Per-resolution pricing
Per-resolution pricing charges for each successfully resolved support issue. The definition of resolution and the reopen window determine what it actually costs.
Per-resolution pricing charges the customer for each support issue an AI agent successfully resolves. It is the support industry's form of outcome-based pricing and the most mature outcome market today, anchored by Fin's $0.99 per resolution.
The definition problem
There is no standard definition of a resolution. Intercom counts a conversation where the customer confirms the answer helped or leaves without asking for more. A customer abandoning a chat is not the same as a customer being helped, which is why Intercom cites an average resolution rate around 71 percent while independent reports place it between 42 and 50 percent. Same product, same customers, different definition.
When comparing vendors, always normalize to the effective cost per successful resolution: total spend divided by outcomes actually delivered. A $2.00 per-conversation rate at a 60 percent resolution rate is an effective $3.33 per resolution, with the failure risk on the buyer.
The fine print that moves the price
- What triggers the charge: customer confirmation, silence, a closed ticket status or an agent's own claim of success.
- The reopen window: how long a resolution must survive before it bills. The support-contract equivalent of a settlement period.
- Partial and complex resolutions: whether a hand-off to a human after substantial agent work bills, and at what rate.
Vendors increasingly compete on the strictness and auditability of these definitions rather than on the headline rate.
Related
Settlement period
A settlement period is the time a billing system waits after the latest event before a provisional outcome becomes final, absorbing reversals like reopened tickets.
Resolution layer
A resolution layer is the billing infrastructure that turns an AI agent's event stream into settled, auditable billable outcomes: evaluating conditions, managing settlement and preserving evidence.