Managing Costs
Understand where your spend goes, keep your wallet topped up, and get the most from every credit.
Overview
Volume Reach uses a wallet-based billing model — you load credits into your wallet and spend them as you use the platform. This gives you direct visibility into what each campaign costs. This guide explains how spend is calculated for each activity, how to configure auto-recharge to avoid interruptions, and where the biggest optimization opportunities are.
How Spend Is Calculated
Each activity consumes credits at a defined rate. Understanding these rates helps you estimate campaign costs before you launch and identify where efficiency improvements will have the most impact.
Calling
| Activity | How You're Charged |
|---|---|
| AI Voice dial attempt | Per dial attempt, regardless of whether the call is answered |
| AI Voice connected minutes | Per minute of connected conversation (rounded up per call) |
| Multi-Line Dialer dial attempt | Per dial attempt |
| Multi-Line Dialer connected minutes | Per minute of connected conversation |
| Inbound call minutes | Per minute for inbound calls handled by the platform |
Connect rate matters for costs: If your connect rate is 10%, you are placing approximately 10 calls to generate one connected conversation. Improving connect rate reduces the cost per conversation directly.
SMS
| Activity | How You're Charged |
|---|---|
| Outbound SMS | Per message sent |
| Inbound SMS | Per message received |
| AI SMS reply | Per AI-generated reply in an SMS conversation |
Voicemail
| Activity | How You're Charged |
|---|---|
| AI voicemail drop | Per voicemail successfully left |
| Ringless voicemail | Per delivery attempt |
For the full current rate table, see Billing → Usage Rates.
Choosing the Right Plan
Your subscription plan determines your monthly included credits and your per-unit rates. Higher-tier plans have lower per-unit rates — if you are consistently spending more than your included credits, upgrading your plan may reduce your total cost.
| Plan | Best For |
|---|---|
| Launch | Getting started, low-volume testing, small campaigns |
| Growth | Regular campaigns, multi-channel outreach, automation |
| Scale | High-volume operations, large teams, maximum rate efficiency |
Review your monthly usage in Billing → Usage Summary and compare it against plan thresholds to see whether a plan change makes financial sense for your volume.
Wallet and Auto-Recharge
Why Auto-Recharge Matters
If your wallet balance reaches zero, calls and SMS messages stop. Mid-campaign interruptions mean contacts don't get followed up, momentum is lost, and some campaign spend is effectively wasted. Auto-recharge prevents this by automatically adding funds when your balance drops below a threshold you set.
Configuring Auto-Recharge
- Go to Billing → Wallet.
- Enable Auto-Recharge.
- Set your Recharge Threshold — the balance level that triggers a top-up.
- Set your Recharge Amount — how much to add when the threshold is hit.
Recommended settings:
- Set the threshold to at least 2–3 days of your average daily spend so you have buffer time if there is a payment issue.
- Set the recharge amount high enough that you don't trigger multiple recharges in a single day during a high-volume campaign.
Monitoring Your Balance
Your current wallet balance is always visible in the top navigation bar. You can also set up a Low Balance Alert in Billing → Notifications to receive an email or SMS when your balance drops below a specified level — useful as an early warning before auto-recharge kicks in.
Reducing Cost Per Lead
Cost per lead is the most useful efficiency metric for outbound campaigns. Here's where the biggest gains typically come from:
Improve Connect Rate
More answered calls = more conversations from the same spend. See Maximizing Connect Rates for a full breakdown. Even moving from 8% to 12% connect rate can reduce your cost per conversation by 33%.
Improve Agent Conversion Rate
If contacts answer but don't convert, spending more on dial attempts won't help. Review call transcripts to identify where conversations break down, then improve your AI agent prompt. See AI Agent Prompts.
Optimize Call Duration
You are billed per connected minute. Very long calls that don't convert add cost without return. Review your average call duration in Reporting — if calls regularly exceed 4–5 minutes without conversion, your agent may be spending too long on contacts who have already signaled disinterest.
Clean Your List
Calling disconnected or invalid numbers costs a dial attempt with no chance of a return. List hygiene before import is pure cost reduction.
Use SMS for Low-Engagement Follow-Ups
SMS is typically more cost-effective than a second call attempt for contacts who didn't answer the first time. Rather than placing three call attempts, try one call plus one follow-up SMS — you'll often achieve similar results at lower cost.
Auditing Your Spend
Billing → Usage Summary shows a breakdown of spend by activity type for any billing period. Use this view to:
- Identify which activity is consuming the most credits.
- Compare spend across campaigns to find efficiency outliers.
- Spot unexpected spend (e.g., a high inbound minute count that wasn't anticipated).
If you see a spike in spend that doesn't match your campaign activity, contact support — unexpected spend patterns can sometimes indicate a misconfigured campaign or automation.
Cost Optimization Checklist
- Auto-recharge is configured with a threshold that covers 2–3 days of spend
- Low balance alert is set up as an early warning
- Contact list is validated before each campaign import
- Connect rate is reviewed after each campaign to identify improvement opportunities
- Call duration average is checked — long unconverted calls are flagged for prompt review
- Current plan tier matches actual usage volume (not paying for headroom you don't use)