Curio vs. the other AI chatbots

An honest comparison -- including where we're not the cheapest. We think telling you that is the point.

Cost per conversation

Tool	Per conversation	Monthly floor / model
Curio · Standard	~$0.08	none — prepaid usage
Curio · Pro	~$0.13	none
HelpJet	~$0.03 (at the 1,000 tier)	$29/mo flat
Tidio	~$0.24 (100-conv tier)	$24/mo
ChatBot.com	~$0.50 (200 resolutions)	$25–99/mo
Intercom	$0.99 / resolution	+ $29+/seat
Zendesk / Freshchat / TeamSupport	per agent seat	$55 / $19 / $29 per agent/mo
LivePerson / Ada	custom quote (enterprise)	$$$

What it actually costs per month, by volume

The real story isn't the per-unit price — it's the monthly floor.

Conversations / month	Curio (Std)	HelpJet	Tidio	Intercom	Zendesk
50 · tiny site	~$4 (or $0 in trial)	free (≤100)	~$24	~$79	~$55
500 · active SMB	~$40	~$29	~$65	~$500	~$55/agent
5,000 · busy	~$400	~$150	tier up	~$4,950	$55/agent

Where we're not the cheapest. Above roughly 350 conversations a month, HelpJet's flat $29 (the budget WordPress option) beats our usage pricing, and stays cheaper as volume climbs. If you run thousands of conversations a month on a tight budget, a flat capped plan may cost less. We'd rather you know that up front than discover it on a bill.

How we price

Curio is priced from our actual token cost -- the real model + embedding bill -- and we show the typical per-conversation cost live on the homepage, so you always see what a conversation runs before you spend a cent. It's prepaid: you buy credits, usage draws them down, and when the balance hits zero Hugo pauses politely instead of running up an overage. No seats, no per-domain fees, no monthly minimum. The 30-day free trial gives you 5 conversations a day, every follow-up free.

What sets Curio apart

Grounded & cited. Answers come only from your content, each linked to the exact source section. Most chatbots never show their work.
Says "I don't know." It refuses instead of inventing a confident wrong answer -- here's why that matters.
Never stores your conversations. They live in the visitor's browser, relay to you in real time, and we forget them. No conversations database, ever.
Human handoff + lead capture. Escalates to your team in real time -- and when no one's online, takes the visitor's email so you never lose them.
Always fresh. Re-checks your site every day and re-reads only what changed (instant on WordPress publish).
Knows your prices & stock. Reads your product data, so it answers "in stock? how much?" with the real numbers.
Unlimited sites & seats. One account covers every domain you own, with no per-seat tax.
One line, no keys. A single script tag; no API keys sitting in your pages.
No lock-in. Export on request, no exit fees.

The thing pure-AI support gets wrong. Survey after survey finds it -- around half of people say they miss the human touch when a bot takes over, and nothing sours a visitor faster than being trapped with an AI and no way to reach a person. Curio is built for that exact moment: Hugo answers what it can from your content, and the instant it can't -- or the visitor asks -- it hands off to your team and pings them. When no one's online, it grabs the visitor's email so the lead never vanishes. AI where it helps, a human where it counts.

Get started free →Try it on your own site

Competitor pricing as listed by WPBeginner and each vendor's own site, September 2026 -- plans and prices change, so check each vendor for current terms. Per-conversation and per-month figures are illustrative: they vary with conversation length and how each tool defines a "conversation" or "resolution." Curio's per-conversation cost is the live average from our own usage stats. We aim to keep this fair and current -- if something's out of date, tell Hugo on this page.