Help Scout Pricing in 2026: Plans, Per-User Costs and AI Answers

Help Scout has a reputation as the friendly, affordable help desk, and on a small team it often is. The bill changes shape as you grow. Each plan caps how many users you can add, the most useful features sit one plan up, and AI Answers is billed per resolution on top of every seat.

Help Scout pricing in 2026: there is a Free plan for up to 5 users and 100 contacts a month. Paid plans are $25 (Standard), $45 (Plus) and $75 (Pro) per user per month, billed annually, and monthly billing costs about 16% more. AI Answers, the customer-facing AI, costs $0.75 per resolution. Standard stops at 25 users, Plus at 50, and Pro needs at least 10.

Pricing last verified November 2026. Vendors may change plans and pricing without notice. Check Help Scout's pricing page for the latest figures.

Help Scout pricing plans

Help Scout prices every plan per user. The prices below are billed annually.

The page shows annual prices by default, with a toggle that says annual billing saves 16%. That puts monthly billing at about $30, $54 and $90 per user. Check the toggle on the pricing page before you budget on monthly terms.

The limits that force an upgrade

Help Scout's plans are cheap to start and firm about where they stop. Four limits decide when you move up:

• The Free plan's contact cap. Free covers 5 users, but only 100 contacts a month. Most live products pass that in the first week.
• User caps. Standard sells up to 25 users and Plus up to 50. A 30-person team cannot stay on Standard, and a 60-person team has to buy Pro.
• Pro's 10-user minimum. A 6-person team that needs SSO or HIPAA pays for 10 users on Pro, which is $750 a month on annual billing.
• Inbox and Docs site limits. Standard includes 2 inboxes and Plus 5. Extra inboxes are $10 a month each on annual billing ($12 monthly), and extra Docs sites are $20 ($24 monthly).

The jump most growing teams feel is Standard to Plus. Round-robin routing, a second advanced SLA, the customer portal and unlimited AI Drafts all start on Plus, and the per-user price rises 80%.

How much AI costs on Help Scout

Help Scout splits AI into two parts.

AI Answers replies to customers in Beacon and other channels. It costs $0.75 per resolution, billed monthly. A resolution counts only when the customer gets an AI reply and does not escalate, search further, ask more questions or ask for more help, and each conversation is charged once. New accounts get three months of unlimited resolutions from the day they sign up. Help Scout mentions prepaid discounts but does not publish them.

You can set a monthly spending cap. When you reach it, AI Answers switches off for the rest of the month, and Help Scout emails you as you get close. That is a useful control, but it also means customers stop getting AI replies at the busiest point of the month.

AI Drafts and the inbox assistant help your agents write replies. Standard includes an AI inbox assistant, and Plus makes AI Drafts unlimited.

At 1,000 AI resolutions a month, AI Answers adds 1,000 × $0.75 = $750 a month, or $9,000 a year, on top of seats.

Help Scout pricing at 5, 15 and 50 agents

All figures are seats only, billed annually.

5 agents

• Free: $0, if you stay under 100 contacts a month
• Standard: 5 × $25 = $125 a month, $1,500 a year
• Plus: 5 × $45 = $225 a month, $2,700 a year
• Pro: 10-user minimum, so 10 × $75 = $750 a month, $9,000 a year

15 agents

• Standard: 15 × $25 = $375 a month, $4,500 a year
• Plus: 15 × $45 = $675 a month, $8,100 a year
• Pro: 15 × $75 = $1,125 a month, $13,500 a year

50 agents

• Standard: not available, because it stops at 25 users
• Plus: 50 × $45 = $2,250 a month, $27,000 a year
• Pro: 50 × $75 = $3,750 a month, $45,000 a year

Add AI Answers on top. A 15-agent Plus team resolving 1,000 conversations a month with AI pays $675 + $750 = $1,425 a month, or $17,100 a year. On monthly billing, Plus at about $54 per user puts the seats alone at about 15 × $54 = $810 a month.

Hidden costs to consider

• AI Answers grows with volume, not headcount. A busy month costs more even if your team stays the same size.
• The spending cap is a trade-off. A low cap protects the budget and switches AI off mid-month. A high cap protects coverage and makes the bill harder to predict.
• Extra inboxes and Docs sites. Each brand, product or region with its own address or help center can add $10 to $20 a month.
• Pro's minimum. SSO and HIPAA sit on Pro, so small teams with compliance needs pay for at least 10 users.
• Feedback, status and changelog tools. Help Scout handles conversations and docs. Feature requests, a public roadmap, a status page and release notes are separate subscriptions.

