How we measure minutes.
Every plan includes a monthly allowance of call minutes. This page explains when the clock runs, how time is counted, and what never counts, so you can check any bill against your own call list.
When the clock runs
The clock is the call itself, nothing else.
It starts at connect and stops at disconnect.
Call time is measured from the moment a call connects to the moment it disconnects. The short recording and AI notice at the start of a call is part of the call, so it sits inside that window.
A transfer keeps the clock running.
When the AI hands a caller to you or your team, time keeps counting until our line drops, not until the person picks up. Our line is still carrying the call while it rings through.
A call that never connects counts nothing.
Ringing that nobody answers, a hangup before the call connects, a line that never picks up: none of that draws any time.
How time is counted
Per call, in 15-second steps, and you can redo the math yourself.
Each call is counted on its own, in 15-second steps, rounded up.
Every connected call uses at least one step. A 2-second call counts as 15 seconds. A 20-second call counts as 30. A call of 1 minute 34 seconds counts as 1 minute 45 seconds. Rounding never adds more than one step to a call.
Why 15 seconds.
Many phone services round each call up to a full minute. Short calls are common in a small business, and minute rounding punishes them. A 15-second step keeps the count close to the real length of the call.
One pool for your whole account.
Minutes are shared across every phone line and every agent on your account. Adding a line or an agent never adds a second meter or a separate bill for time.
Counted as it happens.
Each call is added to your meter the moment it ends. The Billing page in your dashboard reads the same running total that billing reads, so the number you see is the number you would be billed from.
What never counts
Time you should not pay for, handled without you asking.
Filtered spam and robocalls.
Calls we identify and filter as spam or robocalls are not counted against your allowance at all.
Spam we verify late comes back, one for one.
If a spam call gets through and we later verify it as spam, we credit the time back using the same 15-second measurement, so the credit returns exactly what the call used. The credit lands in the billing period the call happened in, costs nothing, and expires with that period. You do not have to report anything.
Your allowance, and the end of it
Your allowance resets every billing period. Going past it only costs money if you switched overage on yourself.
The allowance resets each billing period.
Your plan’s minutes reset at the start of each billing period. Unused minutes do not roll over.
We tell you before you run out.
As you approach your monthly allowance we reach out so you can decide what to do: upgrade, switch on overage, or stay put. Your dashboard always shows it, and you can add email or a text message in your notification settings. Text alerts go only to a phone you confirm from that phone, because we never text a number that has not texted us first.
Overage is off by default.
With overage off you are never billed past your plan price. If you stay over your allowance, we may pause or limit call handling until the next billing period or an upgrade, instead of charging you.
If you switch overage on, the rates are published.
Overage bills at $0.20 per minute on Essential and Basic, and $0.10 per minute on Standard. Basic and Standard can also add outbound texts at $0.05 per segment, capped by the carrier campaign limit. Overage time is measured by the same 15-second steps as everything else, and texts are counted in segments: up to 160 characters is one segment, a longer message counts as more than one, and emoji or certain special characters switch a message to an encoding where one segment holds 70 characters. Overage applies to the whole current billing period, including any usage you were already over when you switched it on.
Switching it off again.
You can turn overage off any time you are inside your allowance. If you are past it, overage stays on until the new billing period starts or you upgrade to a plan that covers the usage, so a month cannot end half-billed.
Want to check a bill?
Your dashboard lists every call with its length, and the Billing page shows the same meter billing uses. If a number ever looks wrong, write to us and we will walk the month with you call by call. The controlling language is section 6 of our Terms of Service.