Tidio’s pricing page looks simple until you try to figure out what a real team on real chat volume actually pays once Lyro AI usage gets added on top of the base subscription. I run Ecommerce Paradise, where I help people build high-ticket dropshipping businesses, and here’s every Tidio plan broken down so you know what you’re actually paying for.
| Plan | Price | Conversations | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50/mo | Early-stage stores testing chat |
| Starter | $29/mo | 100/mo | Solo operators, moderate volume |
| Growth | $59 to $349/mo | 250+/mo | Small ecommerce teams |
| Plus | $749/mo | Unlimited | High-volume support operations |
Want the full feature breakdown before you commit to a tier? Read my complete Tidio review →
Free Plan: $0 for 50 Conversations a Month
The Free plan includes live chat, a basic chatbot builder, email ticketing, and social channel connections for Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Conversations are capped at 50 per month, which is genuinely enough for a brand-new store still validating whether live chat moves the needle, but you will hit the ceiling fast once real traffic shows up.
Starter Plan: $29 Per Month
Starter raises the conversation cap to roughly 100 per month and adds chatbot flows and basic automation on top of everything in Free. This is the tier most solo high-ticket dropshipping operators land on once their free-tier limit starts filling up within the first few weeks of live traffic.
Growth Plan: $59 to $349 Per Month
Growth is where Tidio’s pricing starts to spread out, running anywhere from $59 to $349 a month depending on your conversation volume and which add-ons you select. It includes more advanced chatbot flows, analytics, and integrations. Most small ecommerce teams handling a genuine, ongoing volume of pre-purchase questions land somewhere in this bracket.
Plus Plan: $749 Per Month
Plus unlocks unlimited conversations, priority support, and features aimed at higher-volume support operations. At this price point, most operators are better served comparing Tidio against dedicated ecommerce helpdesk platforms rather than staying on Tidio purely for the Plus tier’s ceiling.
The Lyro AI Add-On: The Cost the Headline Price Doesn’t Show
Lyro, Tidio’s AI chatbot, is priced separately from your base plan. According to Chatarmin’s 2026 Tidio pricing breakdown, Lyro starts around $39 per month for 100 AI conversations, with 500 to 1,000 AI chats running $79 to $149 per month depending on tier. AI-handled conversations don’t count against your billable human conversation limit, which means you’re effectively paying for two separate usage meters on the same account.
Real-World Cost for a Solo Ecommerce Operator
Budget the Starter plan at $29 per month plus a Lyro tier around $39 per month if you want AI automation from day one, putting a realistic all-in cost around $68 per month for a solo high-ticket dropshipping operator handling light-to-moderate chat volume. That is still meaningfully cheaper than most dedicated ecommerce helpdesk platforms at their entry tier.
What Independent Reviews Say About Tidio’s Pricing
According to Capterra’s Tidio reviews, the free and entry-level tiers get consistent praise for accessibility, while G2 reviewers note that the combination of conversation-based billing and a separate AI add-on can make the real monthly cost harder to predict than the advertised starting price suggests. Some users have reported their bill effectively doubling once Lyro usage and Growth-tier add-ons are factored in, so model your expected chat volume honestly before committing to an annual plan.
Tidio vs Gorgias on Price
Gorgias starts around $50 to $60 per month for its basic plan and scales with ticket volume rather than a flat conversation cap. For a store handling under 100 conversations a month, Tidio’s Starter plan is the cheaper entry point. Once your support volume climbs past a few hundred tickets monthly, the two platforms land in a similar range, and the decision shifts from price to feature depth. My full Gorgias AI vs Tidio comparison covers that trade-off in detail.
Hidden Costs to Watch For
Beyond the Lyro AI add-on, watch for overage charges once you exceed your plan’s conversation cap mid-month, since Tidio bills for extra conversations rather than simply cutting off service. Branding removal (removing the “powered by Tidio” widget mark) and multi-agent seats beyond your plan’s included count are also common places the real bill climbs past the advertised number.
