AI Summary
About
Cresta is an enterprise contact-center AI platform that unifies human and AI agents for customer experience. It was co-founded by Zayd Enam, Sebastian Thrun and Tim Shi and is led by CEO Ping Wu. Its products span the contact center:
- AI Agent — an autonomous voice/digital agent that resolves customer conversations end to end.
- Agent Assist — real-time AI guidance, knowledge suggestions and next-best-action for live human agents.
- Conversation Intelligence — analyzes conversations to surface insights and revenue opportunities.
- Quality Management (Cresta QA) — automated QA scoring across contact-center conversations.
Cresta targets the world’s largest enterprises (Fortune 500) in financial services, travel & hospitality, insurance, healthcare and telecom. It is valued at roughly 1.6B USD, has raised about 276M USD across five rounds (including a 125M USD Series D in late 2024), and reported around 52M USD ARR in 2025.
For the most current information, visit Cresta.
Pricing summary : How Cresta’s pricing model works
Cresta is sales-only — there is no public price list. Every call-to-action on the site is “Get a demo.” The documented commercial structure (from press and third-party analysis) is a per-agent-seat subscription layered with feature tiers, sold on annual enterprise contracts. Pricing scales primarily with the number of contact-center agent seats using the platform, and grows further through feature upsells (adding AI Agent, advanced analytics, QA).
Cresta’s heritage is agent-assist — software that makes human agents better in real time — so its pricing tracks the traditional seat-based logic of the contact-center software market rather than the per-resolution model of newer AI-support upstarts. Its autonomous AI Agent product introduces containment/outcome-linked commercials, but Cresta does not publish a per-resolution rate.
What makes this different: Cresta sits between two pricing worlds — the seat-based contact-center incumbents and the per-resolution AI-agent challengers — pricing its core on seats while layering outcome-linked economics onto its autonomous-agent SKU.
Pricing by product
| Product | Pricing basis | What it does | Typical buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Assist | Per agent seat + feature tier | Real-time guidance for live agents | Large contact centers |
| AI Agent | Per seat + containment-linked | Autonomous voice/digital resolution | Automation-focused CX teams |
| Conversation Intelligence | Feature tier / platform | Insights & revenue opportunities from calls | Ops & revenue leaders |
| Quality Management (QA) | Feature tier / platform | Automated QA scoring at scale | QA & compliance teams |
| Product | Pricing basis | What it does | Typical buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Assist | Per agent seat + feature tier | Real-time guidance for live agents | Large contact centers |
| AI Agent | Per seat + containment-linked | Autonomous voice/digital resolution | Automation-focused CX teams |
| Conversation Intelligence | Feature tier / platform | Insights & revenue opportunities from calls | Ops & revenue leaders |
| Quality Management (QA) | Feature tier / platform | Automated QA scoring at scale | QA & compliance teams |
Sales motions across products: Cresta is entirely sales-led — per-agent-seat subscriptions plus feature tiers, quoted on annual contracts. No public rate card; figures describe structure, not list prices.
Hidden costs : What Cresta users actually pay
With no published rates, the real cost drivers are seat count, feature scope and commitment:
- Seat count — the primary lever; cost scales with the number of agents on the platform.
- Feature tiers / add-ons — adding AI Agent, Conversation Intelligence or QA increases the contract.
- Annual commitment / minimums — enterprise deals are annual with floors regardless of usage.
- Implementation & onboarding — model tuning, integration and rollout to large agent populations.
| Line item | Cost basis |
|---|---|
| Per-agent-seat subscription | Custom per-seat (not public) |
| Feature tiers / add-on products | Custom uplift |
| Annual commitment | Custom floor |
| Estimated total | Quote-only; six- to seven-figure for Fortune-500 deployments |
Want to estimate your own Cresta bill? Use the Cresta pricing calculator to model per-seat and feature-tier scenarios.
Pricing evolution : Cresta pricing history and changes
Cadence
| Period | Pricing posture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Seat-based, sales-only | Series C; valuation to 1.6B USD |
| 2024 | Seat-based + feature tiers, sales-only | 125M USD Series D |
| 2025 | Seat-based; AI Agent containment commercials | ~52M USD ARR; Forrester Wave leader |
Tracked range: 2022–present. Cresta has never published a public rate card.
Notable changes
- 2022-03 — Series C; valuation quadrupled to 1.6B USD.
