# Billing (/docs/overview/billing)

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.tandemcx.ai/llms.txt). Any page on this site can be fetched as Markdown by appending `.md` to its URL.

<Callout type="info">
    **This page is being rolled out.** If **Admin → Billing** isn't in your sidebar, it isn't
    enabled for your organization yet — contact support.
</Callout>

Tandem runs on a **prepaid balance**. Usage draws it down as it happens: calls, text messages,
email, phone numbers, and AI usage. **Admin → Billing** is where you see the balance, set up
automatic billing to keep it funded, see what your usage cost, and manage the cards your
organization pays with, your invoices, and your credits.

Everything here is organization-wide and sits behind the administrator role. Every role
Tandem issues today — Owner, Admin and Member — carries that role, so in practice everyone in
your organization can reach this page. See [Admin](/docs/overview/admin).

## Check your balance

The figure at the top of the page is your current balance. It updates as usage is recorded, so
it reflects what you have left right now rather than a monthly statement. It includes any credits
you can spend now, and says how much of it is credit.

If usage runs past your balance and credits, the figure goes below zero. The line under it says
how much usage isn't paid yet, and **See Usage** opens the **Usage** tab for the breakdown.

Once your balance is used up, Tandem can pause outgoing calls, texts, and email, and then incoming
calls once $5 of usage is unpaid or 24 hours have passed, whichever comes first. With automatic
billing on, outgoing usage continues within the same limits while the recharge goes through. A
notice across the top of every page except the full-screen editors says the balance is used up
and what, if anything, has paused. On other pages, its **Go to Billing** button opens this one.
To add funds, use [automatic billing](#automatic-billing): turn it on, or choose **Try Again** if
a payment failed.

If the page shows an error instead of a number, that means Tandem couldn't reach the billing
service — not that your balance is zero. Reload before acting on it. If the figure is shown
with **We couldn't check for unpaid usage** under it, it leaves out any usage past your balance,
so reload to check again.

Some accounts aren't billed against a balance at all. Those see a note under the figure saying
so. Usage is still recorded.

## Automatic billing

**Automatic billing**, on the **Overview** tab, keeps your balance funded. When the balance
falls to the amount you choose, your default card is charged enough to bring it back up to a
second amount you choose. Each charge produces an invoice under **Billing History**.

To turn it on, you need a default card (see [Payment methods](#payment-methods)). Then:

1. Enter **Recharge when balance falls to**. It must be at least $5.00.
2. Enter **Recharge to**. It must be at least $10.00 more than the first amount, and at most
   $10,000.00.
3. Choose **Turn On**.

Once it is on, you can change either amount and choose **Save**, but automatic billing cannot
be turned off.

If your balance is already at or below the first amount, the button names the charge (for
example **Turn On and Charge $75.00 Now**), and your card is charged as soon as you choose it.
A recharge also pays any usage that isn't paid yet, so the charge includes it.
The new balance appears a few seconds later.

If an automatic payment fails, automatic billing pauses and the card shows **Automatic payment
failed**. Check your default card, then choose **Try Again**, which turns automatic billing back
on and retries the payment.

If your organization moves to a new billing contract, automatic billing turns off and the card
says so. Choose **Turn On** to set it up again with the same amounts. As on first setup, if your
balance is at or below the first amount, the button names the charge and your card is charged
straight away.

## Payment methods

**Payment methods**, on the **Overview** tab, lists the cards saved for your organization. Each
row shows the card network, the last four digits, the expiry date, and the name on the card.
The **Default** card is the one [automatic billing](#automatic-billing) charges.

To add a card:

1. Choose **Add Card**.
2. Enter your card details. Card details go straight to Stripe and never pass through Tandem.
3. To make the new card the default, check **Make this the default card**. Your first card
   always becomes the default, so the option is shown only once you have a card saved.
4. Choose **Save Card**.

To make another saved card the default, choose **Make Default** on its row.

To remove a card, choose the delete button on its row and confirm. The default card cannot be
removed: make another card the default first. Saved cards cannot be edited. To change a card's
details, add it again and remove the old one.

## What things cost

**Pricing**, at the top of the page, lists what you are charged for, grouped into AI, calls,
messaging, phone numbers, seats, and the compliance costs we pass through at cost. Calls and
text messages show the inbound and outbound price side by side.

**The figures on that page are the ones in force for your account**, read from your billing
contract, including any prices agreed for your account. Before your account has a contract,
the page shows the standard rates and says so. This page does not repeat the numbers, because
a copy in the documentation goes stale. Read them on the page.

When you buy a phone number, the dialog opens with what that kind of number costs on your
contract and, if your organization pays from its own balance, your current balance. Once you
pick a number, the **Buy Number** button names the price too. If your contract has no single
price for that kind of number, or your account has no contract yet, the dialog says only that
numbers are billed to your organization.

### How time is rounded

Call time, IVR time and voice AI time are billed in half-minute steps, rounded up. Any part of a
half minute bills as a whole one: a 13-second call bills as half a minute, and a 40-second call
as a full minute.