Annual vs Monthly Billing
Tidio offers a discount for annual billing across its paid tiers, generally in the same range as most SaaS annual discounts (15 to 20 percent). Commit to annual only after you’ve run at least one full month on the platform and confirmed your actual conversation volume and Lyro usage, since guessing wrong on volume before you have real data is the single most common way operators overpay.
Budgeting Tidio Into Your Startup Costs
If you’re still working through business formation and financial planning, size your Tidio spend to your current, real traffic rather than the traffic you’re hoping for in six months. Starting on Free or Starter and upgrading once you’re actually bottlenecked by the conversation cap keeps this a proportional expense instead of a fixed drag on a young store’s cash flow.
How to Choose the Right Tier for Your Store
Start with what’s actually happening in your inbox today. If you’re under 50 conversations a month, stay on Free and bank the savings. If you’re consistently hitting the Starter cap and losing chat coverage mid-month, Growth is the next real step. Only look at Plus once your support volume has genuinely outgrown what a conversation-based pricing model can absorb affordably.
What Happens When You Outgrow the Free Plan
The 50-conversation cap is almost always what forces the first upgrade, not a missing feature. Once your supplier relationships and product catalog are established enough to be driving consistent site traffic, plan for the jump to Starter as a near-certain cost of scaling rather than a surprise.
Comparing Per-Conversation Cost as Volume Grows
Because Tidio bills by conversation volume rather than by seat, your cost scales with support demand rather than headcount, which is a meaningful difference from seat-based platforms like Gorgias or Intercom. Model your expected monthly conversation count against each tier’s cap before you commit, since jumping a tier mid-month due to overage charges is a worse outcome than choosing the right tier upfront.
Free Trial and Downgrade Flexibility
Paid tiers include a trial period long enough to test real chat volume and Lyro’s accuracy against your actual product catalog before committing to a paid plan. You can generally downgrade back to Free if a paid tier doesn’t pay for itself, which makes testing Tidio a genuinely low-risk decision compared to platforms that lock you into an annual contract from the start.
Tidio vs Shopify Inbox on Price
Shopify Inbox is free and bundled directly into your Shopify admin, which makes it the cheapest possible starting point for basic chat. It lacks Lyro’s AI depth, chatbot flow builder, and multi-channel inbox consolidation, so the comparison really comes down to whether those features are worth paying for at your current traffic level. A store just confirming that live chat gets used at all can reasonably start on Shopify Inbox before ever paying for Tidio.
Testing Before You Commit to a Paid Tier
Run your trial period against real store traffic rather than internal testing alone. Watch your actual conversation count for two to three weeks, note how many of those conversations Lyro handles versus escalates to you, and use that real data (not the sales page’s example numbers) to decide which tier actually fits. Committing to Growth or Plus based on a guess rather than observed volume is the most common way operators end up paying for capacity they don’t use.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the cheapest paid Tidio plan?
Starter, at $29 per month, is the least expensive paid tier and includes 100 conversations plus chatbot flows and basic automation.
Does Tidio’s price include Lyro AI?
No. Lyro is billed separately starting around $39 per month for 100 AI conversations, on top of whatever base plan you’re subscribed to.
Is Tidio cheaper than Gorgias?
At low conversation volume, yes. Tidio’s Starter plan undercuts Gorgias’s entry tier. At higher volume, the two land in a similar price range and the decision comes down to feature depth rather than cost.
Can I start on the free plan and upgrade later?
Yes, and it’s the recommended path for a new store. Stay on Free until you consistently hit the 50-conversation cap, then upgrade to Starter.
Why did my Tidio bill increase without me changing plans?
Most often this is overage charges from exceeding your conversation cap mid-month, or Lyro AI usage climbing into a higher credit tier as your chat volume grows.
Not sure which support tools you actually need to start scaling? See how my done-for-you store build service works →
Or grab my free beginner’s guide to see how live chat fits into a complete high-ticket dropshipping system.
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
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