What Counts as a Conversation
Every plan includes a number of conversations per month. It is the only usage number you are billed on.
The Rule#
A conversation is charged once when it starts, and again for each additional hour it remains active. Not per message, not per visitor, not per bot.
When One Starts#
A conversation starts the first time a visitor sends a message to one of your bots. Opening the widget and reading the greeting does not start one.
Each of these is one conversation:
- A visitor sends one message and leaves.
- A visitor sends forty messages over twenty minutes.
- A visitor asks a question, fills in a form, and books a call.
When It Ends#
A conversation goes idle after 10 minutes with no activity. The next message after that starts a new one.
The window is short enough that an abandoned chat does not sit on your allowance, and long enough that someone who steps away to find an order number returns to the same conversation instead of starting a new one.
The Hourly Charge#
A single conversation still active after 60 minutes is charged again, and again for each hour after that. This is rare on a website and matters in two cases:
- Channel conversations. A WhatsApp thread can stay open far longer than a website chat, because the visitor replies when they feel like it.
- A visitor parked on a form. A form link stays valid for an hour.
A long conversation runs to its natural end, and is charged again for each hour it stays open.
Interactions That Cost Nothing#
- Opening the widget without sending anything.
- The bot's own replies.
- Onboarding, scraping your site, or compiling your knowledge base.
- Building and saving bots, workflows and knowledge entries.
Chatting to a bot on the Preview tab is the exception: it runs the same widget against the same endpoint as your website, so it is charged like any other conversation.
Where to Watch It#
The dashboard shows conversations used against your allowance for the current billing period. A new block of credit is issued on your renewal date, not on the first of the month, and each block runs for 31 days from the day it is issued.
Common Questions#
What Happens If I Run Out Mid-Month?#
The bot degrades instead of disappearing. It keeps loading and keeps serving keyword workflows, and AI answering resumes when the allowance renews or the plan is upgraded.
A failed payment is a different case: when the grace period expires, every bot in the workspace is suspended. A suspended bot answers every message with a fixed notice saying it has reached the limit set by the website administrator, and pointing the owner at their Chatleadr dashboard.
Are Top-Ups Cheaper Than Upgrading?#
No, and they are not meant to be. A top-up pack costs a flat one cent per conversation at every size, from the 500 pack to the 10,000. Every paid plan is priced a little under that, and the larger the plan the lower the rate.
So the two answer different questions:
- A busy month. A top-up covers a spike without changing what you pay every month afterwards. Its conversations never expire, so anything you do not use stays for later.
- A consistently larger volume. Moving up a plan is cheaper per conversation and raises the allowance that arrives each month.
See plans and billing.
Does a WhatsApp Conversation Cost More Than a Website One?#
The rate is the same. WhatsApp threads tend to stay open longer, so they are more likely than website chats to pass the 60-minute mark and be charged a second time.
If Two Bots Answer the Same Person, Is That One Conversation or Two?#
Two. A conversation belongs to a bot, so the same person talking to two of your bots produces one conversation on each. The allowance is shared across every bot on the same bill, which for an agency includes its client workspaces.
Do My Own Test Messages Count?#
Yes. The dashboard preview runs the same widget against the same endpoint as your website, so a preview conversation is charged and counted like any other.