Tidio is a customer service suite for small ecommerce teams: ticketing and an email inbox, live chat, the rule-based Flows chatbot and the Lyro AI agent. It does not charge per agent. Every self-serve plan is a flat price for the whole project that includes 10 seats, and the plan is chosen by how many conversations a human answers: Starter is US$24.17 a month for 100 of them, and Growth runs from US$49.17 for 250 up to US$290.83 for 2,000, on annual billing. Lyro is bought separately, in prepaid monthly packs from US$32.50.
Bottom line
- Best for: Shopify and other small online stores with up to ten agents that want automation priced apart from headcount
- Not for: Teams above ten agents, anyone who needs phone support, and regulated buyers who need a HIPAA business associate agreement
- Price from: US$24.17 per month
- The catch: Three meters run at once and none of them covers the others: billable human conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors are bought separately. Worse, the conversation cap is a wall, not a bill - once the month's allowance is used, agents cannot see or answer new messages until the quota resets or you upgrade. And every self-serve plan stops at 10 seats.
Score breakdown
Tidio scores 8.9 out of 10 on rubric v1.0. The rubric rates list prices and public documentation, not hands-on performance.
Under US$60 per agent per month. Computed: US$58 per agent per month at 10 agents.
Plan prices and AI prices are public, but the billable unit, the minimums or the overage rules are not fully defined in writing.
Everything in level 4, plus a published statement on whether customer data trains AI models and which AI sub-processors are used.
A free plan, monthly billing with no mandatory fees, and documented import tools.
Email, live chat and a help centre; phone and messaging channels only through third-party apps.
A data processing agreement, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, and EU data hosting available on self-serve plans.
Strengths
- No per-agent price: every self-serve plan includes 10 seats, so the eighth agent costs nothing.
- A permanent free plan with 10 seats and 50 billable conversations a month, so a whole team can try the product on real traffic.
- Copilot, the agent-assist AI, is included on every plan including the free one, at no charge.
- Conversations that Lyro or Flows handle alone do not consume the human-conversation allowance: the meters are genuinely separate, so automation lowers the plan you need.
- All data is stored on AWS in the EEA on every plan, with SOC 2 Type II and a DPA carrying standard contractual clauses inside the Terms.
- Annex A of the Terms names the AI sub-processors and states that none of them may train foundation models on customer data.
Weaknesses
- Every self-serve plan is capped at 10 seats. An eleventh agent means Plus, which starts at a US$300 platform fee plus usage rates Tidio does not publish.
- Hitting the billable-conversation cap blocks the inbox: agents cannot see or reply to new messages until the quota resets or the plan is upgraded.
- Lyro is metered separately and its packs do not roll over. When the pack is spent, Lyro simply stops.
- A Lyro thread closes after 15 minutes of inactivity, and a customer who comes back after that starts a new billable Lyro conversation - which the pricing-page FAQ contradicts by saying a returning customer still counts once.
- No telephony or SMS channel is documented, and no customer-facing knowledge base or help centre product is either.
- The help centre states there is no HIPAA business associate agreement and gives no date for one, and single sign-on is Premium only.
- Prices are published in US dollars only, and the pricing page opens on annual billing, so the headline US$24.17 is really US$29 if you pay monthly.
Pricing
Tidio prices the project, not the seat. The free plan covers 10 seats and 50 billable conversations a month. Starter is US$24.17 a month on annual billing (US$29 monthly) for 100 conversations. Growth is a slider: US$49.17 for 250 conversations, then US$74.17, US$107.50, US$132.50, US$149.17, US$207.50 and US$290.83 for 2,000, all on annual billing. Every one of those plans includes 10 seats and no more. Above that, Plus starts at a US$300 monthly platform fee plus metered usage at rates Tidio calls discounted but does not publish, and Premium is quoted. The Lyro AI agent is a separate purchase in prepaid monthly packs, from US$32.50 for 50 conversations to US$583.33 for 1,000, which works out at US$0.78 per conversation at the bottom and US$0.70 at the top. Flows is a third meter, from US$24.17 a month for 2,000 visitors reached. Removing Tidio branding costs US$16.67 a month on Growth. See Tidio pricing.
