How many Help Center articles does Intercom need before I turn on Fin?

Intercom's help center lists at least 10 public articles in your Help Center as a prerequisite for deploying Fin over chat. Fin can only use content you have enabled under Train, Content.

Can I test Intercom Fin before customers see it?

Yes. Intercom's help center says to add an audience rule under Who will see Fin, such as your company email domain. You can also use the Messenger preview before you click Set Fin Live.

Why does an Intercom invite link fail for my new teammate?

Intercom's help center says invites only work for the exact email address they were sent to. A teammate signed in with a different account should log out or open the link in a private window.

How to Set Up Intercom and Fin for Your Team

By the end of this walkthrough Intercom will be on your website, your teammates will be invited, and Fin will answer chats for a test audience. Intercom is a shared support inbox with a website chat Messenger and an AI agent called Fin. This guide covers chat. Fin over email is set up separately.

Before you start

Pick an admin who will own the workspace and billing. Gather the email addresses of your support staff. Write or collect at least 10 public Help Center articles, because Intercom lists that as a prerequisite for Fin over chat. Someone who can edit your website code, or manage WordPress, Shopify or Google Tag Manager, should be ready to paste a snippet.

Intercom’s pricing page shows seat plans plus a per-outcome price for Fin.

Plan	What it adds for a team	Price as listed
Essential	Seats for teammates, includes Fin	$19 per seat a month billed annually, $29 billed monthly
Advanced	20 free Lite seats, includes Fin	$85 per seat a month
Expert	50 free Lite seats, includes Fin	$132 per seat a month
Fin AI Agent on an existing helpdesk	No seats required, monthly minimum applies	$0.99 per outcome

The page lists a 14-day trial on the seat plans. Lite seats are for internal collaboration only.

Create the account and workspace

Start the trial on the Intercom site, then install the Messenger. These steps come from Intercom’s install guide.

Go to Settings > Channels > Messenger Live Chat > Overview.
Find the Website card and click Install on website.
Choose Visitors & leads, which Intercom lists as the quickest option, then click Continue.
Open Select install method. Choose custom code, or an integration such as WordPress, Google Tag Manager, Shopify or Segment.
Click Copy code and paste it before the closing body tag on every page where the Messenger should appear.
Click Test your installation and wait for the “Messenger is installed” message.

Invite your team

Only admins and workspace owners can invite. Intercom’s teammate article gives these steps.

Go to Settings > Workspace > Teammates.
Click + Add new, then + Add new teammates.
Enter the email addresses, separated by commas.
Click Continue and set permissions.
Set each person’s permissions. Allow all and Restrict all are quick settings.
Click Send invites.

Intercom says an invite only works for the exact email address it was sent to. You can copy an invite link from the Invited tab, and Revoke cancels a pending invite. If nobody accepts after 3 days, the sender gets a reminder email.

Set the admin and data settings

Review permissions for each person before you send invites, because they are set per teammate. Reusable custom roles and bulk adds are limited to the Expert plan.

Intercom’s security page says Fin trains only on your knowledge and Procedures. It says third-party AI providers are contractually barred from training on your data. It says Fin can use anonymized customer data for model fine-tuning, and you can opt out at any time with data deleted within 30 days. The page also lists single sign-on, 2FA, SCIM and IP restrictions.

Connect your other apps

Under Settings > Channels you connect the places customers reach you. Intercom’s Fin guide says Fin can answer in Web, iOS, Android, WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook, Instagram and SMS, once those channels are installed or connected. For your website, the install method list includes WordPress, Google Tag Manager, Shopify and Segment. Connect only the channels you plan to staff.

Turn on Fin

Intercom’s Fin chat guide says to confirm the Messenger is installed and the content Fin should use is enabled under Fin AI Agent > Train > Content. You need billing permissions to set Fin live if the terms are not yet accepted.

Go to Fin AI Agent > Deploy > Chat.
Under Simple deploy, open Who will see Fin and click + Add audience rule. For a test, use a rule such as your company email domain, then click Save.
Under In selected channels, pick the chat channels and click Save.
Turn on Let Fin introduce itself, write the greeting and click Save.
Review Train > Content and Train > Guidance.
Choose how Fin hands over to a teammate, then click Save.
Test in the Messenger preview, then click Set Fin Live.

To pause Fin, return to the page and toggle it off.

Tasks to try first

Test Fin on your own team

Use this before any customer sees Fin.

Audience rule: Email contains yourcompany.com
Channel: Web
Greeting: Hi, I am Fin, our AI assistant. Ask me about hours, prices and bookings.
Test questions: What are your opening hours? How do I reschedule? Do you offer refunds?
Check: does each answer match your Help Center article?

Write the handover rule

Use this so Fin knows when to pass a chat to a person.

Under Fin AI Agent > Train > Guidance, add a rule:
If a customer asks for a refund, a complaint review or a custom quote, hand the chat to the support team and do not answer.
Handover step: choose your support team, then Save.

Draft three Help Center articles

Use this when you have fewer than 10 public articles. Paste it into your AI assistant and review the result yourself.

Write a short Help Center article for a small business. Topic: [your topic]. Use plain words, a title, and three short sections. Include only these facts: [your facts]. Do not invent policies or prices.