AI SDR pricing in 2026 — what you actually pay
Vendor list prices hide more than they show. Below is the real range for the six AI SDR platforms most B2B teams evaluate — entry price, typical year-one spend, the line-items you won't see on the website, and which pricing model actually scales. Twig Sera at $5 / resolved ticket, no per-seat fees.
| Vendor | Pricing model | Entry price | Typical year-1 | Hidden costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twig Sera $5 / resolved ticket. No per-seat fees. Voice + chat + email included. | Pay per resolved ticket | $0 (100 free / mo) | $12K – $40K / yr | None — managed onboarding + ongoing QA included |
| Qualified (post-Salesforce) Chat-only. New non-SFDC contracts not being signed in 2026. | Per seat + platform fee | ~$36K / yr | $36K – $120K+ / yr | Salesforce license required post-acquisition for new contracts |
| Drift (Salesloft) Legacy chat-only. Migration push to Salesloft platform. | Per seat + conversation tier | ~$30K / yr | $30K – $90K+ / yr | Salesloft Drift bundle pricing; standalone Drift sunsetting |
| Intercom Fin Customer-support-first; SDR features bolt onto support seats. | Per resolution + Intercom seat | $0.99 / resolution + ~$74/seat/mo | $24K – $100K+ / yr | Intercom platform license required; per-resolution can spike at volume |
| Decagon Enterprise customer-support focus; SDR is adjacent use case. | Annual contract (custom) | ~$95K / yr | $95K – $590K / yr | Implementation 4–8 weeks; engineering team required |
| Ada Customer-support-led; enterprise SLA tier. | Per seat + platform fee | ~$50K / yr | $50K – $200K+ / yr | Conversation overage charges; agent training fees |
Figures reflect public pricing, customer self-reporting, and published vendor materials as of mid-2026. Verify before procurement — vendor pricing changes more often than vendors announce.
Two pricing models — pick the one that fits how AI actually scales
Per-seat (Qualified, Drift, Ada)
You pay for every sales rep regardless of whether they actually use the tool. Punishes growth — every new hire is a line item. Made sense in 2018; the math broke once AI handles the work that used to need a seat.
- • Predictable for finance
- • Misaligned with AI productivity gains
- • Locks in cost before usage proves out
Per-resolution (Twig Sera, Intercom Fin)
You pay only when the AI actually books a meeting, qualifies a lead, or resolves a question. Aligns cost with value. Scales naturally — your AI doing 10× the work doesn't mean 10× the seat license.
- • You only pay for outcomes
- • Unlimited seats included
- • Cost predictable per ticket, scales smoothly
Three pricing traps to call out
We've sat in procurement reviews on the buyer side. These are the line items that show up post-signature.
1. Implementation / onboarding fees
Typically billed as services, $20K–$80K, on top of license. Sometimes called "professional services" or "AI Specialist deployment." Always ask for the all-in year-one number including onboarding.
2. Conversation / resolution overage tiers
Vendors with per-conversation pricing often have a base tier (5K conversations/month) and steep overage rates (sometimes 2× list above the base). Peak-season volume can blow through the base tier and the overage isn't always disclosed in the contract summary.
3. Bundled platform license requirements
Post-acquisition Qualified increasingly requires Salesforce; Intercom Fin requires Intercom seats. The AI SDR price you see isn't the all-in. Calculate the full stack license, not just the AI line item.
People also ask
Why pay-per-resolution instead of per-seat?+
Per-seat pricing punishes growth — every new sales rep costs more even if the AI does the same work. Per-resolution pricing aligns cost with value: you only pay when the AI actually books a meeting, qualifies a lead, or resolves a question. At Twig, the unit is a resolved ticket; the seat count is unlimited.
What's the cheapest way to evaluate AI SDR seriously?+
Twig's free tier (100 AI answers/month) lets you run a real pilot on a low-volume route without a procurement conversation. Most teams move to paid within 30 days once they see autonomous resolution working on their own content.
Are the Qualified, Drift, Intercom, Decagon, and Ada numbers above accurate?+
They reflect public pricing reporting and customer self-reporting as of mid-2026. Vendor pricing changes — verify before procurement. Twig's $5/resolved-ticket is published and contractual.
Does pay-per-resolution scale to enterprise volume?+
Yes. Above 5,000 resolved tickets/month, Twig moves to a volume-discounted enterprise tier. The pricing curve flattens; the largest customers pay materially less than $5/ticket effective rate. There's no contractual minimum at the entry tier.
What's the trap to watch for in competitor pricing?+
Three traps. (1) Per-seat tiers that look cheap at 5 seats but balloon at 50. (2) Conversation overage charges that hit hardest during peak season. (3) Implementation / onboarding fees billed as services on top of license — often $20K–$80K. Ask for the year-2 effective rate, not the year-1 list price.
See your all-in number
30-min call. We'll model your monthly volume against $5/ticket, the per-seat alternatives, and the bundled platform-license traps. You get a one-page TCO for procurement.
