Mike HeapMike is an experienced Product Manager who focuses on all the “non-development” areas of My AskAI, from finance and customer success to product design, copywriting, testing and more.
Table of Contents
- How does Alhena AI pricing actually work?
- What actually counts as a billable conversation?
- What does Alhena AI cost at typical volumes?
- At 1,000 conversations a month (small store)
- At 10,000 conversations a month (mid-market)
- At 50,000 conversations a month (high volume)
- What the Alhena AI pricing page doesn't make obvious
- The $1.20 overage is flat, with no volume discount
- "Conversation" isn't "ticket" and isn't "resolution"
- The AI-visibility credits share the same meter
- Billing isn't fully automated yet
- What real Alhena AI customers say about the invoice
- Does Alhena AI have a free trial, and what are the contract terms?
- How does Alhena AI pricing compare to alternatives at the same volume?
- Is Alhena AI actually worth the money?
- FAQs
Created time
Jul 6, 2026 06:17 PM
Title length (<60)
Author
Last optimised
Ecomm?
Image
Publish date
Jul 7, 2026
Video
Slug
alhena-ai-pricing
Featured
Type
Article
Ready to Publish
Ready to Publish
Alhena AI pricing starts at $239 a month for 200 conversations, then a flat $1.20 each. Here's what it really costs at 1,000, 10,000, and 50,000 conversations a month.
I'll bet I know what brought you here. You read the Alhena AI pricing page, saw "from $239 a month," and then hit the part that decides your actual bill: a per-conversation rate that keeps ticking as your volume grows.
The sticker price is the easy bit. The hard bit is working out what 1,000, or 10,000, or 50,000 conversations a month actually costs once you're past your bundle (and whether a "conversation" even means what you think it means).
So that's what I did. I pulled the live numbers, read Alhena's own rules on what it does and doesn't charge for, ran the math at three volumes, and put it next to what the alternatives cost at the same scale. No "contact sales" hand-waving.
I'm Mike, co-founder of My AskAI. We help 200+ ecommerce and SaaS businesses run AI customer service, and our agents have resolved over a million tickets between them, so I read a lot of these pricing pages.
Alhena's is one of the clearer ones, actually, and I'll say so where it earns it. Let's get into it.
How does Alhena AI pricing actually work?
TL;DR: Alhena bills per conversation on a usage-based model, with no per-seat fees and a permanent free tier. Paid plans bundle a block of conversations, then charge a flat overage on top.
Alhena bills you per conversation, rather than per agent seat or per resolution (I'll come back to that distinction, because it's the one that trips people up). There are no per-user fees at all. The whole bill is your conversation volume run through a set of tiers.
Each paid tier bundles a block of conversations. Go over the block and every extra conversation is charged as an overage credit. There's also a permanent free tier, which (unusually, in my experience) is genuinely free rather than a 14-day trial in disguise.
Here's the live pricing as of today, taken straight from Alhena's pricing page. These are the monthly list prices; paying annually knocks about 17% off.
Tier | Monthly price | Conversations included | Overage | Notes |
Free | $0 | 25 / month | n/a | AI concierge, first AI-visibility snapshot, no card |
Essentials | $239 | 200 | $1.20 / conversation | 5 AI profiles, weekly training, review management |
Growth | $599 | 550 | $1.20 / conversation | Advanced AI visibility, more optimization credits |
Scale | $1,199 | 1,200 | $1.20 / conversation | Highest included block, daily training |
Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | Custom | Dedicated CSM, custom integrations |
One thing worth flagging straight away: the overage is a flat $1.20 per conversation at every tier. If you saw an older breakdown where the per-conversation rate dropped as you climbed the tiers (I've seen $0.91 and $0.83 quoted around the web), that's out of date.
Capterra still lists "$1.00 to $1.50 per conversation depending on edition," and the Shopify App Store listing shows the older tier structure. Both predate the current page. When the numbers disagree, trust the live pricing page and re-check it on the day you buy.
