Five Tiers, Zero Clarity

Tidio's pricing page looks simple enough. Free, Starter, Growth, Plus, and Premium. Pick one, start chatting. But the moment you want the AI to actually handle conversations for you, the pricing gets complicated.

The AI feature is called Lyro. It's Tidio's conversational AI that answers customer questions using your FAQ and knowledge base content. Lyro is where the value is. It's also where the hidden costs live.

The Plan Breakdown

The Free plan gives you 50 live chat conversations per month and 50 Lyro AI conversations total (a lifetime allowance, not monthly). For a business getting even 5 support messages a day, you'll burn through the free tier in 10 days. It's a trial, not a plan.

Starter at $29/month gives you 100 live chat conversations and 50 Lyro conversations. You read that right. Paying $29/month doesn't increase your AI conversations at all. You get the same 50 Lyro conversations as the free tier. What you're paying for is more live chat volume and the ability to remove Tidio branding.

Growth starts at $59/month and goes up to $349/month depending on conversation volume. You get more live chat conversations and 50 Lyro conversations included, with the option to buy more. The Lyro AI Agent add-on starts at $39/month for 100 conversations, scaling up from there (500 to 1,000 conversations runs $79 to $149/month). If you want serious AI volume, you're looking at the Growth plan plus significant add-on costs.

Plus starts at $749/month. This is the enterprise tier with custom Lyro limits, dedicated support, and a customer success manager. Premium starts at $2,999/month for the largest operations.

The Lyro Math

Let's say you want Lyro to handle 300 conversations per month. A reasonable number for a growing SaaS product.

On the Growth plan ($59/month), you get 50 Lyro conversations included. You need 250 more. Tidio sells Lyro add-ons in tiered bundles. The $39/month add-on gets you 100 conversations. Higher tiers run $79/month for 500 and $149/month for 1,000.

For 300 Lyro conversations, you'd likely need the 500-conversation Lyro tier at $79/month plus your Growth plan at $59/month. Total: roughly $138/month.

For 500 Lyro conversations, you're looking at $59 + $79 = $138/month.

For 1,000 conversations, that's $59 + $149 = $208/month. Beyond that, Tidio+ at $749/month with custom Lyro limits starts to make more sense.

What Supp Costs for the Same Volume

Supp charges $0.20 per classification and $0.30 per resolution with an action. No base plan. No seat fees.

300 resolutions with actions: 300 x $0.30 = $90/month. 500 resolutions: 500 x $0.30 = $150/month. 1,000 resolutions: 1,000 x $0.30 = $300/month.

At 300 conversations, you're saving about $48/month compared to Tidio Growth + Lyro add-ons. At 1,000, you save about $92/month compared to Tidio's best bundle pricing. The gap widens if you'd otherwise need the $749/month Tidio+ plan.

Where Tidio Shines

Tidio is a solid live chat tool. The chat widget looks good, the live typing preview is genuinely useful (you can see what customers are typing before they hit send), and the visitor tracking shows you who's on your site in real time.

If your primary need is live chat with humans and you want a sprinkle of AI on top, Tidio works well. The interface is friendly, the mobile app is decent, and the Shopify integration is tight.

The chatbot builder (separate from Lyro) lets you create visual conversation flows without code. These are rule-based, not AI-powered, but they're effective for common scenarios like "What are your shipping times?" or "Where's my order?" These don't count against your Lyro limit.

Where Tidio Falls Short

The 50-conversation Lyro cap on Starter is borderline insulting. You're paying $29/month and getting the same AI allowance as the free plan. That tells you Tidio sees Lyro as the premium upsell, not a core feature.

The per-conversation pricing for Lyro add-ons is opaque. You have to buy bundles, and the per-conversation cost varies by bundle size. It's hard to predict your monthly bill until you've been running for a few months and know your volume.

Lyro's quality depends heavily on your knowledge base. If your FAQ is thin, Lyro gives thin answers. It doesn't have the ability to take actions like processing refunds, creating tickets in external systems, or updating customer records. It answers questions from your docs. That's it.

There's no priority scoring. All conversations are treated equally. Your VIP customer with an urgent billing problem waits in the same queue as someone asking about your font choice.

The Seat Question

Tidio's Starter and Growth plans include a limited number of operator seats. Extra seats cost $29/month each. If you have a team of 5 support agents on the Growth plan, that's $59 + (2 extra seats x $29) = $117/month before any Lyro costs.

Supp doesn't charge for seats. Your entire team gets dashboard access, analytics, conversation history, and CSV/JSON export. The bill is purely based on message volume.

Who Tidio Is Best For

Small e-commerce stores on Shopify that want a good-looking chat widget, some basic chatbot flows, and light AI assistance. If you get under 50 support messages a month and want live chat with a human-first approach, Tidio's free plan or Starter plan is fine.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

If AI automation is your primary goal, if you want the AI to classify messages and take actions (not just answer FAQs), or if you're processing more than 200 support messages a month, the Lyro pricing model works against you. You'll pay more per AI conversation than alternatives built around automation from the start.

At 500+ monthly conversations, the cost difference between Tidio and a pay-per-use tool like Supp is significant enough to affect your quarterly budget.