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Respond.io Pricing (2026): Plans, Real Costs and What You'll Actually Pay
Respond.io prices on the number of contacts you talk to each month: Starter costs $79 a month billed yearly or $99 monthly, Growth starts at $159 yearly or $199 monthly for 1,000 monthly active contacts, and Advanced starts at $279 or $349, with both rising through contact tiers up to 10,000. AI Agents need Growth or above and draw on an AI credit allowance that scales with your contact tier, while WhatsApp's own fees are billed on top at cost. This page lists every tier from the live pricing page, explains the three meters, works out a month at 1,500, 4,000 and 10,000 contacts, and compares the result with other ways to put an AI agent on customer conversations.
Key takeaways
- Respond.io prices on Monthly Active Contacts rather than messages sent, starting Starter at $79 a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly, for unlimited contacts but no AI Agents.
- Growth starts at $159 a month billed yearly, or $199 monthly, for 1,000 monthly active contacts, and chat AI Agents start on Growth, with voice AI Agents added on Advanced from $279.
- Going over the contact limit does not stop service: respond.io bills extra contacts in blocks of 100, at $12 per 100 on Growth and $15 per 100 on Advanced.
- An AI Agent response costs 2 to 5 credits and a Voice AI Agent costs about 70 credits a minute, with extra credits billed at $15 per 1,000 up to a 200% cap.
- WhatsApp message fees are billed separately at Meta's cost with no markup, and respond.io offers a 7-day free trial of Growth features for 5 users with no credit card.
| Plan | Yearly billing (per month) | Monthly billing | Contacts (MAC) | Users included | AI credits | AI Agents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $79 | $99 | Unlimited | 5 (+$12 each) | 5,000, fixed | No |
| Growth | $159 / $239 / $319 / $449 | $199 / $299 / $399 / $559 | 1,000 / 2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000 | 10 (+$20 each) | 10 × contact tier | Chat only |
| Advanced | $279 / $419 / $569 / $789 | $349 / $529 / $699 / $989 | 1,000 / 2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000 | 10 (+$24 each) | 20 × contact tier | Chat and voice |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Unlimited | From 40,000 | Chat and voice |
Prices checked 19 September 2026 on respond.io's pricing page, by switching between monthly and yearly billing and selecting each contact tier. Above 10,000 contacts the page stops showing Growth and Advanced prices.
How we researched this
On 19 September 2026 we checked respond.io's pricing page in a real browser at every contact tier on both billing options, and read its help-center articles on billing, Monthly Active Contacts and AI credits plus its WhatsApp fees FAQ. We searched AWS Marketplace and Vendr for contract prices and found none. We read Capterra's reviews for billing complaints; we also checked G2 directly (4.8 from 542 reviews). We didn't open an account, so the monthly totals below are arithmetic on the published prices with the assumptions stated.
Our respond.io complete guide covers the product. This page covers only what it costs.
The three meters on a respond.io bill
A respond.io invoice has three moving parts: the contact tier, the seats, and AI credits. WhatsApp fees sit outside all three.
Monthly Active Contacts: you pay per person, not per message
A Monthly Active Contact is, in respond.io's help center wording, "a Contact who sends or receives a message (excluding broadcasts), or makes or receives a call during the billing month." One contact who sends 40 messages counts once. A contact you message who never replies still counts, and so does an outbound message that fails to deliver. Broadcasts are the exception.
Starter has no contact limit. Growth and Advanced start at 1,000 contacts and step up to 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000, with the price rising at each step. Going over your tier doesn't stop anything: respond.io bills extra contacts "in increments of 100", at $12 per 100 on Growth and $15 per 100 on Advanced, charged at the end of the billing cycle. The FAQ adds that these on-demand contacts "are intended for temporary, seasonal usage spikes."
The screenshot in respond.io's own help center shows the rounding. An account 89 contacts over its limit was billed $12, the price of a full block of 100.
Seats
Starter includes 5 users, and Growth and Advanced include 10. Extra users cost $12, $20 and $24 a month respectively.
AI credits
AI credits pay for AI features. The AI credits help article lists what each feature consumes:
- An AI Agent response: 2 to 5 credits.
- AI Assist, AI Prompt, a chat summary or a call summary: 1 credit.
- Call transcription: about 2 credits a minute.