You'll also notice the tiers now talk a lot about "AI visibility," "AI profiles," and "questions tracked." That's Alhena leaning into its newer AI-search-optimization product (getting your brand mentioned in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers) on the same pricing page as its support agent. Handy if you want both; noise on the invoice if you only came for support.
What actually counts as a billable conversation?
TL;DR: A billable conversation is one 30-minute session where the AI gives a real answer. Failed answers, human handoffs, greetings, and spam all cost zero credits.
Everyone skims this part. It's also the part that decides your bill, so I'll slow down here.
Here's Alhena's own definition:
"One credit equals one billable conversation window. Not one message. Not one token. A full conversation session where the AI delivers a useful response."
On chat that window is 30 minutes; on email it's the ticket thread. So a customer firing off six messages in ten minutes is one credit rather than six.
The bit I genuinely rate is the list of things that cost you nothing. Per Alhena's zero-credit rules, you are not charged when:
- The AI fails: "if the AI can't find the right information or returns a non-answer, that interaction isn't treated like a successful resolution."
- The customer asks for a human and gets handed off (the one I'd most expect to be billed, and isn't).
- Someone sends a greeting, an emoji, or a one-word opener.
- Someone is testing or trying to trick the bot.
- A human agent takes the conversation over.
- You're running things in the Playground or using Agent Assist.
Alhena reckons "up to 40% of chat volume can be noise" on per-resolution platforms, and it makes all of that free. Three conditions have to be true before you're billed: the AI produced a real answer, the response counts as meaningful work, and the session is a new one.
That's softer than most per-conversation rivals (and I've compared a few). Kustomer bills $0.60 for any conversation the AI engages in, resolved or not, and Freshdesk's Freddy charges $0.49 the moment a session opens.
Alhena excluding failures and handoffs is a real, buyer-friendly difference. I'd rather tell you that than manufacture a gotcha that isn't there.
Where it gets less clean is the modules. Voice AI, review management, social commerce, and the AI-visibility optimizations all sit on the same platform, and some of those optimization actions draw down 3 to 5 credits each rather than one. Alhena doesn't publish a neat per-module price for all of them, so budgeting above the support-conversation line takes a conversation with their team.
What does Alhena AI cost at typical volumes?
TL;DR: On list pricing, budget roughly $659 a month at 1,000 conversations, $6,959 at 10,000, and $35,759 at 50,000, once you allow for Alhena's free-noise rule.
Right, the actual math. I'm going to model billable conversations, and give Alhena full credit for its noise rule while I do it.
Because failures, handoffs, and spam are free, your billable conversation count is lower than your raw ticket count. Alhena's own "up to 40% noise" figure suggests roughly 60% of what lands actually bills. So for each volume below I've shown the realistic case at ~60% billable, plus the worst case where every conversation bills, so you can see the ceiling.
The rule for picking a tier is simple: take the cheapest tier that covers your billable volume, then add $1.20 for every conversation over it.
At 1,000 conversations a month (small store)
About 600 of those bill after the noise rule. The Growth tier ($599, 550 included) is your cheapest home, then 50 overage conversations at $1.20 each.
Cost line | Amount |
Growth base fee (550 conversations) | $599 |
Overage (50 × $1.20) | $60 |
Monthly total | $659 |
That works out to roughly $0.66 per raw conversation. If every conversation billed (no noise discount at all), you'd top out nearer $1,139.
Either way, at this size the base fee is most of your bill and overage barely registers. This is where Alhena's free-then-cheap tiers work well for a small brand.
At 10,000 conversations a month (mid-market)
Now around 6,000 bill. The Scale tier ($1,199, 1,200 included) is the floor, and the other 4,800 billable conversations run at $1.20 each.
Cost line | Amount |
Scale base fee (1,200 conversations) | $1,199 |
Overage (4,800 × $1.20) | $5,760 |
Monthly total | $6,959 |
That's about $0.70 per raw conversation; if none of your volume qualified as free noise, the ceiling is nearer $11,759. Either way the overage is the whole story here, at four to five times the base fee.
