Crisp Pricing and Free Tier Limits

Crisp costs $45 per month for their entry-level Mini plan, which covers up to four seats. Their free tier allows two seats but limits you to 100 customer profiles and excludes email support. Pricing is based on workspaces rather than individual seats, though extra seats beyond plan limits cost $10 monthly. AI credits are bundled by plan level.

How much does the Crisp Mini plan cost?

The entry point for a paid Crisp account is the Mini plan. It costs $45 per month. For that price, you get four seats. If you have a fifth person who needs to answer chats, you do not have to jump to a much more expensive tier immediately. You can simply add a seat for $10 per month. This is a different approach than many other companies.

In my time running a dental practice with eleven front desks, I learned to watch out for the per-seat trap. Many tools look cheap at $15 or $20, but the bill grows every time you hire a new receptionist. Crisp uses workspace-based pricing. If you have four people on the Mini plan, you pay $45. If you have eight people, you would likely move to their Essentials plan or pay for the extra four seats at $10 each.

The Mini plan is designed for very small teams. It moves you past the strict limits of the free version and gives you back your chat history. It also allows you to handle both chat and email in one place. I have seen many businesses struggle with the jump from free to paid software, and $45 is a significant first step if you are used to paying zero.

Prices are approximate and can change depending on your region or billing cycle. I recommend you check the current rates at https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ before you make a budget.

What is included in the Crisp free plan?

The Crisp free tier is what most people start with. It allows for two seats. This is common in the market. Out of the twelve major tools I have studied, five of them limit their free version to exactly two users. This includes HubSpot, Chatwoot, and Freshdesk.

However, the Crisp free tier comes with a few walls that you will likely hit quickly. The first is the customer profile limit. You are allowed 100 customer profiles. In the dental group I managed, we could see 100 patients in three days. Once you hit that number, you have to decide if you are going to delete data or pay to keep growing.

The free tier is also chat only. It does not include an email inbox. This was always a deal breaker for the shops I worked with. Managing your website chat in one tab and your business email in another tab is how things get missed. I have watched good leads die because they were sitting in a Gmail folder while the staff was busy looking at a separate chat dashboard.

You should also know that the free version locks your chat history and your automation. If a customer comes back a week later to follow up on a question, you will not see the previous conversation. This makes it hard to provide good service. It feels like meeting a stranger every single time they visit your site.

How does Crisp workspace pricing work?

Most software in this category charges per seat. If you have ten employees, you pay ten times the base price. Crisp is one of the few that uses workspace pricing. This can be a benefit if you have a team that is just slightly larger than the average small business.

For example, on their Essentials plan, a team of eight pays one flat rate. This is genuinely better for teams that are scaling. Instead of a fluctuating bill every time you add a part-time helper, you have a predictable cost. If you go over the seat count included in your plan, the cost is $10 per seat.

I have sat through budget meetings where we had to decide which employee did not get a login because the per-seat cost was too high. That is a bad way to run an office. It leads to people sharing passwords, which is a security risk. A flat workspace fee avoids that headache.

Comparing this to the rest of the market shows the difference. Tools like Zendesk or Help Scout are built entirely on the per-seat model. Zendesk starts at $19 per agent. If you have ten agents, you are at $190 immediately. With Crisp, if you fit within the workspace limits, your bill stays flat.

What do you pay for AI on Crisp?

AI is not a free add-on. Crisp handles this through credit bundles that are tied to your plan level. On the Mini plan, you get $5 worth of AI credits. On the Essentials plan, that goes up to $25. If you move to the Plus plan, you get $75 in credits.

This is a different approach than a flat monthly fee for an AI bot. It means your costs are somewhat tied to how much you actually use the technology. If you are not using AI to answer questions or summarize chats, you aren't paying extra for it, but you are also limited by the bundle size of your plan.

In my experience, AI can be a double-edged sword for a service business. It is great for answering "What are your hours?" at 3am. It is less helpful when a customer is angry about a bill. Having a credit-based system means you have to keep an eye on your usage so you don't run out of "fuel" for your automation in the middle of the month.

What does a team of five actually pay?

Let's look at a concrete situation. Suppose you run a small service business with five people who need access to the inbox. You have outgrown the free tier because you have more than two people and more than 100 customers.

You would start with the Mini plan at $45 per month. That plan covers your first four seats. To get your fifth person in the system, you pay $10 for an extra seat. Your total monthly bill would be $55.

If you wanted to use more advanced automation or more than $5 worth of AI, you would have to look at their higher tiers. This $55 price point is higher than some competitors like Zoho Desk, which would be $35 for five users on their Express plan. But it is cheaper than a tool like Help Scout, which would cost $125 for five users.

I always tell the owners I work with to look at the total cost of ownership. You have to account for the base fee, the seat fees, and any add-ons for things like SMS or AI. Crisp keeps it fairly simple by using the workspace model, but those $10 increments for extra seats can still add up if your team grows to ten or fifteen people.

How does Crisp compare to other free tools?

The market for free support tools is crowded. Out of the twelve tools in the competitor table, eight of them offer a free tier. Crisp is one of them, but its free tier is more restrictive than some others.

For instance, Tawk.to is free with almost no limits on agents or chat history. They make their money by selling add-ons or charging you to remove their branding. Help Scout is also generous, allowing up to five users on their free plan, though they limit you to one inbox.

On the other end of the scale, you have tools like Tidio. Their free plan gives you 50 conversations a month. Once you hit 50, the chat widget literally disappears from your site until the next month. Crisp does not do that. Your widget stays up, but you just can't see the history or manage more than 100 profiles.

Then there are the tools that offer no free tier at all. LiveChat, Front, Zendesk, and Intercom all require a credit card and a subscription from day one. In that context, Crisp is a good middle ground for a business that is just starting out and only needs to talk to a few people a day.

The LastWorker difference

I spent eighteen years watching business owners struggle with these pricing tiers. I have seen the frustration of hitting a 100-profile limit right when business is picking up. That is why I work with LastWorker. We do things differently.

We do not have a subscription. We do not charge per seat. You can have two employees or fifty employees, and the cost does not change. We also don't believe in limiting your data. Live chat and email support are free forever. You get unlimited conversations, unlimited teammates, and a shared inbox without ever putting down a credit card.

Our free tools include things that other companies charge for, like a public help center, a knowledge base, and saved replies. We don't lock your history behind a paywall.

When it comes to AI, we don't use bundles or monthly fees. AI is off by default. If you choose to turn it on, you only pay for what you use. An AI reply on chat or email is $0.04. If it doesn't generate a reply, you don't pay. If you want an AI to answer your phone, it is $0.01 per minute, and that includes the carrier cost.

We also provide phone numbers for $1 a month. Inbound SMS is free, and outbound SMS is $0.03 per segment. It is a pay-as-you-go model that actually fits how a service business works. You pay for the work being done, not for the right to log in. I have written the scripts and hired the people, and I know that a flat, transparent cost is always better than a "free" plan that stops working just when you need it.