Intercom Fin vs Sierra (2026): AI Support Agents Compared

The short answer

• Choose Fin for small, mid size and most enterprise support teams, and for anyone who wants to compare costs before talking to sales.
• Choose Sierra for public sector, payments, healthcare and global consumer brands that treat the AI agent as a revenue and retention channel, not only deflection.

Pricing

Item	Intercom Fin	Sierra
Model	Outcome based	Outcome based
Published rate	$0.99 per outcome, $9.99 per qualification, $1.99 per voice outcome	None
What counts	Resolution (including assumed), procedure handoff, disqualification, routing	Agreed per contract: resolution, save, upsell, cross sell, purchase
Unresolved conversations	Request for a human not billed	In most cases not charged
Seats	Inside Intercom $29 to $132 per seat annual; none standalone	Not seat based
Minimum	50 outcomes a month standalone	Contracted
Trial	14 days, unlimited outcomes	Sales led

Break even math

At 20,000 conversations a month with 70% resolved, Fin standalone costs 14,000 x $0.99 = $13,860 a month. A Sierra quote beats that only if its rate per resolved conversation is under $0.99, or if outcomes you could not buy from Fin, such as saved cancellations or upsells, are worth the difference. Fin's qualification outcome at $9.99 is the nearest published comparison for sales outcomes. See the AI Price Index and Intercom Fin pricing.

The definitions matter as much as the rate. Fin counts assumed resolutions, where a customer leaves after an answer, unless frustration is detected. Sierra negotiates definitions per contract. In either case, get the verification rule in writing.

Models and features

Feature	Intercom Fin	Sierra
Building	Procedures, workflows, simulations	Ghostwriter builds from SOPs, transcripts, images and audio; Agent Studio; Agent SDK
Channels	Chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Slack, Instagram, Messenger, tickets; voice separately	Voice, web and app chat, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, SMS, email, ChatGPT apps
Languages	60+ languages and variants	58 languages; voice personas across 60+ locales
Models	Fin CX Model Suite including Fin Apex 2.0, multi provider failover	Constellation of frontier, open weight and proprietary models with failover
Long running journeys	Not a headline feature	Horizon multi day planning, Context Engine memory, proactive engagement
Payments	Not listed	PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider, cardholder data isolated from LLMs
Helpdesk	Full Intercom helpdesk, or standalone on others	None
Human assist	Copilot $29 to $35 per agent	Live Assist
Analytics	Intercom reporting	Explorer, Monitors, Experiments, Observability

Head to head scenarios

Support team of 30 on Zendesk

Winner: Fin. Standalone on Zendesk with no seat fees, a $49.50 floor and a trial. A Sierra deployment is a larger project for the same job.

Bank or insurer taking payments in the agent

Winner: Sierra. PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider certification with cardholder data kept off its LLMs and storage.

Federal or state agency

Winner: Sierra. It lists FedRAMP High. Fin's security page does not list FedRAMP.

Subscription brand fighting churn

Winner: Sierra. Saved cancellations and upsells can be contracted outcomes, and Horizon runs retention journeys over days or weeks.

Fast launch with proof before purchase

Winner: Fin. A 14 day trial with unlimited outcomes and no card. Sierra has no self serve trial.

Procurement that weighs public reviews

Winner: Fin. 4.5 on G2 from 3,925 reviews. Sierra has no public review base we could rate.

Privacy

Intercom lists SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001, 27018, 27701 and 42001 for Intercom and Fin, plus AIUC-1 for the Fin agent, and GDPR and CCPA compliance. Fin trains only on approved knowledge and procedures, may use anonymized customer data for fine tuning unless you opt out (deleted within 30 days), and third party AI providers keep zero data.

Sierra lists SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI, FedRAMP High, CCPA, CSA STAR, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001, uses your data only as you instruct, never shares it with other customers, and encrypts and masks PII automatically.

Both lists are strong. Sierra wins for government and payments; Fin wins for privacy specific certifications (ISO 27018 and 27701) and AI agent testing (AIUC-1).

Verdict

Fin wins for most buyers. It proves outcome based pricing can be public, cheap to start and backed by a full helpdesk and thousands of reviews. Sierra wins for large regulated enterprises and for brands that want to pay for retention and revenue outcomes, where its compliance list, payments infrastructure and long running agents justify a sales led contract. Benchmark any Sierra quote against $0.99. Read the Sierra review, the Intercom Fin review and Decagon vs Sierra.