LiveChat Pricing Explained: What You Really Pay in 2026

The sticker price is only the starting line

LiveChat's entry price is $19 per agent per month when billed yearly. Pay monthly instead and it is $25 per agent — a meaningful jump purely for the privilege of not committing to a year.

The second thing to know: LiveChat has no free plan. You get a 14-day trial, and then you pay. If your plan was to poke at a chatbot for a month before deciding, that option does not exist here.

The product itself is genuinely solid. LiveChat has been around since 2002 and it shows — reliability is excellent, reporting is deep, and the agent tools are among the strongest in this category. Text Intelligence AI drafts replies and summarises chats, which takes some of the typing off the agent's plate.

The trouble starts when the team grows. LiveChat bills per agent, so every person who logs in adds another seat at the same rate. That is the moment most small business owners start comparison shopping.

Where the real costs hide

Every chat tool has a version of this problem. The base plan gives you the core product, and the useful extras live one tier up.

With LiveChat, adding agents is the main cost driver. There is no flat team rate mentioned in the public pricing — every new hire is another $19 to $25 per month on the invoice.

Tidio works differently. Its paid plans start at $24.17 per month billed yearly, and there is a free plan that allows 50 conversations per month, which is enough to actually test whether live chat helps your store. Lyro AI, Tidio's chatbot, answers questions from your FAQ automatically, and the first 50 AI conversations are free for life.

The catch: Lyro AI conversation credits run out quickly on cheaper plans. If your store gets steady traffic, you either upgrade or watch the AI go quiet. Advanced analytics sit behind higher tiers too.

Crisp takes a third approach. Pricing starts at €45 per workspace per month, and that covers your whole team rather than one seat. For a business with six or seven people answering chats, a flat rate like that behaves very differently from per-agent pricing. Crisp bundles a shared inbox, chatbot, campaigns, video chat and a knowledge base into the price.

The trade-off is AI depth. Crisp's AI features are lighter than Tidio's or Botpress's, and the free plan includes 2 seats with zero AI credits.

What the bill looks like as you grow

Picture a two-person shop — say a bakery taking custom cake orders online. Both owners answer chats, so they start with two seats. It feels cheap, and at that size it is.

Then Saturday gets busy and a part-timer joins the inbox. That is a third seat. Then they want the bot answering "do you deliver to my postcode" at midnight, which means moving up a tier. Then they want it actually answering, instead of collecting an email and promising a reply tomorrow.

None of that is a bait-and-switch. It is just how per-seat pricing with tiered AI works: each genuinely useful thing you switch on is another line on the invoice. The number worth watching is not the entry price. It is the entry price multiplied by however many people will ever log in, plus whichever AI tier you end up on. Do that arithmetic with your own headcount before you sign up — nobody else can do it for you.

Tidio vs LiveChat vs Crisp: the honest comparison

Here is how the three stack up for a small business.

**LiveChat** is best for support teams that need reliability and reporting. Around since 2002, it has 200+ integrations, ticketing and a visual chatbot builder. Downsides: no free plan, and pricing grows fast as you add agents.

**Tidio** is best for small e-commerce stores. Tidio's own pitch is live chat working in under 10 minutes — that is the vendor's claim, not something we timed. It has deep Shopify, WordPress and WooCommerce integrations, plus email marketing and a multi-channel inbox. Downsides: Lyro AI credits run out quickly on cheaper plans, and advanced analytics sit behind higher tiers.

**Crisp** is best for budget-conscious teams with more people than money. Flat per-workspace pricing means adding colleagues does not add cost, and you get a shared inbox, chatbot, campaigns, video chat and a knowledge base in one. Downsides: AI is lighter than Tidio's, and there are fewer deep integrations.

If you have two agents and want the best AI, Tidio wins. If you have six agents and a tight budget, Crisp wins. If support is a real function of the business and you need serious reporting, LiveChat wins.

The AI billing trap nobody mentions

This is the part most people miss. AI features are often billed separately from your plan, and the meter runs on conversations rather than seats.

Intercom charges $0.99 per AI resolution on top of seat fees. Zendesk's Copilot add-on costs an extra $50 per agent per month, and extra AI resolutions beyond your plan allowance bill at roughly $1.50 each. Freshchat's Freddy AI Agent is billed per session — first 500 free, then $49 per 100 sessions. Gorgias bills $0.90 to $1.00 per successful AI resolution.

None of these are hidden exactly. They are just easy to miss when you are comparing headline prices.

LiveChat's AI features come bundled with the plan, which keeps the AI cost question simpler than with the tools above. Check the current AI allowance on the pricing page if you expect heavy volume. Tidio gives you 50 free AI conversations for life, then charges through credits. Crisp includes AI in the workspace price, but with lighter capability.

Before you commit, ask one question: how is AI billed — per seat, per resolution, or per credit? The answer moves your real monthly cost more than the base price does.

How to estimate your true monthly cost

Do this before you sign up for anything.

• Count how many people will answer chats, including part-timers and the owner at 11pm.
• Estimate monthly chat volume, then double it for busy season.
• Decide whether AI needs to answer without a human, or just assist one.
• Find out how AI is metered, and what happens when the allowance runs out.
• Check whether analytics, integrations or automation sit on a higher tier.
• Multiply by 12 and compare that number, not the monthly one.

The yearly figure is usually what makes people switch tools. A per-seat plan and a flat workspace plan can trade places entirely once headcount and AI usage enter the picture.

Which one should you actually pick?

For most small businesses reading this, we would point you to Tidio first. The free plan lets you test live chat properly, setup is quick, and the e-commerce integrations are strong. Just watch the Lyro AI credits.

If you have a larger team and cost per person matters more than AI sophistication, Crisp's flat workspace pricing is hard to beat — six people pay one price, not six.

Choose LiveChat if support is a real function of your business rather than an afterthought. The reporting, reliability and agent tools justify the per-seat cost, as long as you go in knowing the bill climbs with every hire.

Whatever you pick, check the vendor's site for current pricing before you commit. These plans change, and the numbers move.