Intercom SSO: A complete guide to setup and pricing in 2025

If you're managing a support team, you know the drill. Your agents are switching between a dozen different apps, dealing with a constant stream of tickets, and trying to keep customers happy. The last thing anyone needs is another password to forget or a login screen that gets in the way. On top of that, you've got to make sure your customer data is kept safe and sound.

This is where Single Sign-On (SSO) usually enters the conversation. It’s a pretty standard feature for managing team access securely. But when you look at SSO for Intercom, you'll find it isn't as simple as flipping a switch.

This guide will walk you through what Intercom SSO actually is, how you get it working, and the big benefits and limitations you need to know about. We'll also explore a more modern way to boost your security and make your team more efficient, without getting cornered into an expensive, all-or-nothing upgrade.

What is Intercom SSO?

The idea behind Single Sign-On (SSO) is pretty straightforward: let your team log into all their work apps with just one username and password. Instead of having separate logins for the helpdesk, CRM, and Slack, they just sign in once to a central system, and they’re good to go.

Intercom’s SSO feature runs on something called SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). You don't need to be an expert on it, but basically, it's the standard, secure way for your company's main login system (like Okta, Google Workspace, or OneLogin) to tell Intercom, "Yep, this person is who they say they are, let them in."

When a support agent tries to log in, Intercom sends them over to your company's login page. Once they're verified, the system sends a secure digital thumbs-up back to Intercom, and they're in. The goal is to give you one central place to manage who has access, cut down on password headaches, and just make life a little smoother for your team.

How Intercom SSO works: An overview of the setup process

So, how do you actually get this set up? Full disclosure: it's not a one-click process. It's totally doable, but it's a technical task that usually turns into a mini-project for your Intercom admin and your IT folks. Let's walk through the steps so you know what you're getting into.

The key players in the Intercom SSO setup

There are three parts to any SAML SSO setup:

• The Identity Provider (IdP): This is your company's source of truth for who's on the team. It’s the system you use to manage employee accounts, like Okta, OneLogin, or Google Workspace.

• The Service Provider (SP): This is the app your team wants to get into. In our case, Intercom is the service provider.

• The SAML Assertion: You can think of this as a secure digital ticket. After your IdP confirms an agent's identity, it generates this encrypted token and passes it to Intercom to grant them access for the session.

The step-by-step Intercom SSO configuration

Here’s a general idea of what the setup looks like, based on Intercom's own documentation.

1. Set things up in your Identity Provider: First, you'll need to go into your IdP's dashboard (like Okta) and add Intercom as a new application. You’ll need to plug in some specific info that Intercom provides. In return, your IdP will give you a special login URL and a security certificate.

2. Configure Intercom: Now, you'll take that URL and certificate over to your Intercom security settings. You'll switch on SAML SSO and paste the details in the right fields to connect the two systems.

3. Verify your domain: Intercom needs to make sure you actually own the email domain you're setting this up for (like yourcompany.com). To prove it, you have to add a specific TXT record to your company's DNS settings. This is often where things slow down, since the person setting up Intercom might not have access to DNS and will need to file a ticket with the IT team.

4. Test it out and go live: Once everything is hooked up and your domain is verified, you can run a test to make sure the login works as expected. If it's all good, you can enforce SSO for your entire team.

Key features and limitations of Intercom SSO

After going through all that, is it worth it? For a lot of companies, the answer is yes. But it’s really important to know what you’re getting, and what you’re not.

Intercom SSO benefits: Better security and easier management

• One place to manage access: Your IT team can now control who gets into Intercom right from your main user directory. When a new agent joins the company, they get access to Intercom automatically. When they leave, their access is shut off from that same central spot, which is a huge security win.

• Fewer passwords, fewer problems: Agents won't need a separate password for Intercom anymore. This gets rid of the risk of people using weak or reused passwords, which is how a lot of security breaches start.

• Automatic account creation: With Just-in-Time (JIT) provisioning, an Intercom account is created automatically the first time a new team member logs in with SSO. Intercom also supports a more advanced protocol called SCIM for automating user management.

The Intercom SSO limitations to keep in mind

• The automation isn't fully automatic: This is a big one. While Intercom supports SCIM for user provisioning, it has some serious gaps. For example, you can't automatically assign user roles or add new people to specific teams. This means an admin still has to log into Intercom and manually finish configuring every new agent's account, which kind of defeats the purpose of the automation in the first place.

• The setup takes time and coordination: As we covered, this isn't a simple toggle you can flip. It involves technical steps across different systems and requires you to loop in your IT team for things like DNS records.