Who Help Scout suits

Help Scout is a good fit for email-first teams that want a calm, polished inbox. Beacon is a well-made chat and self-service widget, Docs is a solid knowledge base, and Standard already includes SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. If you need HIPAA, Pro covers it, and its integration catalogue is far larger than Quackback's.

It suits less well when AI resolves a large share of your volume, because $0.75 per resolution adds up quickly, or when your team sits just above a user cap. It also does not cover product feedback. Teams that track feature requests in a separate tool copy them across by hand.

How Quackback compares

Quackback is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) product that puts support and feedback in one place:

• A support inbox for live chat, email and GitHub issues, with tickets, macros and SLA targets
• A help center with Ask AI, which cites your own articles
• A status page with incidents, maintenance and subscriber emails
• Feedback boards, a public roadmap and a changelog that emails voters when their request ships
• Quackback AI: an agent that answers customers on Pro and up, and Copilot for your team on every plan

An agent turns a conversation into a feedback post, or adds the customer's vote, in one click. That keeps the request and the customer together.

Quackback Cloud prices the workspace, not each user, and every plan includes a set number of seats: 1 on Free, 5 on Pro, 20 on Business and unlimited on Enterprise. AI usage is included on every plan, and a higher plan includes more. There is no fee per resolution. Every signup starts with a 14-day Pro trial, and self-hosting is free with every feature. See the current prices on the pricing page.

Help Scout's figures exclude AI Answers. Quackback's include its AI.

Be clear about the trade-offs. Quackback's channels are live chat, email and GitHub issues, with no SMS, WhatsApp, social or phone. Integrations, multiple SLA policies and routing start on Business. SSO is OIDC on Enterprise, with no SAML. There is no importer for past Help Scout conversations, so most teams keep Help Scout read-only for history. If your team relies on SMS and WhatsApp, or needs HIPAA, Help Scout covers more today.

For the full side-by-side, read Quackback vs Help Scout. To compare every major help desk at the same team sizes, see the help desk pricing guide, and for AI fees alone, the AI support pricing tracker.

Other alternatives

Intercom, whose company is now called Fin, prices per seat and adds a fee for each Fin outcome. See our Intercom pricing breakdown and Quackback vs Intercom.

Zendesk sells Support and Suite plans per agent, with AI resolutions billed beyond a small allowance. See our Zendesk pricing breakdown and Quackback vs Zendesk.

Freshdesk starts lower per agent and has no free plan. See our Freshdesk pricing breakdown.

Chatwoot is open source too, with a free cloud plan for 2 agents. See Quackback vs Chatwoot.

Crisp, Front and Hiver take different routes: Crisp prices per workspace, Front prices per seat with AI by the conversation, and Hiver works inside Gmail. See our Crisp, Front and Hiver pricing breakdowns.

Is Help Scout worth it?

For a small, email-first team that stays under 25 users, Standard at $25 per user is fair value, and the Free plan is a real option for very low volume. Plus is where Help Scout becomes a full help desk, and at $45 per user it is still below Zendesk and Front's middle plans.

Run the numbers on AI before you commit. If AI Answers will resolve hundreds of conversations a month, the per-resolution fee can cost as much as the seats. If you also pay for feedback, status and changelog tools, compare the total against one product that covers them.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Help Scout have a free plan?

Yes. Help Scout's Free plan covers up to 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site, with 100 contacts a month and 30 days of reporting. It needs no payment method. Most growing products pass the 100-contact limit quickly and move to Standard at $25 per user a month, billed annually.

How much does Help Scout AI Answers cost?

Help Scout AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution, billed monthly, and each conversation is charged once. New accounts get three months of unlimited resolutions. You can set a monthly spending cap, and AI Answers switches off for the rest of the month when the cap is reached.

What is the minimum number of users on Help Scout Pro?

Help Scout Pro needs at least 10 users at $75 per user a month, billed annually, so the smallest Pro bill is $750 a month. Standard is capped at 25 users and Plus at 50, so teams above 50 users must buy Pro.

Is Help Scout cheaper than Zendesk?

Usually, per agent. Help Scout Standard is $25 and Plus is $45 per user a month, billed annually, while Zendesk Suite Team is about $55 per agent. Help Scout's AI Answers fee of $0.75 per resolution is also lower than Zendesk's automated resolution rate.

What is the best free alternative to Help Scout?

Quackback is free to self-host under AGPL-3.0 with every feature, and Quackback Cloud has a Free plan for 1 seat. Chatwoot has a free cloud plan for 2 agents. Both are open source, and Quackback adds feedback boards, a roadmap and a status page.