Every AI agent competitor we checked bills usage twice: once for the platform, once for the AI running inside it. Chatbase, Voiceflow, Botpress, Tidio, Landbot, Intercom Fin: credits, resolutions, an add-on tier, a per-resolution fee that only shows up once you're already committed. BrainSite doesn't. AI is included in the price, at every paid tier.
What 'metering AI' actually looks like
Metering shows up in a few different shapes, but the pattern is the same: the base subscription buys the software, and a second, separate cost controls how much the AI inside it can actually do. Free tiers cap out fast. Paid tiers either meter by credit, bill AI usage separately from the seat price, or charge per resolution with no ceiling.
Six competitors, six versions of the same bill
| Company | How AI is metered |
|---|---|
| Chatbase | Free tier capped at 50 credits, and inactive agents on the free plan are deleted after 14 days. |
| Voiceflow | Free tier capped at 100 credits; the Business plan is priced per seat on top of that. |
| Botpress | AI usage has historically been billed separately from the base plan as "AI Spend." |
| Tidio | AI responses run through a separate Lyro add-on rather than being included in the base plan. |
| Landbot | AI-chat usage is billed as overages once you're past the included allotment. |
| Intercom Fin | $49/mo base plus $0.99 per AI resolution, with no cap, so the bill scales directly with usage volume. |
What BrainSite does instead
Growth is $49 a month, and "AI included" sits directly under the price, because it is. Persistent cross-session memory. A 0% transaction fee. Email reminders. CRM sync. All on the same flat price, no separate AI meter running underneath it.
Business is $99 a month. Flat. Flagship LLM routing, SMS reminders, API and MCP access, no volume cap.
Compare that to Intercom Fin: $49 a month base, then $0.99 for every resolution, with no ceiling. Run enough conversations through that and the per-resolution line alone can land in the tens of thousands per month, on top of the base fee. BrainSite Business is $99. That's the whole invoice.
The free tier isn't a trap either
Free is 50 completed seven-stage sales conversations a month, counted in finished runs, not raw messages. That's harder to blow through by accident than a per-message credit count.
No auto-delete. No idle expiration. Chatbase wipes an inactive free agent after 14 days; BrainSite doesn't.
The transaction fee is 3%, below Linktree's 12% and Beacons' 9% on their own free plans. And nobody's paying per seat here: Voiceflow, Tidio, and Intercom all charge extra per teammate.
AI is the core product here, not an add-on bolted onto a support widget. Meter it separately and you're pricing the core feature like a surcharge. Price it flat and you're pricing it for what it actually is.
