Intercom vs Help Scout
This is the one comparison in the category where both vendors publish a per-resolution rate and define it almost identically. Intercom charges from $0.99 per Fin outcome. Help Scout charges $0.75 per AI Answers resolution, and both state that a conversation is billed once no matter how many questions it contains. So the AI meters can be compared directly, which leaves the decision resting on seats, channels and how much product you actually need.
Pick Help Scout if support is mostly email and help centre traffic, if $25 per user per month, billed monthly, beats what you pay per seat now, and if you want the cheaper published AI rate on the same definition. Stay on Intercom if you rely on the messenger-first suite, proactive messaging or product tours, or if Fin is resolving conversations that Help Scout's AI Answers would hand back to a human. Note the user caps on Help Scout tiers before you assume a plan fits.
Side by side
Intercom vs Help Scout at a glance
| Intercom | Help Scout | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ✗ none published | ✓ 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs, 100 contacts/mo |
| Entry paid | $29/seat/mo, annual (Essential) | ✓ $25/user/mo, monthly (Standard, up to 25 users) |
| Mid tier | $85/seat/mo, annual (Advanced) | $45/user/mo, monthly (Plus, up to 50 users) |
| Top published tier | $132/seat/mo, annual (Expert) | $75/user/mo, monthly (Pro, 10 user minimum) |
| AI unit | Fin outcome | AI Answers resolution |
| Price per AI resolution | From $0.99 | ✓ $0.75 |
| Rate published? | ✓ yes | ✓ yes |
| Charged once per conversation? | ✓ stated explicitly | ✓ stated explicitly |
| Extra meter to watch | Add-ons: Copilot, Pro, Proactive Support Plus | Contacts, and per-tier user caps |
| 1,000 AI resolutions/mo | $990 | ✓ $750 |
| Self-host | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| Best for | Messenger-first suites and in-product campaigns | Email-first teams that want a legible bill |
Sources: Intercom pricing · Help Scout pricing. Compiled August 2026.
What the 24 cent gap is worth
Per-resolution pricing only becomes comparable when the definitions line up, and here they nearly do. Help Scout says a resolution is a single conversation that is resolved by AI Answers without human assistance, charged once per conversation. Intercom charges an outcome when a customer confirms their issue is resolved, when they do not ask for more help after Fin responds, or when Fin completes a Procedure including handoffs, and it too charges once per conversation even if multiple questions are answered.
So the arithmetic means something. At a thousand AI-resolved conversations a month, Help Scout's AI line is $750 and Intercom's is $990. Stack that on the seat line and the gap widens: five agents on Intercom Advanced is $425 a month before any AI at all, five seats at the $85 annual rate, while five users on Help Scout Standard is $125 at its monthly rate. That is not a like-for-like cycle: Intercom quotes annual terms and paying it monthly costs more, while Help Scout quotes monthly terms and takes 16% off if you pay annually, so the real gap is wider than $300 either way you commit. One caveat that matters more than the rate itself: Intercom writes "from $0.99", so that is the floor of a range, while Help Scout prints a flat $0.75.
The counterpoint: Intercom's meter is the honest one to read
Nothing here suggests Intercom is overcharging or miscounting. It publishes the rate, publishes the three conditions that trigger a charge, and volunteers the once-per-conversation rule, which is the fairer of the two ways this could be counted. The problem it creates is a budgeting problem, not an integrity one: the AI line grows exactly as the AI gets better at its job, while most teams still plan support spend per headcount.
Where Help Scout's limits bite
The seat tiers carry user caps rather than being pure per-seat pricing. Standard covers up to 25 users, Plus up to 50, and Pro carries a 10 user minimum, so growth pushes you between tiers in steps rather than smoothly. Contacts are their own meter too: a contact is someone who received a reply from your team or had their question resolved by the AI assistant, and the free plan allows 100 of them a month alongside 5 users, 1 Inbox and 1 Docs site. Treat the free tier as a real starting point for a small project, not as a plan a support team lives on.
Feature honesty
Help Scout is not a smaller Intercom, it is a different shape. It centres on a shared email inbox with a Docs knowledge base and an AI answering layer over the top. Intercom centres on the in-app messenger, and sells the surrounding suite as add-ons: Copilot at $29 per agent per month billed annually, the Pro add-on at $99 a month covering 1,000 analysed conversations and 2,000 credits, and Proactive Support Plus at $99 a month for 500 messages. If those add-ons are load bearing for you, a move to Help Scout is a move to several tools.
If you want the AI meter gone entirely
Both products here bill AI usage separately, just at different rates. If the goal is to remove the second meter rather than shrink it, the option is a product whose AI is optional and whose core you can run yourself: Chatwoot is MIT licensed apart from its enterprise/ directory, includes Captain AI credits in-plan and charges $20 per 1,000 beyond that, and can be self-hosted with the AI switched off.
Common questions
FAQ: Intercom vs Help Scout
Is $0.75 per resolution really cheaper than $0.99?
Yes, and unusually for this category the two numbers are close to directly comparable. Help Scout charges $0.75 and defines a resolution as a single conversation that is resolved by AI Answers without human assistance, billed once per conversation. Intercom charges from $0.99 per Fin outcome and also states you are only charged once per conversation, even if multiple questions are answered. Across a thousand AI-resolved conversations a month that is $750 against $990, so the AI line alone differs by $240. Note the word from in Intercom's price: $0.99 is the floor, not a ceiling.
What are Help Scout's real limits?
Two things catch teams out. First, seat tiers have user caps: Standard at $25 per user per month on monthly billing covers up to 25 users, Plus at $45 covers up to 50, and Pro at $75 carries a 10 user minimum, so a small team cannot buy Pro cheaply and a large one has to move up. Second, contacts are a separate meter on the free plan, which allows 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts per month, where a contact is someone who received a reply from your team or had their question resolved by the AI assistant. That free tier is a genuine starting point for a side project, not a plan a support team grows into.
Does Help Scout replace everything Intercom does?
No, and it does not try. Help Scout is a shared inbox with a knowledge base, live chat and an AI answering layer, built around email as the primary channel. Intercom is a messenger-first suite that also sells proactive messaging, product tours and the Copilot assistant for agents as add-ons at $99 per month, $99 per month and $29 per agent per month annual respectively. If your support is mostly reactive email and help centre traffic, Help Scout covers it at a lower price. If you use Intercom to run onboarding flows and in-product campaigns, you would be replacing one tool with two or three.