### How AI is priced

Voice AI is charged per minute, and covers the whole stack — speech recognition, voice
synthesis, and the reasoning behind the reply. Digital AI, on webchat and SMS, is charged per
conversation with every AI turn included, so a long exchange costs the same as a short one.

Voice AI time counts only while an AI agent has the call. It stops when the agent hands the call
to a workflow, and for good when the call is transferred or a supervisor takes it over. If an agent
has the call more than once, the times are added together before they are rounded. If the agent
cannot be connected, there is no voice AI charge.

A web chat is charged for Digital AI once, when an AI agent first replies. Later replies in the
same conversation add nothing. A chat no AI agent replies to, because a person or a scripted
workflow handles it, has no Digital AI charge.

Telephony and messaging are billed separately from both, so a phone call is charged for AI
usage and for call minutes separately.

**A conversation handled by a human carries no AI charge.**

### How IVR is priced

IVR is charged per minute for the time a call spends in a workflow: menus, prompts, keypad and
speech input, and the steps between them. It is charged in addition to call minutes.

- **Time with an AI agent is not IVR.** While an AI Voice Agent node has the call, the time is
  billed as Voice AI. If the agent hands the call back to the workflow, IVR time starts again.
- **Time with a person is not IVR.** IVR time stops for good when the call is transferred to an
  outside number, when an AI agent transfers it, or when a supervisor takes it over.
- **A call routed straight to an AI agent carries no IVR charge**, unless the agent hands it
  to a workflow.

IVR time is rounded up to the next half minute, the same as call time.

### How a call is billed

One phone call can bill more than one line on the **Usage** tab, because each line covers a
different part of the call:

- **Call minutes**, for the phone line while the call is connected. They're billed as **Local
  call** or **Toll-free call** by whether your number on the call is local or toll-free, and as
  **in** or **out** by the call's direction.
- **IVR**, for the time the call spends in a workflow. See [How IVR is priced](#how-ivr-is-priced).
- **AI Voice**, for the time an AI agent has the call. See [How AI is priced](#how-ai-is-priced).

Each line is rounded up to the next half minute on its own, call by call. A 17-second call to your
toll-free number that a workflow answers and ends bills half a minute of **Toll-free call, in** and
half a minute of **IVR**. Ten of those calls show as 5 minutes of each.

When a workflow's **Transfer to External** node sends an inbound call to an outside number, its
call minutes stop at the transfer, the same as its IVR time. A call an AI agent transfers stays
connected through Tandem, so its call minutes run until the call ends.

A [browser test call](/docs/workflows/test-a-workflow-with-a-browser-call) is billed like a phone
call into the workflow. It has no number of its own, so its call minutes show as **Local call,
in**.

To see which calls a line came from, open **By Conversation** on the **Usage** tab. In [Call
Logs](/docs/workflows/insights-and-reporting#one-row-per-conversation), the number an inbound
voice call came in on is labeled **Toll-free** or **Local**.

### Fair use

Each conversation includes a token allowance, and the figure is shown on the page.
Conversations that run past it — very long histories, or large knowledge-base retrievals —
are charged an overage rate on the tokens above the ceiling, billed in whole thousands.

The allowance covers the whole conversation, on calls and web chats alike: a call an AI agent
picks up more than once has one allowance, not one each time. On a web chat, overage is charged
as the conversation goes, after each reply. On a call, it's charged when the AI agent hands the
call on or the call ends.

### Compliance costs

Message registration and carrier fees are passed through **at cost**, with no margin: 10DLC
brand and campaign registration, toll-free verification, and carrier surcharges.

10DLC brand registration is a one-time fee, and campaign registration is a monthly fee for
each campaign. The rates page shows both at your contract's price. Toll-free verification and
carrier surcharges show as **TBD** while the amounts are confirmed with our carrier partner.
10DLC registration is not yet available in any case, and if you bring your own carrier you
register on your own account, so none of these apply to you today.

### Included at no charge

The page also lists what is not billed at all — no setup, implementation, integration or
connector fees; no feature gating, so every capability is on every account; unlimited Builder
and Admin seats; and no billing on failed calls, timeouts or system errors.

## Usage

The Billing page has four tabs. **Overview** holds your balance, billing email, automatic
billing, and payment methods. **Usage** shows how much your organization used.
**Billing History** lists your invoices (see [Billing history](#billing-history)), and
**Credits** lists credits granted to your organization (see [Credits](#credits)).

The **Usage** tab shows what your organization used and what it cost, at your contract's
rates. Days are in UTC, and new usage can take a few minutes to appear. Usage from sub-tenants is
included in their parent organization's figures.

It shows **This month** to start with. Pick **Last month**, **Last 30 days**, or other dates with
the date range, up to 92 days at a time.

