The prepaid model
Usage is billed in credits against a prepaid workspace balance. Credits can come from:- Your plan — included credits are added after a successful plan payment.
- Top-ups — one-off or automatic credit purchases.
- Transfers — credits received from a white-label reseller or workspace administrator.
What a call consumes
Calls use credits according to the rate shown for your workspace:- Voice time is billed per second, with a 30-second minimum — a call that ends after 10 seconds still deducts 30 seconds of voice-time credits.
- Calls through managed phone numbers can have a destination-dependent rate. The telephony portion of that rate is rounded up to the next full minute, even though the voice-time portion is billed per second.
- Web calls have no managed-number charge.
- Outbound calls only start billing once the call connects. Dialing and ringing are never charged — the clock starts when the person (or their voicemail) answers.
Calls through your own SIP trunk (BYO) still use voice-time credits. Your carrier bills its own connection charges separately.
Other charges
Extra and regulatory fees
A few less common charges and special cases:- Premium or vanity number types, where a country offers them, carry a higher monthly price than a standard local number — shown in the marketplace before you buy.
- Uncommon languages or voices outside the standard catalog are not self-serve. Contact support if you don’t see what you need.
- Regulatory or carrier surcharges in some countries (for example emergency-services or universal-service fees) are passed through as part of the destination-dependent rate rather than billed separately.
- Going over a plan limit depends on which kind of limit it is. Usage keeps running on credits: call time always draws on your balance, and automation runs past the monthly allowance debit credits at your workspace rate. Counted resources — assistants, campaigns, knowledge bases, tools, members, cloned voices — are hard limits: the extra one is blocked rather than billed, so you upgrade the plan instead of paying an overage fee.
How a call is charged
At the start of a phone call, credits are held for the maximum talk time at your workspace credit rate (talk plus telephony). That hold is not the bill. After the call:- unused hold is released
- Credits billed is the final amount deducted
- Telephony is the final telephony portion after the live connection price at your workspace rate (not the hold estimate)
GET /api/v1/calls/{id} and MCP get_call return the same figures: billing.credits_charged, billing.telephony_credits, billing.credits_reserved, billing.credits_released.
The hold is sized for the maximum duration the call could run, not the duration you expect — that’s what makes it a hold rather than the bill. If your balance covers a typical call but not the theoretical maximum, the call can be blocked before it starts even though you technically have “enough” credit. Lower the assistant’s Max. Call Duration (Conversation → Limits in the assistant editor) or top up to raise the ceiling.
Review your usage
- Usage shows consumption by day, assistant, and call.
- Each call detail shows duration, reserved credits, credits billed, released hold, and telephony when billed.
- Workspace owners and admins can review consumption for the active workspace.
Troubleshooting
Usage higher than expected? The two most common causes:- A large outbound campaign ran. More calls placed means more voice-time credits consumed — check the campaign’s delivery stats before assuming something is wrong.
- Multiple phone numbers are active. Each rented number’s monthly fee applies independently, so idle numbers you’re no longer using still bill until released.