Why per-agent pricing is broken
Traditional help desks price the team, not the work. Zendesk Suite Team runs $55 per agent per month; Freshdesk Growth is $15; Help Scout is $29. A ten-person support team therefore pays $550, $150, or $290 — before a single ticket arrives. Add one teammate and your bill jumps by a fixed amount, even if they spend the month on documentation. The bill is the same in your busiest month and your quietest.
Per-seat pricing made sense when help desk vendors charged mainly for the software used by agents. It makes less sense now that AI does the clerical work and collaboration is table stakes — charging per seat means taxing team size, which is the one thing a healthy company wants to grow.
How credit-based pricing works
Kora replaces plans and seats with a prepaid credit wallet:
- $1 buys 10 credits. Packs start at $10; your first recharge is 30% off.
- 1 credit per ticket created — from the dashboard, Public API, or any connected channel.
- 1 credit per AI Analyst answer — plain-English questions over your ticket data.
- Everything else is free: unlimited members, comments, attachments, AI ticket structuring, the 20+ endpoint Public API, webhooks, embedded sessions, CSV export.
- Purchased credits last 10 years. New workspaces claim 1,000 bonus credits (30 days) + 100 base credits (10 years) free.
- The wallet can overdraw to −10 credits — an empty balance never blocks your customers, only new outbound work until you top up.
Pay-as-you-go vs per-seat: the real numbers
| Scenario | Kora (credits) | Typical per-seat |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $0 — 1,100 free credits, no card | $0 trial, then $15–55/agent/mo |
| Paying unit | Per ticket (1 credit = $0.10) | Per agent per month ($15–115) |
| Team of 10, 300 tickets/mo | ~$30–40/mo | $190–$1,150/mo |
| Idle months | Cost approaches $0 | Full per-seat bill |
| AI usage | 1 credit per AI answer (~$0.10) | $0.99–2.00 per AI resolution or per-seat add-on |
| Adding a teammate | Free — members cost nothing | +$15–115/mo per seat |
| Commitment | Prepaid wallet, credits last 10 years | Monthly/annual subscription |
Per-seat estimates use published 2026 annual-billing tiers (Freshdesk Growth $29, Zendesk Support Professional $55, Suite Team $55–115). Kora cost = tickets × $0.10 + AI answers × $0.10.
When pay-as-you-go is (and isn't) the right choice
Usage pricing wins when ticket volume is modest relative to team size — startups, internal IT, ops teams, and product teams that collaborate heavily but ticket lightly. It also wins when your volume swings month to month: seasonal businesses, launches, support rotations. You stop paying for idle capacity entirely.
Very high-volume operations — think 1,000+ tickets every single day with a small team — should model both models honestly, because at extreme volumes per-credit costs can pass a per-seat bill. That is the honest trade: usage pricing is cheaper for most real teams most of the time, and it scales with the work, not the headcount.
What to look for in a pay-as-you-go help desk
- Free collaboration: if members cost credits, seat pricing sneaked back in.
- Long credit validity: 10-year credits mean top-ups are an asset, not a subscription.
- AI billed per outcome: pay per successful AI answer, never for failures.
- A small overdraft floor: your customer intake should not break at midnight because the wallet hit zero.
- Transparent ledger: every debit visible, with the balance after each action.
Frequently asked questions
What is pay-as-you-go help desk software?+
Pay-as-you-go help desk software charges for actual usage instead of per-seat subscriptions. Kora, for example, runs on credits: $1 buys 10 credits, creating a ticket costs 1 credit (10 cents), and an AI Analyst answer costs 1 credit. Collaboration features — members, comments, attachments, the Public API — are free. You top up a prepaid wallet from $10 and only spend when work happens.
How much does pay-as-you-go help desk software cost?+
With Kora, a typical 10-agent team doing 300 tickets per month with 100 AI answers pays roughly $40/month. The same team on per-seat help desk software pays $190–$1,150/month (Freshdesk Growth to Zendesk Suite Professional). Light months cost less — there is no fixed monthly bill at all.
Is pay-as-you-go cheaper than per-agent pricing?+
For most small and mid-size teams, yes. Per-agent pricing charges $19–115 per agent every month whether tickets arrive or not. Pay-as-you-go charges about 10 cents per ticket. A 5-agent team doing 100 tickets/month pays ~$10 on Kora versus $95–575 on per-seat plans. Very high-volume teams (1,000+ tickets/day) should compare carefully — usage pricing scales with volume, per-seat does not.
Do credits expire?+
Kora credits purchased in packs are valid for 10 years. New workspaces also get 1,000 bonus credits valid for 30 days plus 100 base credits valid for 10 years — no credit card required to claim them.
What happens if my credit balance runs out?+
Your data is never blocked — tickets, comments, and history stay fully readable. Kora lets the wallet overdraw slightly (down to −10 credits) so inbound requests keep flowing, then pauses new ticket creation and AI answers until you top up.
Which help desk tools offer pay-as-you-go pricing?+
Kora is the most complete pay-as-you-go help desk in 2026: credits meter ticket creation and AI usage while seats, comments, and the API stay free. Crisp offers a usage-based option (around $0.40 per contact); Intercom charges per AI resolution ($0.99) on top of per-seat pricing; most other tools (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk, Help Scout) remain per-seat only.
Want the full breakdown? See Kora's pricing or compare against Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Zoho Desk.