Intercom vs Zendesk in 2026: pricing, AI agents and which one fits

Intercom charges per seat plus usage: $29, $85 or $132 per seat a month billed annually, and $0.99 for each outcome its Fin AI Agent delivers. Zendesk charges $19 to $115 per agent a month, quotes Suite Enterprise through sales and bills its AI agents per automated resolution beyond the 5 or 10 included with each seat, at $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go.

Intercom is built around its chat Messenger and Fin, and Salesforce now owns the company behind both. Zendesk is built around ticketing, with telephony in every Suite plan and add-ons for workforce engagement and a contact center. All prices in this guide are USD list prices from the vendors’ own pages, checked September 27, 2026: Intercom pricing, Fin pricing and Zendesk pricing. It covers plans, AI billing, channels, help centers, what changed in 2026, what 10 seats pay and how to move between the two, and ends with a third option for software teams.

Intercom vs Zendesk at a glance

Prices are billed annually and were checked on September 27, 2026.

Seat prices and plans

Both vendors charge per teammate: Intercom calls them seats, Zendesk agents. On September 27, 2026, Intercom’s pricing page showed Essential at $29 per seat a month billed annually to some visitors and at $19 to others, as part of a price test; this guide uses $29.

Prices are per seat or agent per month, and each plan includes the one above it from the same vendor. Lite seats on Intercom’s Advanced and Expert plans give colleagues limited access for internal use; every teammate who answers customers needs a full seat. Our guides to Intercom pricing and Zendesk pricing list the add-ons and more example bills.

AI agents: Fin outcomes versus Zendesk AI resolutions

Both vendors include an AI agent on every plan and bill it by usage, but they count different things.

Intercom: $0.99 per Fin outcome. Intercom charges one outcome per conversation, even when Fin takes several actions (Fin AI Agent outcomes, accessed September 27, 2026):

1. Resolution. After Fin’s last answer, the customer confirms the answer helped or leaves without asking for more help. A reply to a greeting alone does not count.
2. Procedure handoff. Fin completes a Procedure you configured to end in a handoff to a person or a workflow.
3. Sales outcomes. A disqualification or a self-serve routing costs $0.99, and a qualified lead costs $9.99.

If a customer returns to a resolved conversation for more help, even in a later billing period, Intercom deducts the resolution. You can set usage reminders and hard limits. Fin Voice, for phone support, is priced through Intercom’s sales team.

Zendesk: per verified resolution. Each agent seat includes automated resolutions every month: 5 on Support Team and Suite Team and 10 on Suite Professional, with Suite Enterprise quoted by sales (Zendesk pricing, checked October 3, 2026). Unused resolutions do not carry over (Managing resolution allowances, accessed September 27, 2026). Since May 18, 2026, assisted escalations and contained resolutions are not billed; verified resolutions, which a language model confirms after the conversation ends, are (About automated resolution tiers, accessed September 27, 2026). Beyond the included ones, resolutions cost $1.50 each committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, billed by default, or the AI agents pause if you turn overage off.

The difference matters in practice. Intercom bills handoffs that a Procedure completes, at $0.99. Zendesk bills only verified resolutions and includes some per seat, but each extra one costs $1.50 to $2.00.

Assistants for agents. Intercom’s Copilot costs $29 per agent a month billed annually, or $35 monthly, and every agent gets 10 Copilot conversations a month free. Zendesk’s Copilot costs $50 per agent a month billed annually and can be added to Suite Professional and higher plans.

Fin on Zendesk. You do not need the Intercom helpdesk to use Fin. Fin for Zendesk answers in Zendesk messaging on web, mobile and social channels, on Zendesk tickets from email and contact forms, and in Fin’s own Messenger. When Fin cannot resolve a conversation, it hands it to your team in Zendesk, which stays the system of record. Fin’s help center lists $49 a month including 50 AI resolutions, then $0.99 per additional resolution, with no seat-based pricing and minimum commitments (Fin for Zendesk explained, updated July 22, 2026).

