In short. Tolkly is an alternative to Intercom Fin for online businesses: its AI answers from your site with a verbatim quote from the clause behind each answer, your operators answer from Telegram or a web inbox, and the price is fixed at $49 a month for up to 10 operators and 1,000 AI conversations. With Intercom you pay for every operator seat (Essential from $29 paid yearly) and $0.99 for every Fin outcome, so the month's bill cannot be known exactly in advance. Intercom is the stronger platform: Fin's quality, Procedures, integrations and the breadth of the product.
How do Tolkly and Intercom Fin compare?
| Tolkly | Intercom Fin | |
|---|---|---|
| Operators | Included in the plan: Start up to 10 operators, Business without limit | Per seat a month: Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132 paid yearly; $39, $99 and $139 paid monthly; Essential at $19 for new customers («New customers save 35%») |
| AI | Included in the plan: Start $49 with 1,000 AI conversations, Business $149 with 5,000 | $0.99 per Fin outcome; a «Qualification» outcome is $9.99 |
| What is billed as the AI's result | A conversation where a source confirms the bot’s answer, within the fixed plan. «Resolved» is not billed: it is a number in your reports, and a visitor who simply left is never counted as resolved | An outcome: the visitor confirmed the answer or left without asking for further help («assumed resolution»); a handoff to a person by a procedure is also a $0.99 outcome |
| Can the month be known in advance | Yes: the plan is fixed, and at the limit the bot hands conversations to people | Seats are fixed, outcomes depend on traffic; spending limits and alerts exist |
| Source in the answer | A source number and a verbatim quote under every statement; code checks the quote against the page | Fin shows a numbered link to an article (checked on intercom.com, 2026-10-27); how the answer is checked is not published |
| Where operators answer | Tolkly's web inbox and the company's Telegram group, a topic per conversation | Intercom's inbox; Telegram is one of the channels for customers |
| Interface languages | App and widget in English and Russian | Operator interface in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Spanish |
| Trial | 30 days, 250 AI conversations, no card | 14 days (pricing page FAQ) |
| Several brands | Domains and mirrors without limit; up to 20 projects (sites or brands) per company, 3 in the trial | Multibrand Messenger and Help Center on Expert |
Intercom prices were checked on 2026-10-27 at intercom.com/pricing and in Intercom's help center, and rechecked on 2026-11-08. Tolkly prices are from tolkly.io on 2026-11-08.
How much does Intercom Fin cost in 2026?
Intercom Fin costs $0.99 per outcome. The Resolution, Procedure handoff, Disqualification and Self-serve routing outcomes cost $0.99 each, Qualification costs $9.99, and one outcome is charged per conversation (Intercom help center, fin.ai/pricing, 2026-10-27).
Intercom operator seats are paid separately: Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132 per seat a month paid yearly; new customers see Essential at $19. Paid monthly, a seat costs $39, $99 and $139. Intercom's pricing guide says monthly billing is available on Essential and Advanced, while its seats article lists $139 for Expert too. The minimum is one full seat (intercom.com/pricing, Intercom help center and pricing guide, 2026-11-08).
If Fin is connected to another helpdesk, there is a minimum of 50 outcomes a month: «$0.99 PER OUTCOME, 50 OUTCOMES PER MONTH MINIMUM» (fin.ai/pricing, 2026-10-27).
Who decides that a conversation is resolved: Intercom or you?
Intercom counts a «resolution» outcome when the visitor confirms the answer or exits the conversation without requesting further assistance (Intercom help center, 2026-10-27). If the visitor later returns to the same conversation, the resolution charge is refunded.
A handoff to a person can be billed too: when Fin hands a conversation to your team by a procedure you gave it, that is a $0.99 outcome. When the visitor asks for a person, it is not (intercom.com/pricing, 2026-10-27).
In Tolkly, what counts as resolved does not change the bill. The price is fixed: the limit counts conversations where the bot answered with a source, and an honest refusal or a conversation handed to a person at once does not count against it. «Resolved» is a number in your reports: the visitor pressed «It helped» or rated the conversation 👍. A visitor who simply leaves is never counted as resolved.
- Tolkly$49 → $49
- Tolkly, if you buy extra thousands$49 → $139
- Intercom Essential + Fin$285 → $4,047
| AI conversations a month | Tolkly | Tolkly, if you buy extra thousands | Intercom Essential + Fin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $49 | $49 | $285 |
| 2500 | $49 | $69 | $1,077 |
| 5000 | $49 | $89 | $2,067 |
| 7500 | $49 | $119 | $3,057 |
| 10000 | $49 | $139 | $4,047 |
What do 3 and 8 operators cost in Intercom and in Tolkly?
