Help Scout sells three paid per-user plans: Standard at $25, Plus at $45 and Pro at $75 per user per month, all on annual billing. Monthly billing is about a fifth higher: $30, $54 and $90. The AI agent, AI Answers, is charged on top at $0.75 per resolution on every plan.
- Price from
- $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 | $25 per agent per month | $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 | $45 per agent per month | $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 | $75 per agent per month | $90 per agent per month | Minimum 10 users, sold by sales. Unlimited workflows and SLA policies, SSO and HIPAA. AI Drafts included. |
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
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 $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 | $0.75 per AI resolution | Source |
| Additional inbox | $10 per month | Source |
| Additional Docs site | $20 per month | Source |
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 | $75 | $0 | $113 | $188 | $63 — No agent-assist add-on is sold on this plan. |
| 10 agents · Mid tier | Plus | $450 | $0 | $375 | $825 | $83 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. |
| 50 agents · Mid tier | Plus | $2,250 | $0 | $1,875 | $4,125 | $83 — Agent-assist AI is included in this plan. |
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 $0.75 each.
Help desk true-cost calculator · Per-seat vs per-resolution pricing · Do you need the AI add-on?
Related pages
- Help Scout reviewreview
- The best Help Scout alternativesalternatives
- Help Scout vs Frontvs
- Freshdesk vs Help Scoutvs
Frequently asked questions
How much does Help Scout cost?
Help Scout's paid plans cost $25 (Standard), $45 (Plus) and $75 (Pro) per user per month on annual billing, or $30, $54 and $90 when billed monthly. AI Answers is charged separately at $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 $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 — Help Scout · September 18, 2026
- User-based billing and plans guide — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- Light users — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- Manage your contact-based plan — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- About annual payments — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- Import emails or tickets into Help Scout — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- Security at Help Scout — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- HIPAA at Help Scout — Help Scout Docs · September 18, 2026
- AI transparency — Help Scout · September 18, 2026
- About Help Scout — Help Scout · September 18, 2026
- eCatholic customer story — Help Scout · September 18, 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