Zendesk AI agents vs Gorgias AI Agent
Different on 6 of 12 scenarios. Month at 5,000 AI conversations, default mix: Zendesk AI agents $0 to $7,002; Gorgias AI Agent $990 to $3,951.
Zendesk AI agents
Verified automated resolution · Not on the pricing page; $1.50 to $2.00 per resolution reported by rivals
"Automated Resolutions: Are the unit of measurement used for calculating and billing your account for AI agent usage. Paying per automated resolution means that you pay only for customer requests that were successfully resolved by the AI agent, without any escalation to a human agent."
Zendesk pricing page OWN DOCS viewed 2026-11-10
Gorgias AI Agent
Automated interaction · $0.90 per interaction (annual) or $1.00 (monthly)
"An automated interaction is a customer request that's fully resolved without a human agent, whether by AI Agent or another automation feature such as Flows, Quick Responses, or Order Management. These are billed and count toward your plan's automation allotment."
Gorgias pricing page (FAQ: AI Agent $0.90 annual / $1.00 monthly per interaction; robots.txt checked 2026-11-10 and allows /pricing) OWN DOCS viewed 2026-11-10
Scenario by scenario
| Scenario | Zendesk AI agents | Gorgias AI Agent |
|---|---|---|
| S1 Answered, customer confirms it worked | VERIFY Verified Resolution: "The AI agent successfully resolved the interaction." Only after an LLM "evaluates the text of the conversation to confirm that t… | BILLED "Pay only when it resolves a conversation." An automated interaction is "a customer request that's fully resolved without a human agent". Customer con… |
| S2 Answered, then 24 hours of silence | VERIFY Contained Resolution: "The AI agent handled the interaction to completion without the customer requesting further assistance. This tier does not count… | VERIFY Billed as an automated interaction unless an agent replies within 72h; but "fully resolved" is not tested against silence on the page. |
| S3 Customer says "I still need help" | NOT BILLED "Without any escalation to a human agent." Escalations do not count against the allowance (Varley). | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
| S4 Escalated by rule, human resolves | NOT BILLED Assisted Escalation: "The AI agent contributed to the interaction before a human agent completed the resolution. This tier does not count against your… | NOT BILLED "Pay only when it resolves a conversation": a human-resolved one is not resolved by the AI. Our reading. |
| S5 Procedure ends in a hand-off | NOT BILLED A hand-off is an escalation; "without any escalation to a human agent" (own page). Reading, not a quote about procedures. | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
| S6 Human steps in before the customer asks | NOT BILLED "The AI agent contributed to the interaction before a human agent completed the resolution." (Assisted escalation tier.) | NOT BILLED "If a support agent ends up replying within 72h of an AI Agent resolution, that interaction is only charged as a billable helpdesk ticket instead." So… |
| S7 Follow-up question, AI answers again | VERIFY Verification runs when the conversation ends (email 72h after the first email, messaging 2h after the first message by default); a second answer in th… | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
| S8 Same issue returns within 72 hours | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
| S9 Answer was wrong, customer leaves | VERIFY An LLM reads the transcript at the end; a silent unhappy customer is billed only if the LLM confirms the request was satisfactorily resolved, otherwis… | VERIFY "Fully resolved without a human agent" is the test; the page does not say how a wrong answer the customer abandons is judged. |
| S10 AI only looks up or acts | VERIFY Action Builder is "billed based on consumption exceeding applicable plan allowances" (own page), separate from automated resolutions. | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
| S11 Spam, test or bot message | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. | NOT BILLED "Gorgias filters out newsletters, spam, and auto-responders automatically, so you only pay for tickets that actually need a response." |
| S12 Three questions in one chat | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. | DOCS SILENT Not addressed in the sources we read. |
Zendesk AI agents: Per-resolution price: "about $1.20 to $1.50 committed, $2.00 pay-as-you-go" (Intercom, 2026-07-08) vs "$1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go" (Talvo, 2026-10-21). Zendesk's own page lists no per-resolution rate.
Gorgias AI Agent: Per-interaction price: $0.90 annual / $1.00 monthly on Gorgias' own pricing FAQ (2026-11-10), superseding rival ranges ($0.85 to $1.00 Talvo; $0.90 to $1.27 Intercom).
BILLED the vendor's text says it bills · NOT BILLED says it does not · VERIFY text is ambiguous, conflicts, or a vendor-side check decides · DOCS SILENT text we read does not say