A practical guide to Intercom Articles and AI in 2025

We've all been there: your business is growing, which is great, but so is the mountain of customer questions. Trying to keep up with support volume without letting the quality of your service drop is a tough balancing act. A good knowledge base is usually the first step, letting customers find their own answers and giving your team a single source of truth.

This guide is all about using a knowledge base for customer support, and we're going to zero in on Intercom Articles. We’ll break down how they work and what they're good for.

But a library of articles is just one piece of the puzzle. The real goal is to use AI to make that knowledge useful. We'll look at how Intercom's own tools handle this, and then dive into a more flexible and budget-friendly way to get your support automation humming.

What are Intercom Articles?

Intercom Articles is the knowledge base feature that's built right into Intercom. Think of it as your company’s help center, designed to be the main spot for answers for both your customers and your support agents. Its primary job is to house all your self-service content, from troubleshooting guides to pricing questions.

You can use it to write, organize, and publish articles that are easy to find. Since it's part of the Intercom world, these articles pop up in the Intercom Messenger (that little chat widget on your site) and are right at your agents' fingertips in their Inbox.

It's really made for businesses already using Intercom for chats and emails who want a simple way to add a help center without complicating their tech stack.

A screenshot of the Intercom knowledge base interface, showing how users can organize and manage their Intercom Articles.

How Intercom Articles work for customer support

Intercom Articles are set up to do two things at once: help customers solve their own problems and make your support agents' lives easier.

How Intercom Articles help customers help themselves

The number one goal of any knowledge base is to head off support tickets by letting customers find answers on their own. Intercom tries to do this in a few ways:

• Easy access in the Messenger: Customers can search for articles directly from the chat widget on your site. Often, they can find what they need without ever having to start a conversation with a person.

• AI-powered suggestions: Fin, Intercom’s AI agent, can suggest relevant articles when a customer asks a question. It acts as the first point of contact to try and resolve issues right away.

• A public help center: You can also publish your articles to a public website. This lets customers (and Google) find your content anytime they need it.

A view of the Intercom Messenger chat widget on a website, where customers can search for Intercom Articles to self-serve.

Giving your agents a hand with Intercom Articles

Your knowledge base is just as important for your internal team. It makes sure everyone is on the same page and giving out the same, correct information.

• Right in the Inbox: Agents can search for and pop articles directly into their replies without leaving the Intercom Inbox. This saves a ton of time on typing out the same answers again and again.

• A great training tool: For new hires, the collection of articles is basically a training manual. For your veteran agents, it’s a handy quick-reference for those tricky or less common questions.

An agent's view of the Intercom Inbox, where they can easily access and insert Intercom Articles into their replies.

The big limitations of native Intercom Articles

While having an all-in-one tool sounds nice, relying only on a native knowledge base like Intercom Articles comes with some real headaches, especially once you start depending on AI.

Why Intercom Articles can't access scattered knowledge

Let's be honest, your company’s real knowledge base isn't just in those nicely polished help articles. It's spread out all over the place: in detailed Google Docs, technical specs on Confluence, project plans in Notion, and, maybe most importantly, in the thousands of past support tickets your team has already handled.

An AI that's native to one platform, like Intercom's, can only see what's inside its own little world. It can't tap into all that other crucial information. This means it can only answer the most basic, pre-written questions. The second a question gets a little more specific, the AI gives up and escalates the ticket, which is frustrating for everyone. A better way to go is using a platform like eesel AI that connects all your knowledge sources. This gives your AI a full picture of your business, so it can give answers that are actually helpful.

A workflow diagram illustrating how a native AI is limited to Intercom Articles, while a third-party AI can access scattered knowledge from multiple sources.

Creating Intercom Articles manually is a drag

Figuring out what to write for your help center often feels like a guessing game. You have to spot trends in support tickets, then get someone to write, edit, and publish an article. It’s a slow, reactive process that means you’re always playing catch-up with your customers' questions.

Instead of that manual grind, what if an AI could help you build your knowledge base? eesel AI can look at your successfully resolved tickets and automatically draft new articles based on the solutions that actually worked. This helps you fill in the gaps with content you already know is effective, saving your team from hours of writing.

