At Postscript, we use credits to determine the cost of each sent message. You can view how many credits you've used and how many are still available in your billing cycle in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard.
Message Types and Credits
Certain messages will cost more than one credit depending on the message type and character count.
| Message Type | Credits | Character Count |
|---|---|---|
| Single SMS message | 1 | Up to 160 plain text characters |
| Single SMS message with emojis | 1 | Up to 70 plain text characters and emojis |
| MMS message | 3 | Up to 1600 characters with text and an image or GIF |
| International SMS | 10 | Up to 160 plain text characters, or 70 plain text characters and emojis |
International Messages
Countries outside of the United States (US) and Canada are considered international. Whether Postscript considers an SMS message international depends on the location of the subscriber, not the store sending the message.
For example:
- If you are an Australian store sending to a US or Canada subscriber, the message will cost 1 credit. Here, the subscriber is not international.
- If you are a store in the US or Canada sending a message to an Australian subscriber, the message will cost 10 credits. Here, the subscriber is international because they are outside the US or Canada.
- If you are an Australian store sending to an Australian subscriber, the message will cost 10 credits. Here, the subscriber is international because they are outside the US or Canada.
Due to international carries and rates, we cannot send MMS messages outside of the US at this time.
Cost Per Credit Breakdown
Depending on your current plan, you'll have a set cost per credit (CPC). Since SMS, MMS, and international messages use different credit amounts, let's break it down to better understand the cost related to each message type.
| Plan | Credits | CPC | SMS Cost | MMS Cost | Int'l Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | 2,500 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.10 |
| $50 | 5,000 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.10 |
| $100 | 10,000 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.10 |
| $200 | 20,000 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.10 |
| $300 | 30,000 | $0.0099 | $0.0099 | $0.0297 | $0.099 |
| $400 | 40,000 | $0.0099 | $0.0099 | $0.0297 | $0.099 |
| $500 | 50,000 | $0.0099 | $0.0099 | $0.0297 | $0.099 |
If you are on a plan not pictured above, then you can calculate your cost per credit by dividing the cost of your plan by how many credits it includes (ex: $25/2,500 credits = $0.01). Cost per credit is also the cost to send one domestic SMS message since SMS messages cost one credit.
To calculate the cost of an MMS message, multiple your cost per credit by three, since MMS messages cost 3 credits to send (ex: $0.01 CPC x 3 = $0.03 per send message).
If you plan to send a campaign and would like to calculate the exact cost, take the total number of credits it will use (as seen on the campaign message details page) and multiply it by your current cost per credit.
For example, say you are on the $500/mo plan and send an SMS campaign to 10,000 customers. That's 10,000 credits. Your current cost per credit is $0.01, so 10,000 credits x $0.01 = $100. That campaign cost you $100.
Upgrade Your Plan
If you find yourself in need of more credits during your current cycle, you always have the option to upgrade your plan. You can view your current plan and additional plan options in your account settings.
- Select your Shop Name in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Plan.
- Here you can view days remaining in your billing cycle and your upgrade options.
When you upgrade your plan, new credits are immediately available for use. Postscript only bills you the difference between your former plan and the upgraded plan.
Say you're currently at the $50 plan which gives you 5,000 credits a month. You've sent 4,813 credits worth of messages but have 17 days left in your billing cycle. You can upgrade to the $100 plan with 10,000 credits a month, and two things will happen:
- You'll see an additional 5,000 credits added to your plan.
- You'll be billed $50, which is the difference between your last plan and your upgraded plan.
Downgrade Your Plan
If you find yourself with more credits than you use at the end of each billing cycle, then you might choose to downgrade your plan. You can view your current plan and additional plan options in your account settings.
- Select your Shop Name in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Plan.
- Here you can view your current usage, days remaining in your billing cycle, and downgrade options.
You cannot downgrade your current plan if you've already used more than the allotted amount of credits in the downgraded plan you're considering.
For example, say your shop is on the 38,000 credits a cycle plan and you've used 33,600 of those credits. You want to downgrade, but the next plan down is 29,500 credits a cycle. You won't be able to downgrade because you've already used more than the 29,500 credits in your current cycle.
In situations like this one, we recommend waiting until your next cycle to downgrade your plan. You can even schedule your plan to downgrade on the start date of your new cycle. Any unused credits roll over into your next cycle.
Pause Your Plan
Shops can choose to pause their plan; however, it's important to be aware of how credits are used during the paused period.
When shops pause their plan, they keep any credits they currently have. Shops can still send messages if they have credits available.
- Automations (e.g., welcome series, abandoned cart, etc.) will continue to send as triggered until there are no credits available.
- Shops can send a campaign if they have the correct number of available credits. Postscript will notify the shop of insufficient credits via a light blue notification at the bottom of the page.
A shop will need to upgrade to a paid plan in order to add more credits. Postscript does not retroactively send out automations that did not send due to insufficient credits.
Since shops keep credits on a paused plan, these credits are not refunded.
You can follow the below steps to pause Postscript.
- Select your Store Name in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Plan.
- Locate the Paused Store plan option at the top of the plan listing.
- Select Cancel Plan on the far-right of the Pause Plan row.
- Select a reason for canceling and add comments, if desired.
- Select Continue.
Rollover Credits
Unused credits from a previous billing cycle will roll over into your current billing cycle. If rollover credits are not used in your next billing cycle, they will not roll over again.
Postscript will use your regular plan credits to send campaigns, automations, and additional messaging for your current billing cycle. Once you have exhausted these credits, then Postscript will use your rollover credits.
- Select your Shop Name in the side menu of your Postscript dashboard, then select Plan.
- Locate the Rollover Credits bar. This shows you how many credits rolled over from your previous billing cycle and how many of those rollover credits you've used in your current billing cycle.
Let's take a quick look at how rollover credits work:
- Say our shop has 10,000 credits a cycle.
- In our first billing cycle, we send 8,250 messages. That means we have 1,750 credits to roll over into our next billing cycle.
- In our second billing cycle, we send 11,500 messages. That means Postscript used our standard 10,000 credits plus 1,500 of our unused credits.
- While we have 250 remaining credits that rolled over from the first billing cycle, these credits won't roll over into the third billing cycle because we can only roll over credits from the previous cycle.
- Since we used all of our standard 10,000 credits in the second cycle, we have no unused credits to roll over into the third.
Shopify Billing
If you downloaded Postscript via the Shopify App Store, then we will bill you through Shopify.
Invoices process at the end of your billing cycle; however, you may receive an invoice during a billing cycle if you upgrade your plan.
If you change your plan, Shopify will prorate your plans to reflect how long you were on each tier. For example, if you spend 15 days on the $100 plan, then upgrade halfway through your cycle to the $200 plan with 15 days left in your billing cycle, your invoice would show $150 ($100 for your original plan and $50 for the upgrade with 15 days left).
If you have questions about a Shopify invoice, please reach out to Shopify directly.
Get Support
Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!
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