Prices and plans
All prices are in US dollars, as of October 2026, from each vendor's pricing page.
Tidio, per month for the whole account:
- Free: 50 billable conversations a month, up to 10 seats.
- Starter: $29 a month, or $24.17 a month billed annually. 100 billable conversations.
- Growth: from $59 a month, or from $49.17 billed annually. From 250 billable conversations, with macros, automatic assignment and permissions.
- Plus: from $300 a month plus usage, with custom limits and seats.
- Premium: price on request.
Tidio's AI agent, Lyro, is priced separately. It starts at $39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually, for 50 AI conversations. Every account gets its first 50 Lyro conversations free, once.
Intercom, per seat per month:
- Essential: $29 billed annually, or $39 monthly.
- Advanced: $85 billed annually, or $99 monthly. Adds workflows and 20 free Lite seats.
- Expert: $132 billed annually, or $139 monthly.
Fin, Intercom's AI agent, is included in every plan and costs $0.99 per outcome. During research, some visits to Intercom's page showed Essential at $19 on annual billing, so check the current price.
What a small team would pay
At list price on monthly billing, before AI and taxes:
- One person, under 50 chats a month: Tidio Free is $0. Intercom Essential is $39.
- Three people, about 100 chats a month: Tidio Starter is $29 for the account. Intercom Essential is $117 for three seats.
- Three people, about 250 chats a month: Tidio Growth is from $59. Intercom Essential is still $117.
Tidio's self-serve plans allow up to 10 seats, so the price does not rise when you add a person. Intercom's price rises with each seat.
How the AI is priced
Tidio Lyro is sold in monthly bundles. You choose a quota, from 50 to 1,000 AI conversations, and pay for that quota. A Lyro conversation counts once, however many replies it takes.
Intercom Fin is pay per result. You pay $0.99 when the customer confirms the answer helped, does not ask for more help, or Fin finishes a workflow. You pay once per conversation.
A bundle is easier to budget. Pay per result means you pay nothing for questions Fin cannot answer. Either way, the AI can only be as good as the facts you give it. Read AI chatbots for customer service before you turn one on.
Features beyond chat
Tidio includes live chat, ticketing, and channels such as email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. It also sells Flows, which are rule-based chat paths for things like collecting leads or answering set questions. Flows are free for the first 100 visitors reached each month.
Intercom adds a public help centre on Essential. Advanced adds multiple team inboxes, a workflow builder and a private, multilingual help centre. Expert adds SLAs and support for several brands.
Trials
Tidio offers a 7-day free trial of all plans with no credit card. After that, the account moves to the Free plan unless you upgrade. Intercom offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card, including Fin and add-ons.
How to decide
- Count last month's chats and emails that needed a human reply.
- Count how many people need to log in.
- Price the AI both ways: a monthly Lyro bundle, or $0.99 per Fin outcome.
- Check which channels matter, such as WhatsApp or Instagram.
- Run both trials with the same help articles and compare the answers.
For more options, see Intercom alternatives and Zendesk vs Intercom. For shops, how to keep customers coming back covers what happens after the chat.