And because the rate is flat, there's no volume discount cushioning you as you grow. At that volume I'd model my real numbers carefully before signing.
At 50,000 conversations a month (high volume)
Around 30,000 billable. On list pricing that's Scale plus a very large overage.
Cost line | Amount |
Scale base fee (1,200 conversations) | $1,199 |
Overage (28,800 × $1.20) | $34,560 |
Monthly total (list) | $35,759 |
That's roughly $0.72 per raw conversation, or nearer $59,759 if none of it counted as free noise. I'd treat that list number as a ceiling rather than a real quote. Nobody doing 50,000 conversations a month pays rack rate on a flat $1.20, and this is exactly where Alhena's Enterprise tier and a negotiated rate come in.
But the list math tells you your starting position before you negotiate, and it tells you how the bill behaves: once you're past your bundle, Alhena is a flat ~$1.20 per meaningful conversation, all the way up.
There's a structural point I want to pull out here. Alhena bills per conversation rather than per resolution, so a rising resolution rate doesn't shrink your bill. That's a genuine difference from the outcome-based crowd, and it cuts both ways, which the next two sections get into.
What the Alhena AI pricing page doesn't make obvious
TL;DR: Four things to know: the $1.20 overage never tapers, a billable conversation is its own unit rather than a ticket or a resolution, AI-visibility actions share the same credit meter, and billing still needs a manual touch.
None of these is a scandal. They're just the things you find out in month two rather than on the pricing page, and I'd rather you find them out now.
The $1.20 overage is flat, with no volume discount
Whether you're on Essentials or Scale, every conversation past your bundle costs the same $1.20. Most usage-based tools taper the rate as you grow; Alhena doesn't, on list pricing (I checked, because the older breakdowns online show a taper that's since been flattened).
That's fine at 600 conversations and expensive at 6,000, so the number I'd watch is your steady-state volume rather than your launch month.
"Conversation" isn't "ticket" and isn't "resolution"
A 30-minute session where the AI gave a real answer bills one credit, even if a human later chips in. It's a fair unit (better than per-message, softer than per-engagement), but it's a third thing, and you can't forecast your bill until you know which of your tickets become billable "meaningful conversations." I'd run a month on the free or Essentials tier and read your actual credit consumption before you commit to a volume.
The AI-visibility credits share the same meter
Those optimization actions on the higher tiers draw down credits too, at 3 to 5 apiece. If you're only there for support, that's budget leaking toward a product you didn't come for.
If you want the AI-search-visibility play, it's a bonus. Either way, decide on purpose rather than discovering it on the invoice.
Billing isn't fully automated yet
This is the one real gripe I found, and it's minor. There's more on it in the next section, but the short version is that pay-as-you-go billing still needs a manual touch from their side.
What real Alhena AI customers say about the invoice
TL;DR: Real billing complaints are scarce. The one recurring note is that pay-as-you-go billing needs a manual workaround, and even that review praised Alhena's support.
I went looking for bill-shock stories on G2, Capterra, and the Shopify App Store. There aren't many, and that's a data point in Alhena's favor, so I'll report it straight.
The one recurring cost-side comment is about billing mechanics rather than price:
"Their billing system isn't yet built to automatically support a pay-as-you-go model and just leave a credit card on file. They've been very helpful with a work-around. This speaks VOLUMES to their customer service & flexibility."
Even that complaint turns into praise for their support. The wider feedback skews positive on accuracy and setup, and I couldn't find the usual invoice horror stories that follow per-resolution vendors around.
So I'm not going to invent an outrage here. The real financial risk with Alhena is quieter than a surprise seat fee or a hidden contract minimum.
It's volume creep against that flat $1.20 overage. Model your growth and you've handled it.
Does Alhena AI have a free trial, and what are the contract terms?