- A Voice AI Agent: about 70 credits a minute.
The allowance scales with your contact tier: 10 credits per contact of tier on Growth, 20 on Advanced and 40 on Enterprise. Growth at the 2,500 tier includes 25,000 credits. Starter gets a fixed 5,000.
When you run out, AI features keep running at $15 per 1,000 extra credits, up to a hard cap at 200% of your allowance. Past the cap, AI pauses until the next cycle. On-demand credits don't roll over, and Starter has no on-demand option, so its AI simply stops at 5,000.
The comparison table also settles what each plan can run. AI Agents start on Growth, voice AI Agents on Advanced, and Workflows on Growth. Starter's 5,000 credits cover AI Assist and summaries for human agents, not an AI Agent answering customers.
WhatsApp fees
WhatsApp fees aren't in any plan. Respond.io's WhatsApp cost FAQ says it passes them through "at cost — no usage markups." Meta charges per template message in marketing, utility and authentication categories. Conversations the customer starts, and your replies inside the 24-hour service window, are free. A support team that mostly answers inbound WhatsApp messages pays little to Meta; a team sending order updates or re-engagement templates pays per message.
Is there another price on AWS or Vendr?
No. AWS Marketplace searches for "respond" and "respond.io" on 19 September 2026 returned no listing from respond.io or its old name, Rocketbots, and Vendr has no respond.io page. Respond.io's pricing FAQ says volume discounts are available on Growth and Advanced "with high Monthly Active Contact volumes or User counts" through its sales team; it publishes no figure.
What respond.io costs at three volumes
These models cost one month of a team using AI Agents on inbound chat, at list price. The assumptions:
- Volumes: small is 1,500 contacts a month with 5 users, mid is 4,000 contacts with 12 users, and large is 10,000 contacts with 20 users.
- AI use: 15 credits per contact a month, which is about four AI Agent replies at 3.5 credits each plus a summary.
- Plan choice: the cheapest combination of contact tier, on-demand contacts, seats and AI credits that covers the volume without hitting the 200% AI cap.
- Excluded: WhatsApp template fees and any negotiated discount.
| Volume | Credits needed | Growth, yearly | Growth, monthly | Advanced, yearly | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small: 1,500 contacts, 5 users | 22,500 | 2,500 tier $239 (25,000 credits included) = $239 | 2,500 tier = $299 | 2,500 tier = $419 | Growth yearly, $239 ($0.16 a contact) |
| Mid: 4,000 contacts, 12 users | 60,000 | 5,000 tier $319 + 2 users $40 + 10,000 credits $150 = $509 | $399 + $40 + $150 = $589 | 5,000 tier $569 + 2 users $48 = $617 | Growth yearly, $509 ($0.13 a contact) |
| Large: 10,000 contacts, 20 users | 150,000 | 10,000 tier $449 + 10 users $200 + 50,000 credits $750 = $1,399 | $559 + $200 + $750 = $1,509 | 10,000 tier $789 + 10 users $240 = $1,029 | Advanced yearly, $1,029 ($0.10 a contact) |
Three findings come out of the arithmetic.
The AI cap picks your contact tier. At 1,500 contacts, the cheapest-looking option is the 1,000 tier ($159) plus 500 on-demand contacts ($60), or $219. But the 1,000 tier includes only 10,000 AI credits, capped at 20,000 with overage, and the model needs 22,500. The AI Agent would pause before the month ended. The 2,500 tier at $239 is the cheapest option that keeps it running.
Advanced gets cheaper than Growth at high AI use. Advanced costs more per tier but includes twice the AI credits. At 10,000 contacts, Growth's credit overage ($750) outweighs the price gap, and Advanced comes out $370 a month cheaper. The crossover depends on AI use per contact: at 15 credits it happens between the 5,000 and 10,000 tiers.
On-demand contacts beat a tier only for small overruns. On Growth yearly, 500 extra contacts at $12 per 100 cost $60, less than the $80 step from the 1,000 to the 2,500 tier. 1,000 extra contacts cost $120, more than the step. Respond.io's own FAQ tells you to move up a tier if the overage is permanent.
What drives the bill up
Contacts you message but who don't reply. Every contact who sends or receives a message counts, including failed sends. Proactive outreach to a list raises your contact count even when few people answer. Broadcasts are excluded.