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Key limits and included AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | — | — | 10 seats, 50 billable conversations a month, 100 Flows visitors and 50 Lyro conversations that are a one-off for the lifetime of the account, not a monthly allowance. Live chat, ticketing, the email inbox, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and Copilot are all included. At the cap, new messages cannot be seen or answered. |
| Starter | US$24.17 per month | US$29 per month | 100 billable conversations a month and 10 seats, plus the live visitor list, operating hours and the hosted chat page. One tier only, with no conversation slider. |
| Growth | US$49.17 per month | US$59 per month | 250 to 2,000 billable conversations a month on a slider, still 10 seats. Adds advanced analytics, permissions, automatic assignment, macros, satisfaction surveys and native Shopify actions, and makes the US$16.67 branding-removal add-on available. |
| Plus | Quote only | Quote only | Sales-led, from a US$300 monthly platform fee plus metered human and Lyro usage at rates that are not published. This is the first plan that lifts the 10-seat ceiling, and it adds custom channels and the OpenAPI. |
| Premium | Quote only | Quote only | Quoted. Adds single sign-on, the advanced Copilot models, a mobile SDK and an option to pay per resolved conversation whose rate is not published. |
AI and paid add-ons
| Add-on | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lyro AI Agent, 50 conversations a month (annual billing) | US$32.50 per month | Source |
| Lyro AI Agent, 50 conversations a month (monthly billing) | US$39 per month | Source |
| Lyro AI Agent, 1,000 conversations a month (annual billing) | US$583.33 per month | Source |
| Flows chatbot, 2,000 visitors reached a month (annual billing) | US$24.17 per month | Source |
| No Tidio branding, on Growth (annual billing) | US$16.67 per month | Source |
True cost at 3, 10 and 50 agents
| Plan | Seats and plan | Agent-assist add-on | AI resolutions | Monthly total | per agent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 agents · Entry tier | Growth | US$108 | US$0 | US$92 | US$199 | US$66 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. |
| 10 agents · Mid tier | Growth | US$291 | US$0 | US$292 | US$583 | US$58 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. |
| 50 agents · Mid tier | — | Growth is capped at 10 seats | — | — | — | — |
Tidio: no seat price, so agents are free up to the 10-seat ceiling, and above it the calculator reports no public price rather than guessing at Plus usage rates. The bill is the cheapest Growth tier that covers your human conversations on annual billing, plus the smallest Lyro pack that covers your AI conversations. Conversations resolved by AI are subtracted from the human volume, because Tidio's own definition excludes Lyro and Flows replies from the billable count. Copilot is free, so agent assist adds nothing. Three things the calculator cannot show: there is no overage - at the cap the inbox locks instead of the bill rising; a conversation Lyro hands to a human is counted on both meters; and a customer returning after 15 minutes starts a second billable Lyro conversation, so real Lyro usage runs above the resolution count you enter. Tidio pricing explained · Help desk true-cost calculator
AI features and how they are billed
Tidio sells two kinds of AI and gives one of them away. Copilot, the agent-assist side, drafts replies from your knowledge sources and is included on every plan including the free one, with no usage limit; a free Chrome extension even runs it inside Zendesk, Intercom and Gorgias. Lyro, the customer-facing agent, is the paid one, and it is bought as a prepaid monthly pack rather than per resolution: US$32.50 for 50 conversations up to US$583.33 for 1,000, on annual billing. That works out between US$0.78 and US$0.70 a conversation, and there is no overage - when the pack is spent Lyro stops answering, unless auto-upgrade moves you to the next tier. Lyro handles 48 languages. Two details decide what this really costs. First, the meters are separate in your favour: a conversation Lyro closes does not use a billable human conversation, so automation shrinks the plan you need rather than adding to it. Second, they are separate against you when a handover happens, because a conversation Lyro starts and an agent finishes is counted on both. The 15-minute thread timeout is the sharpest edge: a customer who wanders off and comes back is a second billable Lyro conversation, which the pricing-page FAQ denies while the help centre confirms it. Read do you need the AI add-on before sizing a pack.
Key facts
- Founded
- 2013
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Pricing model
- Per ticket volume
- Price from
- US$24.17 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- Yes
- Mandatory extra fees
- No
- Channels
- Email, Live chat, WhatsApp, Social messaging
- Agent interface languages
- Not documented · German: Not documented · Spanish: Yes
- EU data hosting
- Yes
- UK data hosting
- No
- HIPAA (BAA available)
- No
- Certifications
- SOC 2 Type II, GDPR data processing agreement inside the Terms, with SCCs, EU-US Data Privacy Framework, UK Extension and Swiss-US DPF, CCPA and CPRA
- Integrations
- Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Zapier
- Named customers
- The Body Shop, Under Armour, Jaguar, Borrowell, Axioma, Your KAYA, Cove Smart, Suitor, ADT Security Service (Mexico)
Data hosting and compliance
Tidio stores data on AWS in EEA countries on every plan, including the free one, with no region to choose and no UK region. The data processing agreement sits inside the Terms for UK, EU and Swiss customers, with standard contractual clauses, and Tidio LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-US framework. It holds a SOC 2 Type II report, available on request through its Trust Center, and publishes a version-controlled sub-processor list there with 30 days' notice of changes - though that list sits behind the Trust Center rather than on an open page, and we could not open it. Two caveats matter. The contracting entity is a US company, so Tidio's own privacy policy says some data may be transferred to and processed in the United States. And Annex A of the Terms, which usefully names the AI sub-processors and states that none may train foundation models on customer data, lists Anthropic as US-hosted while OpenAI and Google Cloud are EU-hosted, so AI-processed content can leave the EEA. There is no HIPAA business associate agreement: the help centre says formal compliance documentation does not exist and gives no date for it.