The assumptions are the same as in the calculator on tolkly.io: 1,000 AI conversations a month, a Fin outcome in 40% of them (400 × $0.99 = $396), Intercom Essential at $29 a seat paid yearly, no new-customer discount. The share of outcomes is an assumption: yours may be higher or lower.
| A month | 3 operators | 8 operators |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom Essential + Fin (400 outcomes) | 3 × $29 + $396 = $483 | 8 × $29 + $396 = $628 |
| The same with the new-customer discount ($19 a seat) | $57 + $396 = $453 | $152 + $396 = $548 |
| The same with an outcome in 80% of conversations (800 × $0.99 = $792) | $879 | $1,024 |
| Essential paid monthly ($39 a seat) + Fin (400 outcomes) | $117 + $396 = $513 | $312 + $396 = $708 |
| Tolkly Start (up to 10 operators, 1,000 AI conversations) | $49 | $49 |
| Tolkly Business (operators without limit, 5,000 AI conversations) | $149 | $149 |
The formula for your own case: Intercom = seats × seat price + outcomes × $0.99. Tolkly = the plan's price; if there are more AI conversations than the limit, the bot hands the rest to operators instead of charging more.
Intercom offers spending limits: «Spending limits and alerts keep your costs predictable», and its help center mentions «usage reminders and hard limits». What the visitor sees when an Intercom limit is reached, we have not checked: that needs an account.
Does Intercom Fin show the source of an answer?
Yes. On intercom.com on 2026-10-27, Fin answered a pricing question with a numbered link «1» to an article in Intercom's help center. How Fin checks that an answer rests on the article, Intercom does not publish.
Tolkly shows the source number and a verbatim quote from the clause under every statement. Code checks the quote against the page's text: a sentence without a confirmed quote is not shown, and a second model removes a statement that adds a detail its source lacks. If nothing is confirmed, Tolkly refuses honestly and hands the conversation to an operator.
Hello! I am the AI assistant of Paywire: I answer from the service’s rules or bring in an operator.
A transfer arrives within 30 minutes after the payment is confirmed.
How hard is it to switch from Intercom to Tolkly?
Tolkly goes in with two lines in the layout every page shares, in place of the old chat's script: a script and the <tolkly-chat> tag. Tolkly reads the colours and font from your site and the answers from its pages, so there is little to set up. You sign up and install it yourself in minutes (Install); if you prefer, write to us and we help.
When to pick Intercom, and when Tolkly?
Pick Intercom Fin if:
- you need a whole platform: a shared inbox and tickets, a public help center, proactive messages (the Proactive Support Plus add-on), WhatsApp, SMS, email and phone channels;
- you need complex Fin workflows (Procedures) and an automation builder proven with large customers;
- a variable bill for outcomes suits you, because Fin closes many conversations.
Pick Tolkly if:
- you want a fixed price: $49 or $149 a month, with no fee per seat or per outcome;
- you, not the visitor's silence, should decide what counts as resolved;
- your operators want to answer from a Telegram group;
- every statement of the bot should show a quote from your rules.
Tolkly does not compete with Intercom on the breadth of the platform: it has no full help center, no marketing campaigns and no mobile apps for operators.
Try Tolkly
The first month is free, with no card: tolkly.io. To see answers from your own rules before signing up, type your site's address in «Try it on your site»: tolkly.io/#try.
Prices were checked on 2026-11-08 (Intercom: page captures of 2026-10-27; the pricing page, the seats article and the pricing guide read on 2026-11-08). Prices change: check them at intercom.com/pricing before you decide.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Intercom Fin cost?
$0.99 per Fin outcome ($9.99 per Qualification outcome) plus operator seats: Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132 per seat a month paid yearly, or $39, $99 and $139 paid monthly (intercom.com, 2026-11-08).
What does Intercom count as a Fin outcome?
A confirmed resolution, a visitor leaving without asking for further help, or a completed procedure, including a handoff to a person by a procedure. One outcome is charged per conversation.
How much does Tolkly cost?
Start is $49 a month: up to 10 operators and 1,000 AI conversations. Business is $149: operators without limit and 5,000 AI conversations. A year costs as much as 10 months, and the first month is free.
Can Tolkly's bill grow by itself?
No. When the AI conversations of the month run out, Tolkly's bot hands new conversations to operators until the next month and charges nothing on top of the plan.
Does Tolkly show where an answer comes from?
Yes: under every statement Tolkly shows the source number and a verbatim quote from the page or file, checked by code. A sentence without a confirmed quote is not shown.
Sources
- https://www.intercom.com/pricing (2026-10-27, rechecked 2026-11-08)
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/8205718-fin-ai-agent-outcomes (2026-10-27)
- https://fin.ai/pricing (2026-10-27)
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/9955432-channels-explained (2026-10-27)
- https://www.intercom.com/learning-center/intercom-pricing (yearly and monthly seat prices, 2026-11-08)
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/8205716-intercom-seats (2026-11-08)
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/7035581-use-intercom-in-your-preferred-language (interface languages, 2026-11-08)
- https://tolkly.io/ (Tolkly plans, 2026-11-08)
- https://tolkly.io/docs/en/billing (plans, the limit, what counts as an AI conversation)