AI use per contact. An AI Agent reply costs 2 to 5 credits, and a long back-and-forth with one contact can run 10 replies. At 3.5 credits a reply, 10 replies cost 35 credits, more than three times Growth's 10-credit-per-contact allowance.
Voice AI. A Voice AI Agent uses about 70 credits a minute, which is $1.05 a minute at the on-demand rate. A 5-minute call costs 350 credits, the Growth allowance for 35 contacts. Voice AI Agents also need Advanced.
Seats. Extra users cost $20 or $24 a month each on Growth and Advanced. Twenty users on Growth adds $200 a month.
WhatsApp templates. Order updates, reminders and marketing messages sent outside the 24-hour window are billed by Meta per message.
Monthly billing. The yearly price is about 20% lower across plans: $159 against $199 for Growth at 1,000 contacts.
What contact-based pricing rewards
Respond.io's headline is "Pay only for the contacts you talk to," and its FAQ argues that "Chats with contacts are opportunities to increase revenue." That is honest about who the model suits: a sales or booking team for whom each contact is a potential purchase. Respond.io earns more as you reach more people, regardless of how many messages each conversation takes, so a long conversation with one customer costs nothing extra on the contact meter.
The AI credit meter points the other way. Longer AI conversations cost more credits, and the 200% cap means very heavy AI use forces a higher tier. The two meters together reward respond.io for breadth (more contacts) and for AI depth (more replies per contact), while seat pricing adds a charge for every person on your team.
For a support team, the contact meter has a quirk: a returning customer who writes in five times a month is one contact, while five one-off customers are five. Teams with loyal repeat customers get a better deal than teams with many one-time contacts.
Macha counts tickets instead: one charge per ticket, a thread with one person, however many replies or tool calls it takes. It isn't a messaging inbox, so it isn't a like-for-like replacement, as the next section explains.
How respond.io compares at 4,000 contacts a month
The comparison uses the mid case: 4,000 contacts, one conversation per contact. For products billed per resolved outcome (Fin, Zendesk) we assume 60% resolved by AI, 2,400 resolutions. Freddy AI Agent bills per session regardless of whether AI resolves it, so its row uses all 4,000 sessions (40 blocks of 100). The units don't line up exactly, and the table says what each price includes.
| Product | Billing unit | Published price | Cost at the mid volume | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| respond.io (Growth, yearly) | Per contact tier, seats, AI credits | From $159 a month | $509 (12 users) | Inbox, channels and AI Agents |
| Fin (Salesforce) | Per outcome | $0.99, 50-outcome minimum | 2,400 × $0.99 = $2,376 | AI agent on your current help desk |
| Zendesk AI agents | Per automated resolution | $1.50 committed, $2.00 pay-as-you-go, minus a per-seat allowance | $3,600 committed to $4,800 pay-as-you-go, less $60 for 12 Suite Professional seats = $3,540–$4,740 | AI only; Zendesk seats extra |
| Freshdesk Freddy AI Agent | Per session | $49 per 100 sessions | 40 × $49 = $1,960 | AI only; Freshdesk seats extra |
| Macha | Per ticket | $1,999 for 5,000 tickets a month | $1,999 | AI agents on your existing help desk; the 3,000 tier is too small |
Sources, checked in September 2026: Fin pricing; Zendesk's outcome-based pricing post, chatbot buyer's guide and resolution allowances article; Freshdesk pricing; Macha pricing.
Respond.io is by far the cheapest way to get AI replies on this volume, because its AI credits cost cents per reply while Fin, Zendesk and Freddy charge $0.49 to $2.00 per session or resolution. The trade is in what you buy. Respond.io replaces the inbox: your team works in respond.io, on messaging channels first. The per-resolution products sit on top of a help desk you keep. If your support runs through WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat, respond.io's price is hard to beat. If it runs through email tickets in Zendesk or Freshdesk, moving the team into a messaging inbox to save on AI is a bigger change than the price suggests. Our Kommunicate guide covers a similar messaging-first product, and the Fin pricing breakdown and Freddy pricing comparison cover the help-desk side.