• It only solves one problem: Intercom SSO does a great job of securing who can access the platform. But it does absolutely nothing to make the actual support work inside Intercom any faster or more secure. It’s a tool for authentication, not for automation.

This is where you might start to think differently. Instead of just focusing on the login, platforms like eesel AI plug directly into your helpdesk. They inherit the security you already have, so you can skip the complicated setup and focus on what really matters: automating the work itself.

Intercom SSO pricing: What you'll actually pay

Alright, let's get to the part you’ve probably been waiting for: the price. This is where the story of Intercom SSO gets complicated. It isn't included in every plan. In fact, Intercom keeps it locked away in their most expensive tier.

According to Intercom's pricing page, SAML SSO is only available on the Expert plan. This has a pretty big impact on your budget.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features Included	SAML SSO
Essential	$29/seat/mo + $0.99/Fin resolution	Basic Helpdesk, Shared Inbox, Fin AI Agent	❌ No
Advanced	$85/seat/mo + $0.99/Fin resolution	Everything in Essential + Workflows, Private Help Center	❌ No
Expert	$132/seat/mo + $0.99/Fin resolution	Everything in Advanced + SLAs, Multibrand, HIPAA	✅ Yes

So, to get a standard security feature like SSO, you have to upgrade your entire team to a plan that costs $132 per agent every month, not including the variable cost of AI resolutions. For a 10-person team, you're looking at over $15,000 a year just for the base plan.

Putting essential security features behind the most expensive paywall is an old-school way of doing things. Modern tools should be secure from the start, not force you into a huge upgrade for something that should be standard.

This is where a tool like eesel AI offers a much more sensible approach. It works with your current Intercom plan, whether that's Essential or Advanced. You get powerful AI automation without being forced to pay for a top-tier plan just for SSO. Plus, eesel AI’s transparent, predictable pricing is a breath of fresh air compared to Intercom's unpredictable per-resolution model.

The better Intercom SSO alternative: Enhancing Intercom with an integrated AI layer

Instead of jumping to a pricey, all-in-one plan just to get one feature, there's another way to think about this. You can add a smart AI layer that works with the tools you already have.

Go live in minutes, not days

The drawn-out, multi-team project to set up Intercom SSO can easily take a week or more to complete. By contrast, eesel AI is designed to be self-serve and simple. You can connect your helpdesk in a couple of clicks, no developer time or IT tickets needed. You can have a fully functioning AI agent ready to go in the time it takes to grab a coffee.

Get powerful automation without replacing your tools

Intercom's model is built to pull you deeper into their world, with costs rising at every step. To get SSO, you upgrade. To get better automation, you use their tools. eesel AI is built differently. It's designed to play nicely with what you've already got, including your existing Intercom setup. You can keep the helpdesk your team is used to while adding an AI Agent for frontline support, an AI Copilot to help agents find answers faster, and AI Triage to organize your inbox.

A view of the Intercom interface with an AI Copilot in the sidebar, demonstrating an alternative to native Intercom SSO limitations.

Transparent pricing that makes sense

Let's look at the costs side-by-side. To get SSO with Intercom, you’re pushed into their most expensive plan. With eesel AI, you get a whole suite of AI tools that works with your current plan, often for much less.

Feature	Intercom (Expert Plan)	eesel AI (Business Plan)
SAML SSO	✅ Yes, but requires most expensive plan	Inherits from your existing helpdesk
Cost	$132/seat/mo	Starts at $639/mo for the whole team
AI Pricing	$0.99 per resolution (unpredictable)	Fixed monthly fee (predictable)
Setup	Multi-step technical configuration	Self-serve, go live in minutes
Flexibility	Locked into Intercom ecosystem	Works with Intercom and 100+ other tools

The difference is pretty clear. You can pay a lot more for a single security feature and get locked into one platform, or you can add a flexible AI layer that makes your whole support operation more efficient for a predictable price.

Move beyond Intercom SSO logins and start automating

Look, there's no doubt that Intercom SSO is a solid security feature for managing your team. But it's stuck behind a hefty paywall and the setup isn't exactly a walk in the park.

Besides, just managing logins is only one small piece of the puzzle. The real wins for your support team come from automating the day-to-day grind that eats up so much of their time.

That’s what eesel AI is all about. It’s a smarter way to work, letting you use the tools and security you already have while adding a powerful and affordable AI layer on top. Instead of overpaying for basic features, you can invest in automation that actually improves things for both your agents and your customers.

CTA

Ready to see how easy it is to add powerful automation to your existing Intercom setup? Start your free eesel AI trial and go live in minutes.

---