TL;DR: Alhena has a permanent free tier of 25 conversations a month with no card. Annual billing saves about 17%, and there's no separate free trial to expire.
Better than a trial, actually: there's a permanent free tier (genuinely permanent, the kind that doesn't expire the week you're busiest). The Free plan gives you 25 conversations a month, an AI concierge, and a first AI-visibility snapshot, with no card required. You can genuinely run a small store on it before you pay a penny.
Paying annually saves about 17%, which brings Essentials down to roughly $199 a month effective. There's a demo option if you want a guided walkthrough, and Alhena runs the odd co-marketing promo that has handed listeners a $250 account credit (always worth asking what's going, in my experience).
Cancellation terms and the exact Enterprise pricing aren't published, so if you're heading for a custom deal, get both in writing before you sign.
How does Alhena AI pricing compare to alternatives at the same volume?
TL;DR: At 10,000 conversations, Alhena runs about $6,959, close to Gorgias and Intercom Fin, while My AskAI is around $1,299 on a flat per-ticket model. Alhena's price also buys shopping and revenue features that the others skip.
Here's the comparison I'd actually want if I were buying. I've taken 10,000 monthly conversations, assumed the AI handles around 75% of them, and given Alhena the benefit of its noise rule (so ~6,000 billable). The competitor numbers come from each vendor's live pricing.
Vendor | How it bills | Cost at 10k conversations | Effective $ / conversation |
Alhena AI | Per meaningful conversation | ~$6,959 | ~$0.70 |
My AskAI (Scale) | Per ticket, $0.10 flat | $1,299 | ~$0.13 |
Per automation, $0.90 | ~$6,750 | ~$0.68 | |
Per outcome, $0.99 | ~$7,425 | ~$0.74 |
Here's what this table does and doesn't say. On raw support cost, we come in about five times cheaper than Alhena at this volume; that gap is real, and it comes from our flat $0.10-a-ticket model.
But Alhena's conversation price also buys a shopping assistant, revenue attribution, and agentic checkout that we simply don't do. If you want your support AI to also sell, that isn't a like-for-like comparison, and you shouldn't treat it as one.
Against the per-resolution ecommerce crowd (Gorgias and Intercom's Fin), Alhena lands in roughly the same price band, but it wins on the unit. Here's the thing I keep coming back to on these calls: with a per-conversation model like Alhena's, or a per-ticket one like ours, your overall cost stays flat as the AI improves, so your equivalent cost per resolved ticket actually falls over time.
With per-resolution pricing it's the opposite. As your resolution rate climbs from 30% toward 70 or 80%, your costs can double or triple. You're charged more precisely because the AI got better at its job.
So the question I'd put to any vendor in this table is the one I put to buyers: where will my resolution rate be on day one, and where will it realistically be in a year? If the answer is "it'll climb a lot," a per-resolution meter gets more expensive exactly as you succeed.
Alhena's per-conversation model dodges that trap; so does ours, at a fraction of the unit price. You can see how our pricing works if you want to run your own numbers.
My AskAI bills a flat $0.10 per ticket inside Zendesk, Intercom, HubSpot, Freshdesk, and Gorgias, with no per-conversation overage, plus a 30-day free trial on every feature with unlimited tickets and no card. See our pricing to model your own volume.
Is Alhena AI actually worth the money?
TL;DR: Alhena is worth it for ecommerce brands that want support and shopping in one tool. It's a poor fit for pure-support or high-volume teams, where the flat overage and unused modules make it expensive.
It depends entirely on what you're buying, so let me split it.