**By Product**, the default, has one row for each product used in the range, grouped by Pricing
panel section.

| Column   | What it shows                                                            |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Product  | What was used, named as on the Pricing panel                             |
| Category | The Pricing panel section it belongs to                                  |
| Quantity | How much was used in the range. For seats, the highest count on a day    |
| Unit     | What the quantity counts: minutes, messages, and so on                   |
| Rate     | The price per unit, or **Varies**, **Tiered**, or **Not priced** (below) |
| Cost     | What it cost in the range                                                |
| Share    | Its part of the range's total cost                                       |

**Varies** means the price changed within the range. **Tiered** is a product priced in tiers,
such as seats, where what each unit costs depends on how many there were. If your contract's
rates can't be loaded, the page says so and shows no rates. Costs aren't affected.

**Not priced** is usage your contract has no price for. It's listed on a row of its own with no
cost, and the page says so. Contact support if that looks wrong. Only days from when your
billing began are checked, and today is checked once the day is over, since new usage can take a
few minutes to be priced. Not priced is different from **Part unpriced** under By Conversation,
which is a conversation with a charge that has no flat price, such as one priced in tiers.

Under the table are the range's **Total**, how much of it was **Paid from credits**, and how
much was **Paid from your balance**. **Not yet paid** appears when your balance ran out before
the usage was covered; it's also why the balance on the **Overview** tab can be below zero.

**By Day** has one row for each product used on each day, newest first, 20 to a page, with the
date, product, category, quantity, unit, rate, and cost. A tiered product's rate shows as
**Tiered**, and Export leaves it blank. A Not priced row says **Not priced** in Export's rate
column.

When the lines shown include calls, By Product and By Day show a note that one call can bill
several lines (see [How a call is billed](#how-a-call-is-billed)). **View by Conversation** in the
note opens By Conversation for the same range.

To narrow By Product or By Day, type in the search box to match a product or its category, or open
**Filters** to pick categories and products. A narrowed view shows only **Total for these
products**; what was paid from credits and your balance is shown for the whole range.

**Export** downloads the By Day rows as a CSV file, filters included, with the rate and cost in
US dollars.

**By Conversation** lists the range's conversations with what each used and cost, newest first,
20 at a time. **Load More** shows the next 20, and sorting by **Highest Cost** puts the most
expensive first.

| Column       | What it shows                                                            |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Time (UTC)   | When the conversation's first charge in the range happened               |
| Conversation | The channel and direction, and the caller's number, or the number called |
| Used         | Each product the conversation used, with its quantity                    |
| Cost         | What it cost at your contract's rates                                    |

Select a row to open the conversation; going back returns to this view with the same range and
sort. The search box, **Filters**, and **Export** are for By
Product and By Day.

Under the list, the range's total is split into **Conversations** and **Account charges**, the
charges that belong to no conversation, such as phone numbers, seats, and email. Both come from
the same figures as By Product, so they include usage the list does not show:

- usage from sub-tenants, since a parent organization lists only its own conversations;
- conversations from before per-conversation records began.

A charge with no flat price on your contract, such as one priced in tiers, has no cost for a single
conversation. Its row says **Part unpriced**, and its cost leaves that charge out.

Before your account has a billing contract, the tab shows quantities only, without rates or
costs, and says so.

## Billing history

**Billing History** lists your invoices, newest first, 20 to a page.

| Column         | What it shows                                      |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| Invoice Number | The number printed on the invoice                  |
| Status         | **Paid**, **Open**, **Uncollectible**, or **Void** |
| Amount         | The invoice total                                  |
| Created        | The date the invoice was issued                    |

Each row has two actions:

- **View** opens the invoice on our payment processor's site, in a new tab.
- **Download PDF** downloads a copy of the invoice.

## Credits

The **Credits** tab lists credits and prepaid balances granted to your organization, newest
first, 20 to a page.

| Column    | What it shows                                                    |
| --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Name      | The credit's name, and whether it is a **Credit** or **Prepaid** |
| Status    | **Scheduled**, **Active**, **Used up**, or **Expired**           |
| Granted   | The amount granted                                               |
| Remaining | The amount you can spend now                                     |
| Received  | The date the credit was granted                                  |
| Starts    | The date the credit can first be spent                           |
| Expires   | The date the credit stops being usable                           |

A credit is **Scheduled** until its start date and **Expired** after its expiry date, and shows
nothing remaining in both states. **Used up** means the credit is within its dates and has
nothing left to spend.

Credits you can spend now count toward the balance on the **Overview** tab.

Every organization starts with a $25 **Welcome credit**, usable for 60 days. It's spent before
any balance you paid for.

## If you delete the organization

Deleting an organization forfeits the remaining balance, with no refund. It also turns automatic
billing off, ends the contract, and removes saved cards. See [Delete an
Organization](/docs/overview/delete-organization).

## Billing email

Our payment processor sends receipts to the address shown under **Billing email** on the
**Overview** tab. This is usually your organization's owner email. An admin can change it with
**Change Billing Email**, or go back to the owner email with **Use Organization Email**.

If you need a receipt you haven't received, contact support.