Inbox, channels and ticketing

Intercom. Essential includes the Messenger for live chat, a shared inbox and ticketing, pre-built reports and basic automation. Advanced adds a workflow automation builder, multiple team inboxes and round robin assignment, and Expert adds SLAs, SSO and HIPAA support. Intercom handles email, live chat through the Messenger, phone, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and SMS in one inbox (Intercom, checked September 27, 2026). WhatsApp, SMS, phone and email campaigns are billed by usage, while inbound email support is included. Product tours, surveys, in-app messages and mobile push come with the Proactive Support Plus add-on, at $99 a month for 500 messages.

Zendesk. Support Team covers email ticketing with routing, prebuilt dashboards, pre-written responses, automations and triggers. Suite Team adds messaging and live chat, telephony, omnichannel routing and social messaging through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, LINE, WeChat, X direct messages and Apple Messages for Business (Getting started with social messaging, accessed September 27, 2026). Suite Professional adds skills-based routing and an IVR phone tree. Zendesk bills App Builder, Action Builder and Voice by usage beyond the plan’s allowances, and sells a Contact Center product at $83 per agent a month.

In short, Intercom is built around the Messenger and outbound messages for support inside a website or app. Zendesk is built around ticketing, with an IVR phone tree on Suite Professional and add-ons for workforce engagement and a contact center.

Help center and knowledge

Intercom includes a help center on every plan: public on Essential, private and multilingual on Advanced, and multibrand on Expert. On Zendesk, a help center is included from Suite Team; for Support plans, Zendesk sells its Knowledge product separately (About the Zendesk Knowledge plan types, accessed September 27, 2026).

Some teams run both: a Zendesk help center that feeds Fin in Intercom. Intercom’s current Zendesk article sync connects with a Zendesk API token (Sync public articles with Zendesk, dated August 25, 2026). Zendesk accounts created on or after July 28, 2026 cannot use API tokens, no account can create new ones from October 27, 2026, and all tokens stop working on April 30, 2027 (Zendesk announcement, accessed September 27, 2026). If you sync articles this way, ask Intercom how the sync will connect after that date.

What changed in 2026

1. Salesforce owns Fin. Salesforce agreed to acquire Fin, the company formerly called Intercom, on June 15, 2026, for about $3.6 billion (announcement), and completed the acquisition on September 10, 2026 (Salesforce). Fin joins Salesforce’s AI Labs, and Salesforce says Fin “will continue to serve its customers”. The release names a customer base of more than 30,000 companies and places Fin next to Agentforce, Salesforce’s own AI agent platform. It does not mention prices or plans, and on September 27, 2026, Intercom’s pricing page still sold the Intercom helpdesk and Fin AI Agent.
2. Zendesk bills AI in three tiers. Since May 18, 2026, only verified resolutions are billed; assisted escalations and contained resolutions are not.
3. Zendesk bought Forethought. Zendesk completed its acquisition of Forethought on March 26, 2026, and sells Forethought AI agents that work within Zendesk and on other platforms, across chat, email and voice (Zendesk).
4. Zendesk is retiring API tokens. Tools that read Zendesk data with a token need another sign-in method, such as OAuth, before April 30, 2027.

For Intercom customers, the practical step is to read the renewal terms before a long contract. Prices and packaging can change after an acquisition, so check the current pricing page on the day you sign.

What a 10-seat team pays

These examples use annual list prices from September 27, 2026, before tax, with 1,000 AI conversations a month. The Fin rows assume that 60 percent of conversations end in a billable outcome, including Procedure handoffs; that rate is our assumption, not an Intercom figure. The Zendesk rows use the same 600 resolutions, minus the ones included per agent, at the committed $1.50 (checked October 3, 2026); pay-as-you-go at $2.00 costs a third more.

Two lines grow on both. Seats grow with every hire. AI usage grows with automation: the more conversations Fin or Zendesk’s AI agents close, the larger that line.

