> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.helpalive.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # HelpAlive usage limits: how assists and chat messages count > How HelpAlive counts assists and chat messages, the daily limits, how far over your plan you can go, and what your users see at a limit. Usage is how many assists and chat messages your users take from your HelpAlive plan. This page explains what counts against your plan, the limits you can set, and what happens when one is reached. It is for admins who watch usage and billing. You set everything here on **Controls**, and you buy more on **Settings → Billing and usage**. ## 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 includes a number of assists and chat messages each month. See [Plans and pricing](/dashboard/plans) for each plan's amounts and prices. ## 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: | Limit | What it bounds | | - | - | | **Each person** | Assists one user can start, or chat messages one user can send, in a day. | | **Each tenant** | The same for all the people in one of your tenants together. Shown when your app sends tenants. | | **Your organisation** | The same for all your users together. | 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](/dashboard/billing#a-failed-payment). Packs add to what your plan includes. They are used after the plan's own amount runs out, and they carry over while you stay subscribed. See [Billing and usage](/dashboard/billing#packs). ## 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. Each of these goes once per kind in a plan period. There is no setting to turn them off. **Your account** shows whether you get them. ## 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 Set the limits and the overage. Subscribe, buy packs and see invoices. Assist, chat message, plan and pack. 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