How Messages are Counted and Billed
What are message credits?
If you have a paid Shout subscription, your plan includes message credits. Message credits allow you to send text messages with your Shout phone numbers. Each month you will receive a new allotment of message credits. Unused message credits become roll over credits and roll over from month to month.
You can check your message credits from the usage page on the web application and in the Text Usage drawer from the menu in the mobile application.
How many message credits does it cost to send a message?
It costs 1 message credit to send a single text message with a Shout automation.
It costs 0 message credits to send a 1-to-1 text message from the inbox.
It costs 0 message credits to send a direct message in Shout, a message via Facebook, or a message via Instagram with or without Shout automations.
Messages sent via a Shout automation include messages sent with the following features:
- Broadcast messages
- Drip campaigns
- Bots
- Recurring events
- Order followups
- Invoice alerts
- Shipping alerts
What happens if I send more messages than I have credits to send?
Sometimes you may send more messages, either with a Broadcast message, or with a bot or drip campaign than you have available in your account. It can be difficult with Shout Automations to know exactly how many credits you'll use.
Shout makes this easy for you to manage by automatically billing your payment method on file when you need more credits to send messages. You can pick how much is automatically charged for more message credits from the Texting services page on the web application.
If for some reason we are unable to bill your payment method on file, then Shout will not deliver the messages that require credits.
Unused message credits roll over month to month and are also know as roll over credits.
What are Message Segments?
Telecommunications carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile measure how long a text message is by segments. They limit the length of messages based on number type (Local versus Toll-Free), and they use message length as a key factor in detecting and blocking spammy messages.
In Shout, every message composer includes a segment counter which adds up as you type so you know how many segments (or how long) your message is. The number of segments a message is does not effect the cost to send the message in Shout. However, we recommend you pay attention to the segment counter and avoid long messages, so the message goes through the cell carrier correctly and you don't get your message marked as spam.
The message composer may be disabled if you attempt to send a message that is beyond the carrier limits.
Users that send too many messages marked as spam risk the carriers blocking all messaging from your phone number.
- For more information on how to use Customer Service and Marketing Numbers, click here.
- Emojis use up more segments than plain text
- Make your messages short and concise
How to Track My Message Credit Usage
- Click here to view your message usage
You can only view your message usage from the web browser of your phone, tablet, or from a computer.
- Or click on the Account button
- Click Settings
- Under General, select Usage