Moving between Intercom and Zendesk

From Zendesk to Intercom. Intercom’s importer, under Settings, Data, Imports & exports, then Import from Zendesk, brings users, organizations and tickets with their data attributes and attachments. Intercom says it suits accounts with fewer than 150,000 tickets that move all their tickets. Tags, side conversations and call recordings do not move, and running it again deletes and reimports the tickets imported before. The importer is enabled per workspace, so ask Intercom’s support team if you do not see it (Intercom help, dated June 23, 2026).

From Intercom to Zendesk. Zendesk says you cannot migrate everything through its interface. Tickets come in through its Ticket Import API, where triggers do not run and first reply and first resolution times are not imported, or through Marketplace apps, partners and Zendesk Professional Services (Zendesk help, accessed September 27, 2026).

Keep Zendesk and add Fin. If Fin is the main reason to move, Fin for Zendesk runs on your Zendesk account without Intercom seats. Either way, import a sample first and keep the old account read-only until you no longer need it.

Which one to choose

Choose Intercom if:

1. Most of your support happens in chat on your website or app, and you want the Messenger and Fin from one vendor.
2. You want a published AI price: $0.99 per outcome, with usage reminders and hard limits.
3. You need Expert features such as HIPAA support, SLAs and multibrand help centers.
4. You want product tours, surveys and in-app messages from the same vendor, as an add-on.

Choose Zendesk if:

1. You run email and phone support and want an IVR phone tree in the plan, plus Zendesk’s workforce engagement and contact center add-ons.
2. You want AI billed only for verified resolutions, with some included per agent.
3. You only need email ticketing for now: Support Team costs $19 per agent a month.
4. You depend on apps and integrations built for Zendesk. If you want Fin anyway, it runs on Zendesk.

Before a multi-year contract with either vendor, run a sample of real conversations through both trials and get the renewal terms in writing. If Freshdesk is also on your list, see our Freshdesk vs Zendesk comparison.

A third option for software teams

Intercom and Zendesk sell help desks. If you build software and many conversations end in a bug report or a feature request, Gleap is a third option to consider.

Gleap prices the workspace, with seats included in the plan. Hobby costs $29 a month billed annually ($35 monthly) with one seat, Growth $99 a month billed annually ($119 monthly) with 4 seats included (then $25 per extra seat per month), unlimited projects and every Kai agent included, Pro $299 a month billed annually with unlimited seats, advanced reports, LLM model choice and the SOC 2 report, and Enterprise starts at $999 a month billed annually. Kai Support, the AI support agent, is on every plan and is paid separately from the plan (Gleap pricing). For 10 seats, that is $224 a month on Growth, billed annually ($99 plus 6 extra seats at $250 a year each), plus Kai Support at about $0.05 per conversation (estimate). Zendesk’s email-only Support Team costs less for 10 seats, at 10 × $19 = $190 a month.

Kai Support answers customers from the knowledge you connect, and a teammate takes over in the same conversation when the customer asks for a person. At Commonplace, Kai Support handles 50 to 60 percent of inbound support, according to Benjy Meyer, Chief Product and Technology Officer (Commonplace customer story). On every plan, bug reports from your app carry a screenshot and technical details. On Growth, Pro and Enterprise, feature requests collect votes on a roadmap, Kai Support investigates hard tickets and turns confirmed bugs into coding tasks, and Kai Code opens a pull request that your team reviews and merges.

The trade-offs are real. On every plan, AI usage comes on top: Kai Support and Kai Copilot cost about $0.05 per conversation (estimate), and Kai Code and custom agents are paid from the same AI balance. Gleap Hobby has one seat and one project. Email, the knowledge base, the feature roadmap, the WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Slack and Telegram channels, and Kai Support’s investigations and Kai Code need Growth or above. Gleap has no phone or SMS channel, so teams that support customers by phone are better served by Intercom or Zendesk.

Gleap imports from both. From Intercom, it brings contacts, conversations and help center articles; from Zendesk, companies, contacts and tickets with their comments and attachments. The Intercom migration guide and the Zendesk migration guide walk through each move, and the Gleap and Intercom comparison lists the differences.

Gleap publishes this comparison and competes with both products. Every Intercom, Fin and Zendesk fact above comes from the vendors’ own pages, with the date we checked it.