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How to see and manage your usage

Where to view your Intercom usage and set usage alerts for messages, channels, and resolutions to keep your budget on track.

Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated over a week ago

This article refers to our new pricing plans. For information about one of our legacy plans, please log in to view these articles instead, or contact us through the Messenger.

We want you to be fully aware when you’re reaching certain levels of usage in Intercom–which is why you can set up your own usage alerts and keep your budget on track.

Teammates with billing permissions can set usage alerts for:

  • Messages sent

  • Channels: Phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Emails

  • Fin AI Agent resolutions

All teammates listed as a billing contact will be notified via email when you reach your set levels of usage.

Review your billing contacts before setting up an alert.


Viewing your usage

To view your usage, go to Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage.

To access usage metrics you need billing permissions for your workspace.

“Billing period” is the timeframe the charts below refer to - your current invoice period. It shows the usage data specific to your current billing cycle.

For each chart you will see:

  • In the black tooltip to the left, a brief description of each metric. If you want to learn more about a specific metric, click on the link to our Help Center provided in the tooltip.

  • In the white tooltip to the right, the estimated cost for each metric in this billing period.

  • Usage visualization (graph) indicating your daily usage for seats, or cumulative usage for all other metrics.

Keep in mind that for seats, the cost displayed on the chart may differ from your invoice as seats will be prorated based on actual daily seat usage. Learn more about how billing works.

If you're on a contract, the blue threshold line on the charts indicates your contracted amount for that metric. It allows you to compare your actual usage with your contracted limit. If you come across a chart displaying usage without the presence of the blue threshold line, it indicates that you are using the metric on a pay-as-you-go basis. In this scenario, you will receive a bill for the usage at the end of the period.

Usage for Proactive Support Plus

If your subscription includes the Proactive Support Plus add-on, the dashboard will also provide information on your current ‘Messages Sent‘ usage.

The blue threshold line on the chart specifically represents the ‘Messages Sent’ that are covered by the base fee included in your subscription, or any contracted value. This visual cue helps you track your usage of ‘Messages Sent’ and identify the portion included in the add-on, and where you’ve gone over this amount.


Setting usage alerts

You can choose which metrics you'd like to set an alert for, and each metric can have a different threshold. Setting an alert allows your workspace billing contacts to receive notifications when you are near to, or you have reached a limit.

To set a usage alert, go to Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage.

To set a usage alert you'll need billing permissions for your workspace.

From the metric, click Set usage alerts.

Usage alerts are not available on seats.

Toggle on "Enable usage alerts for this workspace" and set a number when you would like to be notified then click Save.

A price will be shown next to the level you set to indicate how much this number will cost.

Optionally, you can opt-in to receive notifications when your usage reaches 50% and 80% of the set threshold by selecting the checkbox labeled "Also get alerts when usage reaches 50% and 80% of the total you've entered above." If selected, your billing contacts will receive an email notification at both 50% and 80% of the usage level you set.

Note:

  • Setting and receiving a usage alert won't disable channels or messages from sending, it only notifies you that you have reached your set usage level for this billing cycle.

  • If you have contracted usage and multiple workspaces, you’ll need to configure the reminder for each workspace keeping in mind that the usage included in your subscription is shared among all your workspaces.

Updating a usage alert threshold

You can update the threshold for a usage alert at any time. If the threshold is updated to a value below the current usage level, the change will take effect from the next billing cycle. If the threshold is raised above the current usage level, the change will take effect immediately.

Turning off a usage alert

To turn off a usage alert, go to Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage.

From the metric, click Set usage alerts and then toggle off "Enable usage alerts for this workspace" and click Save.

Manage Fin AI Agent usage and set hard limits

You may have previously set up usage alerts and hard limits for Fin AI Agent resolutions. This is now managed from Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage along with all your other usage.

Set Fin AI Agent usage alerts

To set Fin AI Agent usage alerts for resolutions, navigate to Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage then scroll down to Resolutions and click on Set usage alerts and limit.

Here, you can toggle on "Enable usage alerts for this workspace" and set the number of resolutions then click Save.

The price shown next to the number of resolutions indicates the amount you’ll pay when you reach that set number of resolutions. If you have a contracted number of resolutions, it will show the additional cost above your contracted amount.

Setting and receiving this notification won't disable Fin AI Agent. You can take proactive measures such as setting hard limits to turn Fin AI Agent off entirely, or only enabling it for a subset of your customer support queries.

Set up a backup workflow when Fin AI Agent reaches a resolution limit

This is only available to customers with access to the Workflows product.

Workflow branching

If you have set a Fin AI Agent usage limit, you can configure a backup workflow to trigger once that limit has been reached. Create a workflow branch with the “Let Fin answer” step as one branch path, and the new “Resolution limit reached” action as the other path.

Audience targeting

Use the "Resolution limit reached" action in the workflows Audience rules. This workflow will trigger once the usage limit has been reached.

Usage limits are recalculated every hour on the half-hour, so it is possible for you to exceed the usage limit within this hour. This predicate will only be marked to true once the usage limit has been recalculated, not immediately after the limit has been reached.

If you do not use the “Resolution limit reached” predicate before the workflow passes to Fin AI Agent, the behavior remains unchanged. Any messages over the usage limit will be sent directly to the Help Desk.

Set hard limits

For Fin AI Agent resolutions you can also set hard limits to your usage. To set a hard limit, navigate to Settings > Workspace > Billing > Usage then scroll down to Resolutions and click on Set usage alerts and limit.

Here, you can toggle on "Enable usage limit for this workspace" and set the number of resolutions then click Save.

Once this limit is reached, Fin AI Agent will be disabled for any new and existing conversations for the remainder of your billing period.

For any new conversations that are started, the conversation will immediately jump to the handover steps that were configured in your workflow. Any conversations that were already in progress when the limit was hit would also immediately jump to the handover the next time the customer interacts with it.

You’ll receive an email notification as well as be notified in-app when a limit has been reached.

Note:

  • We cannot guarantee the limit will be 100% accurate. Due to the nature of resolutions and how we calculate them, the state of conversations can change over time. Therefore we cannot guarantee that Fin AI Agent will be stopped at that exact limit and the final number of resolutions can be higher/lower.

  • If you enter a limit that is lower than your current usage, then Fin AI Agent answers will be disabled immediately. If the number of resolutions falls below the configured limit, Fin AI Agent answers will be re-enabled again.

  • There are no validations here against contracted resolutions and the system will obey whatever limit is set in-app. If it’s lower than your contracted amount you will still be billed for your contracted amount.

Data freshness

The data displayed on the Usage and Subscription page is refreshed automatically every 30 minutes giving you access to the most up-to-date information and transparency into your current usage. Usage alerts will be sent according to this data.

You can see details on when the page was last updated at the top of the page.

The day before you receive your invoice and on the invoice day, you will see usage for your previous billing cycle. This is because the usage period is finalized a day before your invoice day but the invoice isn’t issued until the invoice date. However, usage alerts will continue to run on the same data that is updated every 30 mins.


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