Limits and usage at a glance
- An assist counts once HelpAlive completes its first step. A chat message counts when the agent answers one.
- Tests never count.
- Daily limits on Controls bound each person, each tenant and your whole organization. They are not your monthly allowance.
- How far over your plan sets how far past your plan your users may go, billed as overage. It starts at 0%: everything stops at your plan’s limit.
- Your users never see a limit named.
How we count
An assist counts once HelpAlive completes its first step. Offers nobody started, and assists that stop or fail before their first step is done, are not counted. A chat message counts when the agent answers one. Tests never count.
- An assist counts once, however it ends after its first step and however long it runs.
- An assist that can’t start because a limit was reached, or because chat messages are used up, does not count.
- Run again and Continue from where we left off each start a new assist. Pausing, Take over, Hand back and steering stay within the same one.
- The agent’s answer that offers an assist counts as one chat message whether or not the user starts it, and so does each question asked with Ask or steer.
- A failed or empty answer does not count.
- The greeting and suggested questions the chat shows when it opens do not count.
Your plan period
A plan period refers to the month your usage runs by. Controls shows the dates, for example “1 to 30 September”, and each panel says the day it starts again.Daily limits per person, tenant and organization
On Controls, the Assists and Chat messages panels each have a daily limit for:
Leave a box empty to use our default; the box shows it in gray. A box can’t go above the most your plan allows. These limits protect your plan from one heavy user or tenant. They are not your monthly allowance.
How far over your plan
How far over your plan on Controls sets how far past your plan’s monthly amounts your users may go. It is a percent of your plan, from 0% up to 100%, set separately for assists and chat messages.- It starts at 0%, which means stop. At your plan’s limit, new assists and chat messages are refused until the period starts again.
- Above 0%, your users can go that far past your plan. Overage refers to that use past your plan: $0.25 an assist and $0.015 a chat message, billed on your next monthly invoice. The page says how many more that allows.
- For more than the slider allows, buy a pack.
- During the free trial there is no overage. Once the trial’s assists or chat messages, and any packs you bought, are used, new ones stop until your plan starts. Controls says your trial’s assists or chat messages are used, “until your plan starts on” the date.
- While a payment is failing, overage pauses. See A failed payment.
What your users see at a limit
Your users never see a limit named.- At your plan’s assists, with nothing more allowed, the chat stops offering assists and keeps answering in words. An assist that starts anyway ends quietly, and the chat says “Let’s pick this up in a moment.”
- At your plan’s chat messages, with nothing more allowed, a chat that is already open answers each new message with “Chat isn’t available right now. Please try again later.” From the next page load the chat button is hidden. It comes back with a pack, a higher How far over your plan, or the new plan period. Every assist starts from a chat message, so no new assists can start either until chat is available again.
- At a daily limit for a person, tenant or your organization, the same quiet answers apply until the day is over.
What you see in the dashboard
- Controls and Home show each kind against your plan. The bar turns amber at 80%.
- At your plan’s amount, the Controls band says so, and whether usage goes on as overage.
- When something stops, the band says why and until when, with “Buy extra on the Billing page to add more now.”
- Home lists a kind at 80% or more under Needs you, with Add assists or Add chat messages.
Usage emails
We email everyone on your team with a confirmed email address:- when assists or chat messages reach 80% of your plan;
- when your plan’s amount is used up;
- when new ones are paused, for example because your last payment did not go through.
Check it works
Open Controls. Each panel shows a bar with this month’s use. How far over your plan shows your current percent.Troubleshooting
- The chat stopped offering assists. This means that you have reached your plan’s assists. Raise How far over your plan, or buy a pack on Settings → Billing and usage.
- The chat button is gone for everyone. Your chat messages are used up, or a failed payment has paused the agent. Check Controls and Settings → Billing and usage.
- One user says the agent stopped answering. They may have reached Each person’s daily limit. Raise it on Controls, or wait for the next day.
- The numbers look low. This is because offers that were never started, and Test page runs, do not count.
Next
Controls
Set the limits and the overage.
Billing and usage
Subscribe, buy packs and see invoices.
Key concepts
Assist, chat message, plan and pack.