# Help Scout pricing explained > Help Scout's published plan prices, what counts as a billable seat or unit, what the AI add-ons cost, and worked examples at 3, 10 and 50 agents. Published: 19 September 2026 · Updated: 19 September 2026 · Prices and figures verified: 18 September 2026 · By the help-desk.reviews team This page was researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on it. We have not run hands-on tests of these products. Method: [How we review](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/how-we-review) Help Scout sells three paid per-user plans: Standard at US$25, Plus at US$45 and Pro at US$75 per user per month, all on annual billing. Monthly billing is about a fifth higher: US$30, US$54 and US$90. The AI agent, AI Answers, is charged on top at US$0.75 per resolution on every plan. - **Price from:** US$25 per agent per month - **Pricing model:** Per seat, plus AI usage - **Free plan:** Yes - **EU data hosting:** No ## Plans and list prices | Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Key limits and included AI | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | — | — | Up to 5 users, one inbox, one Docs site and 100 contacts a month. No AI tools. | | Standard | US$25 per agent per month | US$30 per agent per month | Up to 25 users, two inboxes, live chat, basic workflows and one SLA policy. AI Assist and summaries included; no AI Drafts and no light users. | | Plus | US$45 per agent per month | US$54 per agent per month | Up to 50 users, five inboxes, 5 light users, advanced workflows, and Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot integrations. AI Drafts included. | | Pro | US$75 per agent per month | US$90 per agent per month | Minimum 10 users, sold by sales. Unlimited workflows and SLA policies, SSO and HIPAA. AI Drafts included. | _[Source](https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/)_ ## What you are billed for The billable unit is a user: anyone who needs a login, including the account owner. Customers are never billed. Light users, who can read conversations and add notes but not reply, do not take a paid seat; Plus includes 5 of them and Standard has none. Help Scout experimented with pricing by contacts helped, and accounts that joined on that model can stay on it, but its tier prices are not published and new accounts are sold per user. [Source](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/596-billing-and-plans-guide) ## AI and paid add-ons Help Scout splits its AI in two. Help for agents is bundled: AI Assist and conversation summaries come with every paid plan, and AI Drafts, which writes a suggested reply from your past answers and help articles, comes with Plus and Pro at no extra charge. The customer-facing agent, AI Answers, is pay-as-you-go at US$0.75 per resolution. A resolution is a conversation the AI answers without the customer escalating, asking for more help or searching further, and it is charged at most once per conversation. New accounts get AI Answers free for their first 3 months, counted from the day the account is created rather than the day the feature is switched on. | Add-on | Price | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | AI Answers | US$0.75 per AI resolution | [Source](https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/) | | Additional inbox | US$10 per month | [Source](https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/) | | Additional Docs site | US$20 per month | [Source](https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/) | ## Worked examples Estimated monthly bill for Help Scout at three team sizes, using the vendor's published list prices with annual billing. This is the same arithmetic as our true-cost calculator; your contract may differ. | | Plan | Seats and plan | Agent-assist add-on | AI resolutions | Monthly total | per agent | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 3 agents · Entry tier | Standard | US$75 | US$0 | US$113 | **US$188** | US$63 — No agent-assist add-on is sold on this plan. | | 10 agents · Mid tier | Plus | US$450 | US$0 | US$375 | **US$825** | US$83 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. | | 50 agents · Mid tier | Plus | US$2,250 | US$0 | US$1,875 | **US$4,125** | US$83 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. | _3 agents: 750 tickets a month, 150 of them resolved by AI, agent-assist add-on on for every agent. 10 agents: 2,500 tickets a month, 500 of them resolved by AI, agent-assist add-on on for every agent. 50 agents: 12,500 tickets a month, 2,500 of them resolved by AI, agent-assist add-on on for every agent. Estimates from vendors' published USD list prices with annual billing, verified on the date shown on this page. Taxes, discounts, onboarding fees and telephony usage are not included._ Help Scout: entry tier is Standard, mid tier is Plus, top tier is Pro with its 10-user minimum. AI Drafts is included from Plus, so the agent-assist add-on costs nothing there and is not available on Standard. AI resolutions are billed at US$0.75 each. [Help desk true-cost calculator](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/tools/true-cost-calculator) · [Per-seat vs per-resolution pricing](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/guides/per-seat-vs-per-resolution-pricing) · [Do you need the AI add-on?](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/guides/do-you-need-the-ai-add-on) > **Scored on a public rubric, from prices and documents you can open.** Every score on this site comes from six published criteria: true cost with AI on, pricing transparency, AI as documented, access and switching, channels and languages, and data protection. The cost level is arithmetic on the vendor's list prices. Each price comes from one product database and links to its source, so every page agrees with every other page. The order of our lists is set by our editors and does not always follow the score. Rubric v1.0 · Scores rate list prices and public documentation. We have not run hands-on tests yet, and no page here claims we did. [Read the full method](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/how-we-review) ## Related pages - [Help Scout review](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/reviews/help-scout) - [The best Help Scout alternatives](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/alternatives/help-scout) - [Help Scout vs Front](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/compare/help-scout-vs-front) - [Freshdesk vs Help Scout](https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/compare/freshdesk-vs-help-scout) ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does Help Scout cost? Help Scout's paid plans cost US$25 (Standard), US$45 (Plus) and US$75 (Pro) per user per month on annual billing, or US$30, US$54 and US$90 when billed monthly. AI Answers is charged separately at US$0.75 per resolution. ### Does Help Scout have a free plan? Yes. The free plan covers up to 5 users, one inbox and 100 contacts a month, and does not require a payment method. It includes no AI tools. Paid plans also have a 15-day free trial. ### How does Help Scout charge for AI? AI help for agents is included in the paid plans, with AI Drafts from Plus upward. The customer-facing AI Answers feature costs US$0.75 per resolution, charged at most once per conversation and not at all if the customer asks for a person. You can set a monthly spending cap. ## Sources - [Help Scout pricing](https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/) — Help Scout · 18 September 2026 - [User-based billing and plans guide](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/596-billing-and-plans-guide) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [Light users](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/1464-light-users) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [Manage your contact-based plan](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/1593-contact-based-billing-and-plans-guide) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [About annual payments](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/1421-about-annual-payments) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [Import emails or tickets into Help Scout](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/1495-import-emails-or-tickets-into-help-scout) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [Security at Help Scout](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/1263-security-at-help-scout) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [HIPAA at Help Scout](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/330-hipaa) — Help Scout Docs · 18 September 2026 - [AI transparency](https://www.helpscout.com/company/legal/ai-transparency/) — Help Scout · 18 September 2026 - [About Help Scout](https://www.helpscout.com/about/) — Help Scout · 18 September 2026 - [eCatholic customer story](https://helpscout.com/customers/ecatholic/) — Help Scout · 18 September 2026 --- Canonical: https://help-desk.reviews/en-gb/pricing/help-scout