Voice minutes and phone numbers

Voice lets people talk to your bot instead of typing, either through the call button in your website widget or by ringing a number on the phone channel. Both draw from the same voice add-on, which measures call time in minutes. Anything the bot does during a call (looking things up, running power-ups) also uses your plan's message tokens.

You buy and manage voice on your billing page under Voice calls.

Packs and minutes

Monthly examples

These prices are added to your Chat Thing plan and exclude applicable taxes. Your existing phone carrier may charge you for forwarding calls to your Chat Thing number. Subscriptions bought before the switch to 60-minute packs keep their original price and allowance, shown on the billing page.

Launch offer

When a launch offer is running, eligible teams get $5 off their first voice invoice (for example, one pack costs $5 in the first month, then $10/month). The discount applies once per team, however many packs you buy. Phone numbers and your main plan aren't discounted. Your billing page shows whether you're eligible and the amount before checkout. Cancelling and subscribing again doesn't reset eligibility.

Phone numbers

• Phone numbers for the phone channel cost $5 a month per number. They're added to your voice subscription and charged pro rata from the day you get the number.
• You need a voice subscription before you can rent a number.
• Numbers are available in the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Releasing a number stops calls to it immediately and adjusts the charge on your next invoice. Chat Thing holds a released number for seven days in case you need it back.

How minutes are counted

• When a call starts, it reserves its maximum duration (the bot's call limit, up to 15 minutes) from your allowance. This stops two callers spending the same minutes at once. When the call ends, only the time actually used is kept and the rest goes back.
• A call needs at least 30 seconds of allowance to start.
• Call time includes silences and pauses while the bot is thinking.
• On the phone channel, a call transferred to your team keeps using minutes while your team member is on the line.
• Your billing page shows minutes used this period and minutes currently reserved by calls in progress.
• A per-bot monthly limit (set in the website or phone channel settings) caps what that bot can use, but doesn't set minutes aside for it. Every bot still draws from the same team allowance.

Free test minutes

The phone channel's shared test line gives every team whose plan includes the phone channel 10 free test minutes a month, tracked separately from your voice packs. You can use them without a voice subscription or a rented number. They reset on the 1st of each month (UTC).

Change or cancel voice

1. Go to Billing and find Voice calls.
2. To start, choose your Monthly packs and select Enable voice. You'll finish payment in checkout.
3. To change the number of packs, set Monthly packs and select Update packs for next month.
4. To stop, select Cancel voice renewal.

What each change does:

• More packs take effect at your next renewal. They don't add minutes to the current period.
• Fewer packs also apply from the next renewal.
• Cancelling stops the add-on renewing. Your remaining minutes stay usable until the end of the paid period, and any rented phone numbers stop with it.
• If your main Chat Thing plan ends, the voice add-on ends with it.

Who can manage voice billing

The voice add-on is managed from the Billing page, which only the team owner can open. The owner buys, changes or cancels it there. Owners and admins rent and release phone numbers in the phone channel's Phone number section. Other team members can see the remaining allowance in the channel settings and can ask the owner to manage it. See Teams and roles.