How chats and WhatsApp messages are counted

Chat messages come out of the same plan minutes as your calls. Each message sent to a customer uses a small fraction of a minute, and messages customers send to you are free. This article covers WhatsApp messages, Instagram and Messenger direct messages, and the chat in your website widget.

What counts

The same rules apply on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and the website chat. WhatsApp calls are counted like phone calls, per minute. See How minutes are counted.

How much a message uses

A sent message is priced at one cent. While your plan has minutes left, that cent is turned into a fraction of a minute: one cent divided by your plan's price per extra minute.

So roughly eight messages use one plan minute. A conversation where the assistant sends ten replies uses a little over one minute.

Billing shows how many WhatsApp messages were sent this period, the minutes they used and the amount per message. Website, Instagram and Messenger messages are shown on the next part of the same line.

After your plan minutes are used

Once your plan minutes are used, each message you send costs one cent from your prepaid credit balance. Receiving stays free.

If both your minutes and your credit are used up, messages are not sent. They appear in the conversation with the note "Not sent: no credit left for messages beyond the plan", and the assistant stops replying until you add credit. See Prepaid credit and top-ups.

AI work in chats

Most chat replies are covered by the message price. This also applies to AI replies to text messages. Some AI work takes more effort than an ordinary reply, and then a small extra amount is added so that chats are never priced below what they cost to run. This can happen with:

• A long chat reply, for example when the assistant has to look up availability, check several things or take a booking before it answers.
• An AI summary of a chat. When a conversation has been quiet for about 10 minutes, your team gets a short summary of it.
• Reading a photo or document a customer sends, so the assistant and your team know what is in it.
• Voice message transcription, when a customer sends a voice note.

The extra amount is usually a small fraction of a minute. While your plan has minutes left, it comes out of those minutes. After that it comes from credit, and it is only charged once it adds up to at least a whole cent.

Each of these appears as its own line in the usage report. Choose AI work to see only these lines. They are labelled, for example, AI work on a long chat reply, AI summary of a chat, AI reading a photo or document and Voice message transcription. On Billing, the total appears as longer AI chat work.

Note: Only AI work that goes beyond the message price shows up. An ordinary reply adds nothing beyond the message itself.

Reply limits

To protect you from loops between automated senders and from abuse, the assistant replies to the same person at most 30 times an hour on WhatsApp. When a person reaches the limit, the assistant stops answering them for the rest of the hour and the conversation is marked high priority in your Inbox so someone on your team can reply.

Common questions

Do messages from customers cost anything? No. Only messages sent to customers are counted. Photos, documents and voice notes customers send are free to receive, but reading them with AI can add a small amount, as described above.

Why does the usage report show AI lines with no customer? AI work lines belong to a chat but are listed on their own. Look at the time of the line to match it to the conversation.

Can I start a WhatsApp conversation with a customer? You can reply to anyone within 24 hours of their last WhatsApp message. Starting a new conversation with a WhatsApp template message is not available yet. See WhatsApp.