How overage charges work

Understanding overage charges

BizRnR pricing has two parts: a flat monthly subscription and a per-interaction overage rate that kicks in when you exceed your tier's included quota. This article explains what counts as an interaction, when overages bill, and how to control them.

What's an "interaction"?

An interaction is one conversation between a customer and your AI agent, regardless of channel. Examples:

• A 5-minute inbound voice call → 1 interaction
• Enterprise or contracted channel session, if enabled → counted according to the account contract
• A missed-call text-back where the customer texts back twice → 1 interaction
• Contracted WhatsApp or social DM thread, if enabled → counted according to the account contract

Outbound campaigns count differently and require a contracted or otherwise enabled account. See the campaign readiness articles before launching outbound.

What does not count:

• AI internal "thinking" calls (we eat the cost)
• Knowledge-base searches by you in the dashboard
• Failed/abandoned calls (under 10 seconds and never reaches the AI)
• Webhook deliveries to your endpoints
• API calls from your own integrations

Tier quotas + overage rates

| Tier | Monthly subscription | Included interactions | Overage per interaction | |---|---|---|---| | AI Receptionist | $99 | 100 | $0.20 | | Enterprise | custom | contracted volume | contracted |

If you consistently exceed the AI Receptionist allowance, contact support. You may need a custom Enterprise volume agreement rather than repeated monthly overage.

When overages bill

Overages bill at the end of your monthly billing cycle, not in real time. We meter usage continuously through Stripe's metered billing API, then close the period and invoice the overage as a single line item. Most invoices look like this:

AI Receptionist subscription    $99.00
Interaction overage (47 × $0.20) $9.40
                                 ------
Total                          $108.40

You'll see the full breakdown on the invoice PDF and on your dashboard's Billing → Invoices page. We email the invoice the day it's generated.

Real-time usage visibility

Open Billing → Usage to see your current cycle's interaction count, projected end-of-cycle total, and projected overage cost. The dashboard updates within 60 seconds of each interaction.

We send three automatic alerts via email and dashboard banner:

• 80% of quota — heads-up; nothing happens yet
• 100% of quota — overage rate kicks in for further interactions
• +50% over quota — second heads-up so a misconfigured webhook doesn't run up a surprise bill

You can also set custom alert thresholds in Billing → Alerts.

Hard cap (optional, recommended for fixed-budget teams)

If you absolutely don't want to pay overages — e.g., you're running on a fixed budget — turn on Hard cap in Billing → Limits. With hard cap on, the AI politely tells callers "We're at capacity; please leave a message" once you hit the included quota.

Hard cap is OFF by default because most teams would rather pay $0.20 to land a customer than turn them away. But it's there if you need it.

What happens at end-of-cycle if I'm at 105%?

Nothing dramatic. The 5 interactions you went over bill at your tier's overage rate, get added to next month's invoice, and the counter resets to zero. No fees, no penalties, no service interruption.

The only time end-of-cycle gets sticky is if you are consistently 200%+ over. That is a strong signal you may need a custom Enterprise volume agreement.

Mid-cycle plan changes

When your account changes billing terms mid-cycle, three things can happen:

1. The new quota or contracted volume may replace the old one immediately.
2. Your overage rate may change going forward.
3. Stripe may issue a prorated credit or adjustment depending on the contract.

Downgrades or cancellations usually take effect at the next billing cycle unless support confirms otherwise.

Disputed charges

If you see overage on an invoice that doesn't match your dashboard usage, email billing@bizrnr.com with the invoice number. We have full per-interaction audit logs and resolve disputes within one business day. Most "disputes" turn out to be legitimate — usually a webhook loop or a misconfigured chat widget — and we credit those without question while you fix the root cause.

For a deeper dive into the metering math (how we count partial seconds on voice, how we resolve cross-channel threads), see the Metering internals article in the API section.