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SMS credits

Workflows can send text message (SMS) alerts to the people in your notification groups. Texts are prepaid: your workspace holds a balance of SMS credits, and every text that goes out uses some of them. This page explains how credits work, where to see them, and how to share them out across your sub-accounts.

Credits are added to your workspace by your account manager. If you are running low or want to get started, contact support.

What a credit buys​

One credit pays for one message segment. A short alert fits in a single segment; longer messages are split into more segments and cost more credits, and special characters or emoji reduce how much text fits per segment. The workflow builder shows a live segment estimate while you write an SMS action's message, so there are no surprises: a message estimated at 2 segments uses 2 credits for every recipient it is sent to.

The pool, and dedicated balances​

Your credits live in a single workspace pool. Out of the box, every sub-account shares it: any of their workflows that sends a text draws from the pool, first come, first served.

You can also give a sub-account credits of its own. Assigning credits moves them out of your pool into a dedicated balance for that account: if your pool holds 100 and you assign 50, your pool has 50 left for everyone else. An account with a dedicated balance uses only its own credits. When they run out, its texts stop until you top it up or set it back to the shared pool; it never quietly dips back into your pool.

Which to use is up to you. The shared pool is the simplest and works well when you pay for texting as part of your service. Dedicated balances fit when you resell texting to a customer, or want a hard ceiling on how much one account can use.

Where to see balances​

  • Account settings, Billing tab: your pool balance and the last 30 days of usage.
  • Account settings, Subscription tab: the same balance in the license usage card, next to your device and gateway numbers.
  • Sub-accounts list: an SMS credits column per account. Accounts on the shared pool show "Shared pool"; accounts with dedicated credits show used / issued and how many remain.

Sub-accounts get the same visibility for themselves: an account with dedicated credits sees its own balance and usage on its Subscription tab, while an account on the shared pool sees only its own usage, never your pool numbers.

Assigning, topping up, and reclaiming​

On the sub-accounts list, each customer account has an SMS credits action. It opens a window where you can:

  • Assign from pool: move credits from your pool into a dedicated balance for the account.
  • Top up: add more to an account that already has a dedicated balance.
  • Reclaim to pool: pull unused credits back into your pool.
  • Set back to shared pool: return all of the account's unused credits and put it back on the shared pool.

Every move is all-or-nothing and recorded in the audit log. You can only assign credits to accounts whose plan includes SMS notifications; reclaiming is always available, so changing an account's plan never strands credits.

Running low, and running out​

When your pool drops below 20 credits, workspace admins get an in-app notification and an email. If a workflow tries to text and the balance it draws on is empty, the text is skipped: you get a warning naming the workflow, the skip is recorded in the workflow's run history, and email and in-app notifications keep working as normal. Texts resume automatically as soon as credits are added; nothing needs to be re-enabled.

The same applies per account: if a sub-account with a dedicated balance runs dry, the warning names that account, and only its texts pause.

Billing​

Credits do not expire, and there is nothing to configure on the Billing tab; the card there is informational. Your account manager arranges top-ups with you directly.