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AI agents built on Zia Agent Studio for your Zoho data

We design each Zia Agent for one job, connect it to your CRM, Desk or Creator data with the right permissions, and keep a person in the loop where it matters.

What Zia Agents are and what they cost

Zia Agents are Zoho’s AI agents. You build them in Zia Agent Studio from instructions, a knowledge base and tools such as “update a CRM deal”. You then deploy them inside Zoho apps and the channels they connect to. Zoho states the agent platform is free; model usage beyond 30 million free tokens a month is billed. Techvaria builds a first production agent in 4 to 6 weeks and quotes each pilot after a short use-case workshop.

Zia Agents pricing, as Zoho publishes it

Item	What Zoho states (pricing page, figures current as of 2 September 2026)
Agent Studio and agents	Free to build, deploy and manage
Zoho-hosted models, Standard tier (Qwen 14B, Qwen 3.5 35B MoE, GLM 4.7 Flash)	30 million tokens free a month, then USD 1.00 per million tokens
Zoho-hosted models, Pro tier (GLM 5)	20 million tokens free a month, then USD 3.00 per million tokens; on request in the US and India data centres only
AI credits	USD 1 = 1,000 credits; bought credits roll over; the free allowance resets on the 1st of each month
Your own model key (BYOK)	OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek and Cohere, billed by the vendor
Connected apps	API use in Zoho CRM, Desk and other apps depends on your subscription to those apps

Our fee covers design, build and rollout. Model usage is billed by Zoho or your model vendor, and we estimate it before go-live.

Agents we build, by app

Zoho CRM

Qualify new leads against your criteria, draft follow-ups, flag deals that have gone quiet, update fields from emails and calls.

Zoho Desk

Triage and route tickets, draft replies from your knowledge base, track refunds, escalate by sentiment.

Zoho Creator

Read invoices, delivery notes and inspection forms into records; summarise long records for approvers.

SalesIQ, WhatsApp and Cliq

Customer- or staff-facing agents that hand over to a person when they should.

Outside AI tools through Zoho MCP

Let Claude or another assistant read and act on Zoho data under each user’s permissions.

Zoho’s Agents Store lists ready-made agents. We start from one where it fits and build custom only where it does not.

How Zia Agents work

Two ways to build

Configure the agent yourself (instructions, knowledge base, tools and settings) or use “Create with Zia AI” to build it from a written description.

Tools

System tools grouped by app, such as CRM or Desk, plus custom tools you define.

Two ways to deploy

“using connection”, where the agent acts under the deploying user’s identity. Or “as a digital employee”, with its own identity, email address, role and permissions, governed like any other user. Digital employee deployment is being rolled out in phases.

In Zoho CRM

After deployment you map the tool parameters and set the activation conditions in CRM. A custom button on a module lets users run the agent manually.

Versions

Every configuration change creates a version you can roll back to.

Zoho MCP and Creator

Zoho MCP lets AI assistants that support the Model Context Protocol use Zoho tools through a server Zoho hosts. Zoho names Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code among the supported clients. It lists 500+ integrations, uses OAuth and limits each action to the user’s own permissions. For Creator, each MCP tool call uses Developer API calls from your Creator plan, so we size the plan before rollout.

Data, privacy and control

Question	What we set up
Which data the agent can see	Least-privilege role and profile for a digital employee; a scoped knowledge base with only the documents the job needs
What it may change	Write, update and delete tools only where needed; data backed up before an agent gets write access
What it must not do	Zoho’s built-in guardrails (fairness and bias, toxicity) plus your own do and do-not lists
When a person decides	Approval steps before payments, discounts, refunds or customer-facing replies above a threshold you set
Where data is processed	Zoho lists Zia Agents model availability in the US, EU, Canada, India, Japan, China and Australia data centres, with Singapore, UK and Saudi Arabia “on the way”. UAE is not listed. We confirm availability for your Zoho data centre before scoping

How a pilot runs

Use-case workshop, week 1: one job, one measure of success, and the data and tools it needs.
Build, weeks 2 to 3: instructions, knowledge base, tools and guardrails; tested on real past cases.
Shadow mode: the agent drafts, a person approves; we compare its output with your team’s.
Go live: activation conditions set, approvals kept where the risk is high.
Review monthly: accuracy, token use and the next job to automate.

Cost and timeline

Scope	Example	Weeks	Price from
Pilot agent	One agent, one app, shadow mode	3 to 4	Request a Quote
Production set	Two to four agents across CRM and Desk, with approvals	6 to 10	Request a Quote
Agent programme	Agents, MCP access and Creator AI across departments	Phased	Request a Quote

Model token costs are separate and billed by Zoho or your model vendor.

Client results

Zoho CRM + AI

41% more deals closed

Insurance brokerage using agentic AI on Zoho CRM

Read the case study

AI automation

30% more appointment bookings

Healthcare clinic chain, with manual work cut by half

Read the case study

All case studies

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Zia Agents cost?

Zoho states that building and deploying Zia Agents is free. Zoho-hosted models include 30 million free tokens a month on the Standard tier, then USD 1.00 per million. Our build fee is separate and quoted after a short use-case workshop. Request a quote.

Which Zoho apps can use Zia Agents?

Zoho says agents can be deployed across 60+ Zoho apps. We most often build them for Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk and Zoho Creator, and connect them to WhatsApp, Cliq or a website chat.

How do Zia Agents work in Zoho CRM?

You deploy the agent to CRM, map its tool parameters and set its activation conditions. Users can also start it from a custom button on a record.

Is our data safe with an AI agent?

A digital employee agent has its own role and permissions, so it sees only what you allow. We add guardrails, approvals for risky actions and a weekly log review during the pilot.

Do Zia Agents work for UAE companies on Zoho's UAE data centre?

Zoho's model availability list does not yet include the UAE; Saudi Arabia is listed as coming. We check what is available for your account before we quote.

Can we use ChatGPT or Claude instead of Zoho's models?

Yes. Zia Agents accept your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek and Cohere, billed by that vendor.

What is Zoho MCP?

It is Zoho's service for connecting AI assistants to Zoho apps through the Model Context Protocol. The assistant can then read and act on Zoho data, limited to the user's permissions.

Hear From Our Clients

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