The unpredictable AI pricing when using Intercom Articles

This is the biggest problem with a lot of built-in AI tools. Intercom's AI agent, Fin, runs on a pay-per-resolution model. That means you pay $0.99 for every single conversation it resolves.

That might not sound like a lot at first. But what about a busy month? A new feature release or a small bug could send your support volume through the roof, and suddenly your AI bill is hundreds or thousands of dollars more than you planned for. This model basically punishes you for growth and makes it impossible to forecast your budget. It’s a common issue with per-resolution pricing, creating a financial wild card that gets bigger as you do.

A closer look at Intercom's pricing for AI and Intercom Articles

To really get what Intercom's AI will cost you, you have to look past that per-resolution fee. The total cost is a mix of required agent seats and these variable, usage-based fees.

First off, every team has to sign up for a base plan, which you pay for per agent. Then, on top of that, you pay for every AI resolution and any other add-ons you want.

Here’s a rough breakdown of what you’re looking at:

Cost Component	Price (Billed Annually)	Notes
Seat License	$29 - $132 /seat/month	This is required to even use the platform. Plans are Essential, Advanced, or Expert.
Fin AI Agent	$0.99 /resolution	This is the variable cost that changes based on every conversation the AI closes.
Copilot	$29 /agent/month	An optional add-on for agent assistance with unlimited use.
Proactive Support Plus	$99 /month	An optional add-on for running outbound messages and product tours.

So, what’s the bottom line? Your monthly bill is going to be a bit of a moving target. It’s a blend of fixed costs for your team and a completely variable cost tied to how many questions your customers have.

A better way to use your Intercom Articles and knowledge

Instead of getting locked into one vendor's pricey and limited AI, you can use a flexible AI layer that connects directly to the tools you already have, including Intercom. This gives you the benefits of modern AI without forcing you to change how you work or accept a painful pricing model.

Connect to everything, not just Intercom Articles

Your team's collective brain lives in more places than just your Intercom Articles. eesel AI connects to over 100 sources, including Google Docs, Confluence, past tickets, and internal wikis. This gives your AI agent a complete view of your business, so it can answer tricky, specific questions with confidence. You don't have to spend months moving content over; you just connect your sources and let the AI do its thing.

See your results before you launch

Rolling out a new AI tool can feel like a bit of a gamble. Will it actually work? How many tickets will it really solve? With eesel AI, you can find out ahead of time. The simulation mode lets you test the AI on thousands of your past Intercom tickets in a safe environment. You get a clear forecast of your automation rate and cost savings before you turn it on for customers. Best of all, the setup is self-serve, so you can get going in minutes without having to talk to a salesperson.

Get predictable pricing that uses your Intercom Articles

Budgeting for support shouldn't feel like rolling the dice. Unlike Intercom's pay-per-answer model, eesel AI offers plans with a set number of AI interactions and zero per-resolution fees. Your bill is predictable, month in and month out. You can handle a flood of customer questions without dreading a surprise invoice. This makes financial planning straightforward and fair, letting you scale support without your costs spiraling out of control.

You decide what the AI handles

Going all-in on AI from day one can be a little nerve-wracking. With eesel AI’s workflow engine, you don't have to. You get fine-grained control to decide exactly which kinds of tickets the AI should manage. You can start small with common questions and automatically send more complex issues to a human agent. As you get more comfortable with the AI's performance, you can gradually let it handle more.

A screenshot of a visual workflow builder, illustrating how teams can control which tickets the AI handles versus those sent to human agents, connecting to your Intercom Articles.

Your Intercom Articles are just the start

Having a well-kept library of Intercom Articles is a fantastic starting point for any support team. But to really get the most out of it and build a support system that can grow with you, you need an intelligent layer that's more capable and flexible than a built-in solution.

The headaches of scattered knowledge, the slow pace of writing content by hand, and the sting of unpredictable pricing can really hold you back. eesel AI is built to solve these exact problems by working with your existing tools, pulling together all your company knowledge, and offering a clear, predictable return. It's a smarter way to build a top-notch support experience without the usual frustrations.

Ready to get more out of your Intercom support? Try eesel AI for free and see how much you can automate in just a few minutes.