- 2024-11 — 125M USD Series D (WiL, QIA, Accenture, Qualcomm, Workday Ventures).
What’s unique : Cresta’s distinctive pricing mechanics
1. Seat-based core in an outcome-pricing era. While AI-support upstarts chase per-resolution pricing, Cresta prices its core per agent seat — fitting its human-in-the-loop agent-assist roots.
2. Hybrid for the autonomous SKU. The AI Agent product layers containment/outcome-linked economics on top of the seat model.
3. Land-and-expand by feature. Revenue grows by adding products (Assist, AI Agent, Intelligence, QA) to the same seat base.
Strengths & weaknesses
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Predictable seat-based pricing familiar to contact-center buyers | No public pricing; budgeting requires sales |
| Broad product suite enables land-and-expand | Seat-based model less “value-aligned” than per-resolution |
| Strong enterprise logos and Forrester leadership | Enterprise-only; high minimums, no SMB self-serve |
| Outcome-linked option on the autonomous AI Agent | Per-resolution economics not transparent |
Billing UX : Cresta billing controls and transparency
- Billing controls — Enterprise contracts; charges reconciled against licensed seats and feature tiers. Not self-serve.
- Usage visibility — Cresta provides analytics on agent performance, containment and QA, but these inform ROI rather than serving as a transparent billing meter.
- Payment options — Invoiced annual enterprise billing; no public self-serve checkout.
Strategic wins : Why Cresta’s pricing decisions worked
1. Speaking the contact center’s native pricing language
Per-seat pricing matches how contact-center software has always been bought, lowering procurement friction for large buyers. See choosing the right usage metric.
2. Land-and-expand across a suite
Selling Assist first, then AI Agent, Intelligence and QA into the same accounts drives net revenue retention. See how AI companies are shifting from per-user licenses.
3. Hedging into outcomes
Adding containment-linked commercials to the autonomous AI Agent lets Cresta participate in the outcome-based pricing revolution without abandoning its seat-based base. See the introduction to usage-based pricing.
Areas to improve : Gaps in Cresta’s pricing approach
1. Opacity
No published rates forces every prospect into a sales cycle — a friction point covered in bill shock and cost unpredictability.
2. Value alignment
As autonomous agents deflect work away from human seats, a pure seat-based model can misalign with delivered value; the AI Agent containment commercials only partly address this.
3. Transparency on outcome economics
Cresta does not publish how its AI Agent containment/outcome pricing works, leaving buyers to discover it in negotiation.
Monetization stack & signals : how Cresta builds & buys its revenue engine
Buys 4 Builds 0 3 signal roles
Cresta buys its quote-to-cash path outright — Salesforce with Subskribe as the CPQ — and no billing or metering platform appears anywhere on its board, matching its sales-only seat contracts. The one build is a layer up: the GTM Engineer role below.
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“Define business requirements and partner with systems teams on Subskribe, CLM, and Salesforce enhancements... Strong Salesforce fluency across quoting, approvals, and deal reporting.”
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“Drive end-to-end improvements across the quote-to-cash lifecycle... Define business requirements and partner with systems teams on Subskribe, CLM, and Salesforce enhancements... Hands-on experience administering or optimizing CPQ tools (Subskribe preferred).”
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“Build and maintain reporting infrastructure in Looker Studio, BigQuery, and Salesforce... Build automated workflows in Salesforce, Looker Studio, and adjacent tools.”
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“Own and optimize the GTM system... Integrate and maximize Salesforce, Gong, Clay, Centralize, Slack, Glean, Coda and more.”
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A GTM Engineer reporting into the CEO, CRO and CMO is being hired to build an AI-native operating system over the bought stack — agents that automate quoting, approvals and deal-document generation. The automation layer is the build; the CPQ underneath it stays bought.
“You will work directly with our CEO, CRO, CMO, and Rev Ops leadership to design and deploy an AI native operating system for our revenue engine... Automate quoting, approvals, and document generation using AI agents.”
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Cresta's CPQ is Subskribe, administered next to CLM and Salesforce by a senior IC who owns non-standard enterprise deals from quote to close — the quoting layer is bought and tuned, not built. The paired FP&A hire owns the deal-desk pricing and cost model.
“Hands-on experience administering or optimizing CPQ tools (Subskribe preferred)... Define business requirements and partner with systems teams on Subskribe, CLM, and Salesforce enhancements.”
