HHugo by Crisp

Hugo by Crisp, an AI Agent Priced in Dollars of Credit

Hugo answered its first customers around February 10, 2026, when Crisp switched it on for paid plans and it climbed to the top of Product Hunt. Every paid Crisp workspace now carries a monthly Hugo allowance in dollars: $5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials and $75 on Plus. Crisp’s own help center puts the average cost of one full AI-handled conversation at $0.05 to $0.10.

That pricing makes Hugo one of the cheaper ways for a small support team to try an AI agent, since the entry plan is $45 a month for four seats. The trade-off sits in the billing rules: Hugo stops answering when credits run out unless you switch on pay-as-you-go, and testing in the Playground spends the same credits as live chats. Hugo scores 9.0 out of 10 on our scale, helped by clear pricing and strong user ratings for Crisp.

Hugo From Launch Day to Today

We pulled together the dated milestones and the figures Crisp publishes about Hugo’s plans and billing. Each row links to where the fact appears.

The credit figures are what matter most for a buyer. Crisp’s conversion of $25 into about 450 conversations works out to roughly 5.6 cents each, at the low end of its own $0.05 to $0.10 range. A team with short, factual questions should land near that number. Teams with long troubleshooting threads should budget toward the top of the range.

The 2019 Product Hunt listing shows that Crisp has a long record with the same community that pushed Hugo to the top in 2026. It also means Hugo arrived inside an inbox many small teams already used, so most buyers will meet it as an upgrade to a tool they know.

What Hugo Does With a Customer Conversation

Hugo works inside the Crisp inbox. You give it knowledge sources and written instructions, and it takes the first reply on new conversations across the channels your plan includes.

Training Hugo on Your Own Material

Crisp’s AI knowledge training ingests internal data such as help articles and product documents. Crisp advises keeping knowledge sources short and focused, partly for answer quality and partly because large sources raise the token count on every reply.

Answering, Routing and Escalating

For each conversation Hugo either resolves it, routes it to the right team or escalates it to a human operator. Crisp’s billing counts the whole span from the first AI message to that outcome as one Hugo conversation, so billing is per conversation.

Acting in Other Tools

On the Plus plan, unlimited task automations connect the agent to third-party tools, and Crisp documents MCP integrations for Hugo. This is where Hugo moves from answering to doing, for example looking something up in another system before replying. Teams on Mini or Essentials get the answering and routing side.

Running Next to Workflows

Hugo can run alongside Crisp workflows, and workflows do not consume Hugo credits. A common pattern is to keep fixed flows, such as collecting an order number, as workflows and let Hugo handle open questions. You can switch Hugo off under AI Agent, Agent, Activation at any time.

Languages and Channels

Crisp translates messages into more than 50 languages on any channel. From Essentials, the omnichannel inbox brings WhatsApp Business, Instagram DMs, SMS, Line and Viber into the same place Hugo works.

What Capterra Reviewers Say About Crisp and Its AI

Crisp holds 4.6 out of 5 from 148 Capterra reviews. Reviewers praise the quick rollout, a helpful support team, the Slack integration and live translation. One says the AI handles routine queries and has cut their query volume by about 40 percent, with the figure still rising.

The complaints are specific. One reviewer found the AI bot difficult to set up workflows for. Others mention prices that rise past about 5,000 user profiles, separate packages for each workspace, search that misses exact matches such as order IDs, and analytics exports that only show top-line numbers. None of these block a trial, but the search and reporting points matter for teams that live in their metrics.

A First Week With Hugo in a Crisp Workspace

Crisp’s help center lays out where each Hugo setting lives. Put together, a sensible first week looks like this.

• Day 1. Start the 14-day trial or open an existing paid workspace. Hugo is included by default, and you can check its status under AI Agent, Agent, Activation.
• Day 1 to 2. Add knowledge sources. Keep them short and focused: your top help articles, shipping or billing policies, and product facts. Write instructions on tone and on when to hand over.
• Day 2 to 3. Test in the Playground with real questions from last month’s inbox. Remember that this testing uses credits.
• Day 3. Pick the AI model. A less expensive model is fine for factual questions, and Crisp names model choice as one of the cost drivers.
• Day 4. Decide on pay-as-you-go. If you enable it, set a monthly billing limit under AI Agent, Billing, Pay As You Go.
• Day 5 to 7. Watch the balance under AI Agent, Agent, Billing and read a sample of escalated conversations to see where the knowledge sources fall short.

By the end of the week you should know two numbers: how many conversations Hugo closed without a person, and what each one cost. Those two numbers decide whether to widen Hugo to more channels.

Crisp Plans and the Hugo Credit Math

Crisp charges per workspace. These are the published plans.

