Automated resolutions are the unit of measurement used for calculating and billing your account for AI agent usage.
Paying per automated resolution means that you pay only for customer requests that were successfully resolved by the AI agent, without any escalation to a human agent. Conversations flagged as resolved are also verified by a large language model (LLM), ensuring its accuracy and delivering a true automation rate.
Zendesk provides tools for monitoring and managing your automated resolution usage.
This article contains the following sections:
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Understanding how automated resolutions are measured
An automated resolution is counted when a customer’s issue is successfully resolved without live-agent intervention. Automated resolutions are counted per conversation rather than per user. A single user’s visits over multiple channels, browsers, or devices will be considered separate interactions.
There are differences in how and when an issue is deemed resolved, depending on the channel used. This section explains these differences so you can better understand your usage.
- Automated resolutions in AI agents for messaging
- Automated resolutions in advanced AI agents
- Automated resolutions in autoreplies with articles
- Automated resolutions in autoreplies based on intelligent triage
- Automated resolutions in Web Widget (Classic)
- Actions that don’t contribute to automated resolution calculations
Automated resolutions in AI agents for messaging
Automated resolutions are calculated in an AI agent for messaging deployed on a messaging Web Widget, a mobile SDK, and on a third-party messaging channel such as Facebook Messenger, X Direct Message, Instagram Direct, LINE, or WhatsApp.
An automated resolution is counted after 72 hours of inactivity if AI evaluation has confirmed that the AI agent’s response was relevant and the last interaction was one of the following:
- The end user provided positive feedback (“Yes, problem solved”)
- If no feedback is provided, the conversation will be evaluated using AI
- The AI agent shared help center articles in response to the end user’s request:
- If articles were shared using Article Recommendation or an article step in an answer flow, the end user must have clicked on at least one article link.
- If articles were shared in a generative reply, the end user doesn’t have to click on an article for an automated resolution to be counted.
- The end user reached the final step in an answer flow.
The end user is anyone who makes a request and interacts with the AI agent (referred to as a "bot" in the flowchart below).
Automated resolutions in advanced AI agents
If you have the AI agents - Advanced add-on, automated resolutions apply to both chat and ticket AI agents, and are calculated using the following logic:
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For chat AI agents: An automated resolution is consumed for any conversation that is considered AI agent-Handled and passes the verification performed by our LLM.
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For ticket AI agents: An automated resolution is consumed for any conversation that is considered Answered (because a reply was sent) and passes verification performed by our LLM. Adding actions or internal notes only does not consume an automated resolution.
The verification process performed by the LLM evaluates the text of the conversation to ensure that the customer’s request was actually satisfactorily resolved without human-agent intervention. Conversations that don’t pass this verification are not considered automated and do not consume an automated resolution.
Automated resolutions are evaluated at the end of the conversation session duration, which is configurable for a chat AI agent and 72 hours after the arrival of the first message for a ticket AI agent.
Only conversations with the AI agent-Handled or Answered status are evaluated for automated resolutions. All escalations change the status of a conversation to something other than AI agent-Handled or Answered. This means that as soon as a conversation is escalated to a human agent, it can no longer be counted as an automated resolution.
Automated resolutions in autoreplies with articles
If you’re using autoreplies with articles, an automated resolution is counted in either of the following situations:
- An article is suggested to the user, and the user clicks “Yes, close my request” in:
- A feedback prompt on the article page opened via the email notification or web form.
- A feedback prompt embedded in the email notification or web form.
- An article is suggested to the user, and within 72 hours, the user clicks on the suggested article link and
- The ticket status is marked solved before any user or public agent reply or
- No user or public agent reply has been added to the ticket.
Automated resolutions in autoreplies based on intelligent triage
- An autoreply is added to a ticket using a trigger based on an intelligent triage condition.
- No user or public agent reply has been added to the ticket in 72 hours.
Automated resolutions in Web Widget (Classic)
If you’re using Web Widget (Classic) to deliver article recommendations to your end users, an automated resolution is counted when the AI agent has suggested at least one article via Article Recommendations and the end user has clicked on at least one article preview link or provided positive feedback “Yes, problem solved”.
The conversation is considered unresolved if:
- The user initiated a live chat
- The user submitted a contact form
- The user requested a callback
- The user provided negative feedback (“No, I still need help”)
- The AI agent (referred to as a “bot” in the flowchart below) didn’t understand the request
In the Web Widget (Classic), a session ends after 72 hours of inactivity or when the end user closes the browser or tab.