-
A GTM Engineer reporting into the CEO, CRO and CMO is being hired to build an AI-native operating system over the bought stack — agents that automate quoting, approvals and deal-document generation. The automation layer is the build; the CPQ underneath it stays bought.
“You will work directly with our CEO, CRO, CMO, and Rev Ops leadership to design and deploy an AI native operating system for our revenue engine... Automate quoting, approvals, and document generation using AI agents.”
12 more matched roles — supporting evidence
- Revenue Analytics Manager Data platform Aug 3, 2026
- AI Success Manager Customer success Aug 3, 2026
- AI Deployment Manager Customer success Aug 3, 2026
- Customer Engineer Customer success Aug 3, 2026
- Solutions Architect Customer success Aug 3, 2026
- +7 more matched roles
Signals reviewed · derived from public job posts
Job postings fill and close over time — once a posting is filled we keep it as a dated citation (the quoted evidence remains); use View open roles for current listings.
Key takeaways
- Cresta is sales-only. No rate card; everything is quoted.
- Seat-based core. Priced per agent seat plus feature tiers on annual contracts.
- Hybrid on autonomy. AI Agent adds containment/outcome-linked economics.
- Land-and-expand. Suite of products grows the same seat base.
- Enterprise-grade. Fortune-500 focus; six- to seven-figure deployments.
UBP implications
- Seat-based pricing persists even in AI-heavy contact centers, especially where humans stay in the loop.
- The autonomy transition stresses seat models — Cresta’s containment commercials show how incumbents bridge toward outcomes.
- Suite breadth can substitute for usage pricing as a growth lever via cross-sell rather than per-unit metering.
Sources
- Cresta official website (accessed 2026-06-11)
- PRNewswire — Cresta closes 125M Series D (accessed 2026-06-11)
- PRNewswire — Cresta Series C, valuation to 1.6B (accessed 2026-06-11)
- getLatka — Cresta revenue (accessed 2026-06-11)
Bottom line
Cresta sells enterprise contact-center AI — Agent Assist, AI Agent, Conversation Intelligence and QA — on a sales-only basis, priced per agent seat plus feature tiers on annual contracts. It hedges into outcomes with containment-linked commercials on its autonomous AI Agent, but its core remains seat-based, reflecting its human-in-the-loop roots. Browse the pricing blueprint for fully-researched company profiles.
Want to compare Cresta against other customer-service AI companies? Browse the pricing blueprint.
Pricing timeline : Major events on a vertical axis
Each milestone below corresponds to a public pricing change, product launch, or material adjustment. Major events use a filled marker; minor adjustments use a faded one.
Series D — 125M USD
Cresta closed a 125M USD Series D (WiL and QIA, with Accenture, Qualcomm, Workday Ventures and others) to accelerate human-centric contact-center AI; per-seat subscription model continued.
Series C — valuation to 1.6B USD
Cresta raised its Series C, quadrupling its valuation to 1.6B USD on the strength of real-time contact-center intelligence; pricing remained seat-based and sales-led.
- · Cresta was co-founded by Sebastian Thrun (of Google X / self-driving-car fame) alongside Zayd Enam and Tim Shi; it is led by CEO Ping Wu.
- · Unlike the per-resolution upstarts in AI support, Cresta prices the traditional way for its category — per agent seat plus feature tiers — reflecting its agent-assist heritage where humans stay in the loop.
- · Cresta was named a leader in The Forrester Wave for Conversation Intelligence Solutions for Contact Centers (Q2 2025).
Questions & answers
- What is Cresta's pricing model?
- Cresta is sales-only. The documented structure is a per-agent-seat subscription plus feature tiers, sold on annual enterprise contracts. There is no public rate card; pricing is quoted by sales.
- Does Cresta charge per resolution?
- Cresta's core model is seat-based (priced on the number of contact-center agent seats) plus feature tiers, rather than per-resolution. Its autonomous AI Agent product introduces containment/outcome-linked commercials, but Cresta does not publish a per-resolution rate.
- Does Cresta offer a free tier?
- No. Cresta targets large enterprise contact centers and engages through a 'Get a demo' sales motion; there is no self-serve free tier.
- How much does Cresta cost?
- Cresta does not publish prices. Large Fortune-500 deployments are estimated at six- to seven-figure annual contracts, but exact per-seat figures require a sales conversation.