Vendor claims vs named-customer figures
| Figure | What it measures | Who says so | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 67% | Share of customer questions Lyro solves, as claimed on Tidio's own Lyro page | Tidio — Vendor claim | Source |
| 83% | Lyro resolution rate reported in Tidio's Borrowell customer story | Borrowell — Named customer, published by the vendor | Source |
| 89% | Share of conversations automated in Tidio's Axioma customer story | Axioma — Named customer, published by the vendor | Source |
| 75% | Share of enquiries automated after Your KAYA moved from Gorgias, in Tidio's customer story | Your KAYA — Named customer, published by the vendor | Source |
| 85% | Share of queries resolved by automation in Tidio's Suitor customer story, a five-person business | Suitor — Named customer, published by the vendor | Source |
| 24% | Average CSAT uplift Tidio claims for brands that switch to its help desk | Tidio — Vendor claim | Source |
Every figure here is published by Tidio, including the named-customer stories, and we found no independent measurement. The customer automation rates run above the vendor's own headline claim rather than below it, which is worth noting: 89% at Axioma and 83% at Borrowell against a claimed 67%. Read them as best cases from businesses Tidio chose to write about. The Suitor figure comes from a five-person company, so it says little about a team of ten, and the Borrowell deployment put Lyro on top of Zendesk rather than replacing a help desk.
Verdict
Tidio is the cheapest credible help desk here for a small store, and the reason is structural rather than promotional: ten seats come with every plan, the agent-assist AI is free, and conversations the AI resolves do not eat the human allowance. That combination is unusual and it is why the cost criterion scores as it does. The ceiling is just as structural. Ten seats is the hard limit of every self-serve plan, there is no phone channel, no documented knowledge base and no HIPAA agreement, and the inbox locks rather than overbilling when the month's conversations run out. Buy it for a team that will still be under ten agents next year; look at Help Scout or Gorgias if that is not you, and run your own volumes through the true cost calculator first.
Related pages
- Tidio pricing explainedpricing
- Best help desk softwarebest list
- Best help desk software for small businessbest list
- Best help desk for ecommercebest list
Frequently asked questions
How much does Tidio cost?
On annual billing, Starter is US$24.17 a month for 100 billable conversations and Growth runs from US$49.17 for 250 conversations to US$290.83 for 2,000. Every one includes 10 seats. The Lyro AI agent is bought separately from US$32.50 a month. There is also a free plan with 50 conversations a month. See Tidio pricing.
Does Tidio charge per agent?
No. Every self-serve plan is one price for the project and includes 10 seats, so adding agents up to ten costs nothing. The catch is the other side of the same rule: ten is a hard ceiling, and an eleventh agent means the sales-led Plus plan, which starts at a US$300 platform fee plus usage rates Tidio does not publish.
What happens when Tidio's conversation limit runs out?
The inbox locks. Tidio's help centre says that once the monthly billable-conversation limit is reached you can no longer respond to incoming messages or see their details, until the quota resets or you move up a tier. There is no pay-as-you-go overage on self-serve plans, though auto-upgrade, if it is on, steps the subscription up a tier near the cap instead.
Is the free Lyro allowance monthly?
No, and this is the most common misreading of the pricing page. The 50 free Lyro conversations are a one-off for the lifetime of the account. Once they are used, Lyro stops answering until a paid pack is bought, whatever plan you are on. The 50 billable human conversations on the free plan, by contrast, do reset every month.
Where does Tidio store data, and is it HIPAA compliant?
Data is stored on AWS in the EEA on every plan, including the free one, and there is no region to choose. It is not HIPAA compliant: Tidio's help centre says it has no formal compliance documentation and no date for obtaining it. Note too that the contracting entity is US-based, so some data may be processed in the United States, and the Terms list Anthropic as a US-hosted AI sub-processor.
Sources
- Tidio pricing — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Tidio FAQ — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Tidio Help Desk — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Lyro AI Agent — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- The Lyro AI agent limit — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- The monthly conversations limit — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- Lyro multilanguage support — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- Localization: change the language of your Tidio panel — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- Which upgrades do I need — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- Terms of service, including the DPA and Annex A on AI providers — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Privacy policy and GDPR compliance — Tidio Help Center · 19 September 2026
- Privacy policy — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Tidio Trust Center — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- About Tidio — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Borrowell customer story — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Axioma customer story — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Your KAYA customer story — Tidio · 19 September 2026
- Suitor customer story — Tidio · 19 September 2026
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