Three Crisp Workspaces Priced Out

We used Crisp’s $0.05 to $0.10 per conversation estimate and its included credits to work out a monthly bill. Your real cost depends on message length, model choice and knowledge size.

In the middle case, Hugo adds $50 to $125 to a $95 plan. If Hugo resolves even a third of those 1,500 conversations without a person, that is 500 replies your team did not write. Choosing a cheaper AI model in Hugo’s settings is the main lever Crisp offers to bring the per-conversation figure down.

Hugo Against Lyro, Fin and the Gorgias AI Agent

We set Hugo next to three AI support agents already listed on our site, using their published entry prices.

The gap in cost per conversation is wide. At Crisp’s estimate, 1,000 Hugo conversations cost $50 to $100 in credits. The same number of Fin resolutions would cost $990, though Fin only bills when it resolves. The fair comparison depends on your resolution rate, which you can measure during Crisp’s 14-day trial. More options sit on our customer support agents page.

Support Teams Hugo Suits

Hugo fits teams of 2 to 25 people who answer chat, email and messaging apps from one inbox and want to try an AI agent without a separate contract. Startups selling software, online shops and agencies handling client support are the obvious users. The included credits mean a Mini or Essentials workspace can run Hugo for a month before any extra charge.

It also suits teams that serve customers in several countries. Translation into more than 50 languages, plus Line and Viber on Essentials, covers channels that many US-centric tools leave to add-ons. If your team already uses Slack heavily, Crisp’s Slack integration was singled out by Capterra reviewers.

Teams That May Want to Wait on Hugo

Large contact centers may find Hugo light on governance controls and voice handling, which Crisp’s plan pages do not center on. A team whose main channel is the phone will want a voice agent; our voice agents list covers those.

Teams that need the agent to change orders, issue refunds or update records on every plan may also want to wait, since task automations that connect to outside tools sit on the $295 Plus plan. Shopify-first stores with heavy order traffic may prefer an agent built around Shopify actions.

Finally, a business whose customer list will pass the 50,000 or 200,000 profile caps soon should price the next plan before committing. One Capterra reviewer said costs climbed quickly past about 5,000 profiles.

Credit Cutoffs, Training Costs and Other Hugo Details to Plan For

Three billing rules deserve a line in your rollout plan.

• The hard stop. Pay-as-you-go is off by default. When included credits run out, Hugo stops answering and new conversations go to human operators until credits reset or usage is enabled. Turn it on in AI Agent, Billing, Pay As You Go, and set a limit.
• Training and testing. Playground sessions, training runs and trial use all draw on credits. Budget a few dollars for setup in the first month.
• Trial limits. Pay-as-you-go may be unavailable during the trial, so a heavy test can use up trial credits before you see a full month of traffic.

Credits can take one to two hours to appear after a charge is processed, so a top-up during a busy morning will not act at once. Credits reset on the 4th of each month, which is worth knowing if your peak falls at month end.

On the product side, Crisp lists MagicReply as deprecated. Teams moving from MagicReply blocks should follow Crisp’s migration guide, since those blocks keep their old behavior.

Hugo Earns Its Score on Price and Ratings

Hugo earns 9.0 out of 10 on our scale. Pricing value is its best criterion, since every price is published, credits are included and Crisp states its own per-conversation estimate. User sentiment for Crisp is high. Autonomy and integrations score lower because the deeper tool actions sit on the Plus plan.

For a small team on Crisp, turning Hugo on is low risk: start on the included credits, set a pay-as-you-go limit, and compare its resolution rate against the cost per conversation after two or three weeks.

Questions Crisp Customers Ask About Hugo

Does Hugo Cost Extra on Top of a Crisp Plan?

Hugo is included from the Mini plan with monthly credits. You pay extra only if you enable pay-as-you-go and go past the included amount. The Free plan has no Hugo credits.

How Many Conversations Will My Hugo Credits Cover?

Crisp’s pricing page puts Mini at about 90, Essentials at about 450 and Plus at about 1,350 automated conversations a month. Long or complex conversations use more.

What Happens to Customers When Hugo Runs Out of Credits?

New conversations go to your human operators until credits reset or you enable pay-as-you-go. Customers still reach your team.

Can Hugo Take Actions in My Other Tools?

Crisp documents MCP integrations for Hugo, and the Plus plan adds unlimited task automations that connect the agent to third-party tools.

Is Hugo a Better Fit Than Lyro or Fin for a Small Team?

On price per conversation, Hugo is lower than Fin’s $0.99 per outcome. Lyro’s $39 entry plan is close to Crisp Mini. The better pick depends on which inbox your team prefers and how many conversations each agent resolves in a trial.