Dialogflow agents are available in multiple agent types and editions. The agent type, features, pricing, and quotas vary for each edition.
Agent types
The following agent types are available:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) agent | This is an advanced agent type that is suitable for large or very complex agents. Flows and pages are the building blocks of conversation design, and state handlers are used to control conversation paths. This agent type is summarized in Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) basics. |
| Dialogflow ES agent | This is the standard agent type that is suitable for small to medium and simple to moderately complex agents. Intents are the building blocks of conversation design, and contexts are used to control conversation paths. This agent type is summarized in Dialogflow ES basics. |
The following table provides a summary comparison of agent types. If you have an existing Dialogflow ES agent, and you want a more detailed comparison, see Migrating from Dialogflow ES to Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX).
| Category | Dialogflow ES agent | Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) agent |
|---|---|---|
| Editions | Dialogflow Trial Edition, Dialogflow Essentials Edition | Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) Edition |
| Agent building blocks | Flat structure of intents | Graph structure of flows and pages |
| Conversation control | Linear conversation paths that simulate nonlinear paths using intents as nodes and contexts to control paths | State machine model with explicit conversation control using pages as nodes and state handlers to control paths |
| Console user experience | Mostly text forms | Visual graphs showing conversation paths and text forms for configurations |
| Intent reusability | Intents are coupled with fulfillment, events, and responses; specific to a conversation state, so difficult to reuse | Intents are simplified to remove this coupling and made highly reusable |
| Webhook error handling | Errors quietly ignored by agent, passed to API caller if present | Explicit error event handling built-in to your agent |
| Event handling | Invoked events trigger intent matches | Events handlers are first-class types with powerful controls |
| Conditional response messages | Requires webhook calls | Can be configured statically in fulfillment, with static conditions for a route, or with webhooks calls |
| Parameter scope | Can be scoped to intent, context, or event | Can be scoped to intent, form, or session |
| Built in testing | Not provided | Provided |
| Redaction | Not provided | Provided |
| Conditional logic | Not provided | Provided |
| DTMF input | Not provided | Provided |
| System functions for advanced responses and conditions | Not provided | Provided |
| Advanced NLU | Not provided | Provided |
| Agents per project | 1 | 1000 |
| Recommended agent size | Up to medium size agents | Up to very large |
| Recommended agent complexity | Up to moderately complex agents | Up to highly complex |
| Learning curve to design a simple agent | Basic | Moderate |
| Learning curve to design a complex agent | High | Moderate |
| Pricing and quotas | Granular | Simplified |
Edition comparison
The following editions are available:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Dialogflow Trial Edition | A no-cost edition that provides most of the features of the standard Dialogflow ES agent type. It offers limited quota and support by community and email. This edition is suitable to experiment with Dialogflow ES. |
| Dialogflow Essentials Edition | This is a pay-as-you-go edition that provides the standard Dialogflow ES agent type. This edition offers production-ready quotas and support from Google Cloud support. |
| Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) Edition | This is a pay-as-you-go edition that provides the advanced Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) agent type. This edition offers production-ready quotas and support from Google Cloud support. |
The following tables provide a summary comparison for editions by agent type. For details, see Pricing and Quotas and Limits.
Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) Agent
| Feature | Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) Edition |
|---|---|
|
Text (includes all DetectIntent, StreamingDetectIntent, and FulfillIntent requests that do not contain audio) |
1200 requests per minute $0.007 per request |
|
Audio input/output (speech recognition, speech-to-text, STT, speech synthesis, text-to-speech, TTS, telephony) |
600 requests per minute $0.06 per minute |
| Service Level Agreement | SLA |
| Support | Eligible for Cloud Support packages with committed response times for supporting production applications |
| Terms of Service | Google Cloud Platform ToS |
Dialogflow ES Agent
| Feature | Trial Edition | Essentials Edition |
|---|---|---|
|
Text (includes all DetectIntent and StreamingDetectIntent requests that do not contain audio) |
Production-ready quota No charge |
Production-ready quota $0.002 per request |
|
Audio input (also known as speech recognition, speech-to-text, STT) |
Limited quota No charge |
Production-ready quota $0.0065 per 15 seconds of audio |
|
Audio output (also known as speech synthesis, text-to-speech, TTS) |
Limited quota No charge |
Production-ready quota $4 to $16 per million characters |
| Knowledge connectors (Beta) | Limited quota No charge |
Production-ready quota No charge |
| Sentiment analysis | Not available | Unlimited quota $0.25 to $1.00 per 1000 requests |
|
Dialogflow ES phone gateway Includes audio input and output. |
Toll-free number not available Limited quota No charge |
Production-ready quota $0.05 to $0.06 per minute |
| Mega agent | Limited quota No charge |
Unlimited quota $0.002 to $0.006 per request |
| Service Level Agreement | None | SLA |
| Support | Community support and via email | Eligible for Cloud Support packages with committed response times for supporting production applications |
| Terms of Service | Dialogflow ES Trial Edition ToS | Google Cloud Platform ToS |