Billing and usage
How Enscale charges work — subscription, AI resolutions, overage, the Shopify usage cap, and Meta's separate fees.
Your Enscale bill has up to three parts:
- Your plan subscription — a fixed monthly or annual charge.
- Usage charges — AI resolutions, and overage if you opted in.
- Nothing else from us. Meta's WhatsApp fees are billed by Meta, directly to you.
For plan prices and allowances, see Plans and limits. This page covers how the charges actually work.
Everything runs through Shopify billing
Enscale bills entirely through Shopify. Charges appear on your Shopify invoice alongside your other apps — there is no separate Enscale invoice and no card stored with us.
That also means Shopify's rules apply, including the annual-plan restriction below.
AI resolution charges
AI agents are metered, not capped. You're charged per resolution at your plan's rate:
| Plan | Per AI resolution |
|---|---|
| Starter | $0.18 |
| Growth | $0.16 |
| Pro | $0.14 |
| Scale | $0.12 |
A resolution is counted only when the AI solved the customer's problem and closed the conversation itself. Specifically:
- AI handled the conversation, and
- AI marked it resolved, and
- no human took over first.
If a human agent picks the conversation up, it is not an AI resolution and you are not charged. Conversations auto-closed after 24 hours of silence are also not charged.
Media add-on
Conversations where the AI processed audio or images cost an extra $0.032 on top of the resolution rate. Voice notes and photo-based support questions are meaningfully more expensive to run, so this is passed through rather than averaged into the base rate.
AI credit bundles
If you buy an AI credit bundle, resolutions are deducted from the bundle first. Once the bundle is exhausted, further resolutions bill at your plan's standard rate.
Bundle credits are valid for the bundle's period and do not roll over.
Overage charges
Off by default. When enabled, work continues past your allowance instead of pausing, and you're charged per unit.
| Metric | Starter | Growth | Pro | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per workflow run | $0.005 | $0.004 | $0.003 | $0.002 |
| Per conversation | $0.00199 | $0.00179 | $0.00149 | $0.00119 |
Workflow overage and conversation overage are independent toggles in Settings → Billing.
Overage is a good trade when a seasonal spike would otherwise pause your order notifications. It's a bad trade as a permanent state — if you're consistently over, the next plan up is cheaper.
The Shopify usage cap
Every metered charge — AI resolutions and overage both — draws from a single Shopify usage cap. It's a hard ceiling on what Enscale can charge you in a billing period.
| Plan | Default usage cap |
|---|---|
| Starter | $100 |
| Growth | $200 |
| Pro | $300 |
| Scale | $500 |
When you approach the cap, Shopify notifies Enscale and we email you. When you hit it, metered charges stop — which means AI resolutions and overage stop too, since Enscale can no longer bill for them.
You can raise the cap from your Shopify subscription. Shopify requires you to approve any increase.
The Shopify usage cap resets on your Shopify subscription's own cycle, while Enscale allowances reset on the 1st of the calendar month. These two dates will not match. See Plans and limits.
Annual billing
Annual plans are charged 12 months upfront and give you two months free — about 17% off.
Shopify does not support usage charges on annual subscriptions. On an annual plan you cannot be charged for AI resolutions or overage, which means those features effectively cannot run past your included allowance. If you use AI agents, choose monthly.
You can switch from annual back to monthly at renewal.
Meta's WhatsApp fees are separate
Meta bills you directly through your connected WhatsApp Business account. Enscale never sees or marks up these charges.
The two are counted differently, which is a common source of confusion:
- Enscale counts one broadcast message per recipient.
- Meta charges per delivered conversation, priced by recipient country and template category.
A 1,000-recipient campaign is always 1,000 Enscale broadcast messages. What Meta charges depends on where those recipients are and whether your template is marketing or utility.
Before sending, Enscale shows you the template category, eligible recipient count, skipped recipients, and an estimated Meta charge range where available. See Meta template charges.
Reading your usage
Settings → Billing shows your current plan and billing cycle, usage meters for conversations, workflow runs and broadcast messages, AI resolution count and projected charge, active bundle balance, overage toggles, and your Shopify usage cap.
Usage meters turn amber at 80% and red at 100%.
If your subscription lapses
A cancelled, expired, or non-renewing subscription drops you to Free entitlements immediately. Your data is untouched — contacts, conversations, workflows, and reviews all remain. Resubscribing restores your limits.
FAQ
Next steps
- Plans and limits — allowances and pricing.
- AI usage and spend — controlling AI cost.
- Meta template charges — what Meta bills you.