What users say about the cost
On 19 September 2026, respond.io's Capterra listing, still filed under its old name Rocketbots, showed 4.6 out of 5 from 60 reviews. Respond.io's pricing page cites 4.8 from more than 500 G2 reviews, and G2 confirms it: 4.8 out of 5 from 542 reviews, checked September 19, 2026.
Most reviews praise the unified inbox. Cost comes up in two ways. Harris H., a marketing director at a retail company with 11 to 50 employees, wrote on 16 September 2025 that there are "some minor drawbacks around pricing and integration" but that the value outweighs them. Johan W., a retail director, left a one-star review on 25 July 2026 titled "Extremely Expensive with Unfair Billing Practices", saying he was asked to pay for months he hadn't used before rejoining. The first is the typical tone; the second is worth reading before you cancel and plan to come back.
Who respond.io's pricing fits
Starter fits a small team that wants one inbox for WhatsApp, Instagram and email with no contact limit and doesn't need AI Agents. At $79 a month yearly, it's cheap for unlimited contacts.
Growth fits most teams running chat AI Agents up to a few thousand contacts a month. Pick the contact tier by your AI use, not only your contact count, and take yearly billing.
Advanced fits teams with voice AI Agents, heavy AI use per contact, or 10,000 contacts, where its doubled credit allowance makes it cheaper than Growth.
It's the wrong fit if your support lives in email tickets inside a help desk you want to keep. Macha fits teams already running Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom who want agents acting inside the ticket: it runs on the help desk you already use, prices per ticket at about $0.40 on published tiers, and the Macha team builds, tests and monitors the agents on every plan. For a builder that sits outside any inbox, see our Relevance AI guide, and for the wider field, our guide to AI agents for customer service.
Frequently asked questions
How much does respond.io cost? Starter is $79 a month billed yearly or $99 monthly. Growth starts at $159 yearly or $199 monthly for 1,000 monthly active contacts and rises to $449 or $559 at 10,000. Advanced starts at $279 or $349 and rises to $789 or $989. Enterprise is quoted. Extra users cost $12 to $24 a month, and WhatsApp fees are billed separately.
What is a Monthly Active Contact on respond.io? A contact who sends or receives a message, or makes or receives a call, during the billing month. Broadcasts don't count, but failed outbound messages do. Each contact counts once a month however many messages you exchange.
What happens if I go over my Monthly Active Contacts? Nothing stops. Respond.io bills extra contacts in blocks of 100 at the end of the cycle: $12 per 100 on Growth and $15 per 100 on Advanced. It describes this as meant for temporary spikes and suggests moving up a tier for permanent growth.
How do respond.io AI credits work? AI features spend credits: 2 to 5 per AI Agent response, 1 per AI Assist or summary, and about 70 a minute for a Voice AI Agent. Growth includes 10 credits per contact of your tier, Advanced 20 and Enterprise 40. Extra credits cost $15 per 1,000, up to a hard cap at 200% of your allowance, after which AI pauses until the next cycle.
Does respond.io Starter include AI Agents? No. AI Agents start on Growth, and voice AI Agents on Advanced. Starter includes 5,000 AI credits for AI Assist, prompts and summaries used by your team, with no on-demand top-up.
Are WhatsApp fees included in respond.io pricing? No. Meta charges them per template message, and respond.io says it passes them through at cost with no markup. Customer-initiated conversations and replies inside the 24-hour service window are free.
Is respond.io cheaper yearly or monthly? Yearly. Growth at 1,000 contacts is $159 a month billed yearly against $199 monthly, and Advanced is $279 against $349. The page says yearly saves up to 20%.
Does respond.io offer a free trial? Yes. Its pricing FAQ describes a 7-day free trial of Growth features for 5 users and 1,000 monthly active contacts, excluding broadcasts, with no credit card needed.
If your customer conversations land as tickets in Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias or Front, you can start a Macha trial with $50 of free usage and no card, and compare a per-ticket price with the contact and credit arithmetic above.
Sources: respond.io pricing · respond.io help: Billing & Usage · respond.io help: AI Credits · respond.io: WhatsApp Business API cost FAQ · Capterra: respond.io reviews (listed as Rocketbots, read in a browser; blocks scripted checks) · Fin pricing · Zendesk outcome-based pricing · Zendesk resolution allowances · Freshdesk pricing
Simple per-ticket AI pricing
One thread with one person is one charge, however many replies it takes.