Actions that don’t contribute to automated resolution calculations
Understanding the default allocation of automated resolutions per plan
All Zendesk Suite and Support plans include a baseline number of automated resolutions based on your plan type. You can increase the number of automated resolutions to avoid exceeding your allotted amount, orpause the AI agent functionality when you reach your limit in order to prevent overage.
If you want to ensure your account isn't consuming any automated resolutions, you can turn off all capabilities related to AI agents.
Default automated resolution allocation per plan
Most Zendesk usage plans include a number of automated resolutions. If you’re not part of a Suite or Support plan or find that your plan doesn’t provide enough automated resolutions, you will be able to purchase more as needed.
The following table shows how many automated resolutions are included in each plan. Light agents are not included in the default allocation calculation. Accounts on all plans have a maximum of 10,000 allocated automated resolutions per year, applied after the new pricing plan takes effect. If you need more automated resolutions, you can add them to your account.
| Plan | Zendesk Suite | Support (standalone) |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 15 automated resolutions/agent/month | 15 automated resolutions/agent/month |
|
Professional Growth |
10 automated resolutions/agent/month | 10 automated resolutions/agent/month |
| Team | 5 automated resolutions/agent/month | 5 automated resolutions/agent/month |
Your allocation of automated resolutions expires annually or at the end of your subscription term (if less than a year) unless you are on a non-standard subscription term.
Adding automated resolutions to your account
You can increase the number of automated resolutions to avoid exceeding your allotted amount. Using more than your allotted resolutions can result in overage charges.
You can add to your automated resolution allotment by purchasing 100 or more automated resolutions ahead of time. Also called committed usage, this approach allows you to raise the maximum number of automated resolutions available to you in advance. Committed usage provides a better per-resolution cost than overage billing (or pay-as-you-go).
If you choose an overage billing (or pay-as-you-go) approach to automated resolutions management, the cost per automated resolution over your allotment will be greater than the cost per automated resolution when you buy a fixed number to increase your allotment. You can prevent overage billing by limiting the number of automated resolutions available in your account each month. Overage is billed monthly, regardless of your subscription terms.
Avoiding automated resolution overages
You can choose how your account responds when you reach your automated resolution limit.
For more information, see Maintaining or pausing functionality when you reach your automated resolution limit.
Monitoring automated resolution usage
There are a few ways you can monitor automated resolution usage:
Viewing the Automated resolution dashboard
The Automated resolutions dashboard provides a look into how many automated resolutions you’re using. You can view this dashboard in Admin Center (Account > Usage > Automated resolutions).For more information, see Viewing automated resolution usage in the dashboard.
Monitoring automated resolutions at the conversation level (AI agents - advanced)
At the conversation level, automated resolutions are indicated in the Conversation Logs.In the Conversation Logs, an automated resolution icon (
) is added to any conversation that consumes an automated resolution according to the logic described above.
Additionally, you can drill into a specific conversation to see an explanation of the automated resolution verification.
To view a conversation’s automated resolution verification details
- In the main menu, select Conversation Logs.
- From the list, select a conversation with the automated resolution icon ().
- Click Details.In the Conversation Overview panel that opens on the right, the Automated resolution section includes an explanation of why the conversation is considered to be verified.
Monitoring automated resolutions at the account level (AI agents - advanced)
At the account level, automated resolutions are reported in the Performance Overview Dashboard.
The Performance Overview Dashboard includes an Automated Resolutions Rate report that shows your automated resolutions usage at the account level. For details, see Analyzing AI Agents with the Performance Overview Dashboard.
Viewing automated resolution usage banners
In Admin Center, overage warning banners notify you when you’ve used 80% of your automated resolutions, and will be updated when you’ve used 100%. Banners will include basic information about what happens when you reach your limit based on your automated resolution overage setting.
You can't dismiss these banners and they will remain visible in Admin Center until automated resolutions are again available for your account when your billing cycle resets or you purchase additional automated resolutions.
Overage warning banners appear on relevant Admin Center pages, including:
- The parent AI agents page, as well as the following child pages:
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AI agents for messaging
- AI agents for email and webform
- AI agents - advanced
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- The Web Widget (Classic) page
- The Automated resolution dashboard
If you choose to pause AI agents when you reach your automated resolution limit, notifications will appear on the admin pages for each of the paused capabilities.
Additionally, your account billing admin will be notified directly when your account nears its automated resolution limit, and again when it reaches that limit.
Finding more information
If you have feedback or questions related to AI agents, visit our community forum where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact Zendesk Customer Support.