AI usage and spend
What AI agents cost, what you're actually charged for, and the three ways to make sure the bill can't surprise you.
AI agents are the one genuinely variable cost in Enscale. Everything else is your plan; this is charged per use.
The reassuring part: there's a hard ceiling you control, and you're only charged when the AI actually solved something.
What you pay
| Plan | Per AI resolution |
|---|---|
| Starter | $0.18 |
| Growth | $0.16 |
| Pro | $0.14 |
| Scale | $0.12 |
Plus $0.032 on any resolution where the agent handled a voice note or an image.
Not available on the Free plan.
What counts as a resolution
You're charged only when all three are true:
- The AI handled the conversation.
- The AI marked it resolved.
- No human took over first.
| What happened | Charged? |
|---|---|
| AI solved it and closed it | Yes |
| AI handed over to a human | No |
| A human took over at any point | No |
| Auto-closed after 24h of silence | No |
| AI answered, customer went quiet | No |
Escalating is free — so let your agent escalate
Only complete AI resolutions cost you anything. Handing over is free, always.
Tune your agents towards handing over readily. It costs nothing extra, and the alternative — an agent guessing at your refund policy to avoid escalating — is far more expensive.
Voice notes cost a bit more
Audio and images take more work to process, so a resolution involving either carries an extra $0.032.
If you accept voice notes on WhatsApp — normal in India and much of the Middle East — expect a decent share of your resolutions to carry this. It's still dramatically cheaper than a person handling the same conversation.
Three ways to control spend
1. The Shopify usage cap — your hard ceiling
Every metered charge — AI resolutions and any overage — draws from one cap.
| Plan | Default cap |
|---|---|
| Starter | $100 |
| Growth | $200 |
| Pro | $300 |
| Scale | $500 |
When the cap is hit, AI resolutions stop. Enscale can't create further charges, so agents stop resolving. You're warned as you approach it, and you can raise it from your Shopify subscription — Shopify requires you to approve any increase, so it can never rise without you knowing.
This is the setting that makes AI spend genuinely safe. It cannot run away from you.
2. Prepay with credit bundles
Buy a block of resolutions up front. Resolutions come out of the bundle first, then bill at your plan rate once it's used up.
Bundle credits are valid for the bundle's period and do not roll over.
3. Point agents at the right conversations
The cheapest resolution is one that never needed to happen.
- Enable agents where they earn their keep. Webchat pre-sale questions are high-volume and highly automatable. A quiet Facebook Page probably isn't worth it.
- Use automations for anything predictable. An order-status automation costs nothing; an AI agent answering "where's my order?" costs a resolution and might get it wrong.
- Keep your knowledge base tight. An agent that flails through six turns before resolving costs more than one that answers in two.
Worked example: what this actually costs
You're on Growth ($0.16 per resolution) and your webchat agent handles about 400 conversations a month.
| Conversations the agent handled | 400 |
| Handed over to your team | 120 — free |
| Resolved by the AI | 280 — charged |
| Of those, involving a voice note | 60 (+$0.032 each) |
| Monthly AI cost | 280 × $0.16 = $44.80, plus 60 × $0.032 = $1.92 → ≈ $47 |
Against your $200 cap, you're using about a quarter of it.
Is it worth it? Those 280 conversations would otherwise have taken your team's time. At roughly ₹14 per resolution, it's cheaper than almost any human alternative.
But the real question isn't cost per resolution — it's whether the resolution was any good. One badly-resolved conversation that becomes a public complaint costs far more than the ₹14 you saved. Which is the whole argument for letting the agent escalate freely.
Keeping an eye on it
Settings → Billing shows resolutions this period, your projected charge, remaining bundle balance, and where you sit against the cap.
The number worth watching is cost per resolution — total charge divided by resolutions. If it's drifting above your plan rate, voice notes and images are accumulating.
Track the value side on the Revenue page under support savings — and read it next to your resolution charges, never instead of them.
Common questions
Next steps
- AI agents — configuring what agents handle.
- Knowledge base — fewer turns per resolution.
- Billing and usage — how this appears on your Shopify invoice.