Alhena is worth it if:
- You're an ecommerce brand, especially on Shopify, that wants support and shopping in one tool
- You value the revenue side as much as deflection: product discovery, agentic checkout, review management
- Your volume fits the free, Essentials, or Growth tiers
- You want a fast rollout with no developers
Alhena isn't worth it if:
- You only want support automation and would pay for shopping modules you won't touch
- You run high ticket volume, where the flat $1.20 overage compounds
- You'd rather pay only when the AI actually resolves a ticket
- You're a B2B or SaaS team rather than an ecommerce store, so the revenue-generation angle is wasted
That last case is roughly where we come in. If your bottleneck is support volume rather than storefront conversion, we run our AI agent natively inside Zendesk, Intercom, HubSpot, Freshdesk, and Gorgias, bill a flat $0.10 a ticket whether or not it resolves, and give you 30 days with every feature unlocked, unlimited tickets, and no card to test it against your real queue. You can see that flat model hold up in a high-volume support case study where the bill didn't climb with the ticket count.
If you want to see exactly what the agent did on any conversation, which knowledge it used and why, you can just ask Echo inside your dashboard. For the full head-to-head, the Alhena alternatives rundown and the complete Alhena guide go deeper on features.
FAQs
How much does Alhena AI cost?
Alhena has a permanent free tier (25 conversations a month, no card). Paid plans start at $239 a month for Essentials, which includes 200 conversations, and every conversation over your bundle costs a flat $1.20. Growth is $599 (550 conversations) and Scale is $1,199 (1,200 conversations); Enterprise is custom.
What counts as a conversation in Alhena AI pricing?
One credit equals one "meaningful conversation window" (a 30-minute session on chat, or a single ticket thread on email) where the AI delivers a real answer. It's billed per session rather than per message, so a customer sending several messages in one sitting is a single credit.
Does Alhena AI charge for conversations the AI doesn't resolve?
Not for the ones that clearly go nowhere. Failed AI answers, immediate human handoffs, greetings, and spam all cost zero credits (this is the part I genuinely rate). You're billed when the AI produces a real, meaningful answer in a new session, even if a human later assists on the same conversation.
Is there a minimum monthly spend on Alhena AI?
The free tier is genuinely $0. The smallest paid commitment is Essentials at $239 a month (or about $199 on annual billing). There's no per-seat minimum on top of that.
Does Alhena AI have a free trial or free plan?
It has a permanent free plan rather than a time-limited trial: 25 conversations a month, an AI concierge, and a first AI-visibility snapshot, with no credit card required. I'd run a month on it before paying for anything, just to see your real credit consumption.
What does Alhena AI cost per conversation at higher volumes?
Once you're past your tier's included block, it's a flat $1.20 per billable conversation at every tier, with no volume discount on list pricing. Effective cost lands around $1.16 to $1.20 per billable conversation as overage comes to dominate the bill. At very high volume you'd negotiate an Enterprise rate (which is where I'd expect most high-volume buyers to land).
Does Alhena AI charge per agent or per seat?
No. There are no per-agent or per-seat fees at all. Your entire bill is driven by conversation volume against your tier.
How does Alhena AI pricing compare to Gorgias, Intercom Fin, and My AskAI?
At 10,000 conversations a month, Alhena runs about $6,959, Gorgias Automate about $6,750, and Intercom's Fin about $7,425, all in a similar band. My AskAI comes in around $1,299 because we bill a flat $0.10 per ticket, though Alhena's price also buys shopping and revenue features that the others don't offer.
Does Alhena AI offer annual discounts?
Yes, paying annually saves about 17%, which brings Essentials to roughly $199 a month effective.
What is Alhena AI's enterprise pricing?
It's custom and not published. Enterprise adds unlimited conversations, a dedicated CSM, and custom integrations. If you're heading that way, I'd get the per-conversation rate and the cancellation terms in writing before you sign.
Can I negotiate Alhena AI pricing or get credits?
Enterprise pricing is negotiated directly. Alhena also runs occasional co-marketing promotions that have handed out $250 account credits, so it's worth asking what's available before you sign.
Is Alhena AI worth it for a small store?
For a small ecommerce store, yes: I think the free and Essentials tiers are hard to beat, and you get shopping and support in one tool. It's less of a fit if you're a pure-support or B2B team, where (as I covered above) you'd be paying for revenue modules you won't use.
