# How billing works

> What Meta charges you for, what your Soosh wallet pays for today, and what happens when the wallet runs out.

Source: https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-billing-works/

Two companies can charge you. Meta charges for WhatsApp messages, and bills
your WhatsApp Business Account directly. Your Soosh wallet is a prepaid
balance that pays for AI, and only AI, once AI charging is on for your
workspace.

## Why it works this way

WhatsApp belongs to Meta, so Meta sets and collects its own message charges.
It bills the payment method on your WhatsApp Business Account, not Soosh.
Soosh shows an estimate before you send a campaign, but the bill comes from
Meta. See [How campaign pricing works](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-campaign-pricing-works/).

The AI that answers your customers costs money to run each time it's used.
A prepaid wallet lets you pay for that in advance, see each charge, and set a
limit, with no surprise invoice at the end of the month.

## What the wallet pays for

The wallet pays for AI work in your workspace:

- Bot replies written by the AI
- Customer memory updates
- Help for agents: reply suggestions, rewriting and translating a message,
  and the summary written when a chat is transferred

AI work that couldn't be delivered isn't charged, like an empty answer or a
bot reply that failed to send. Reply suggestions are charged when they're
written, even if the agent doesn't use them.
Charges are added up and taken from the wallet every few minutes. Each one
shows in **Activity** as **Usage**.

When AI charging is on for your workspace, the wallet page says **AI is paid
from this wallet.** [**Settings > AI usage**](https://app.soosh.io/settings/ai-usage) shows what the
AI did and what it cost.

Messages, campaigns and calls are not charged to the wallet. They keep
working whatever your balance is.

## Adding money

You add money by card, UPI and other methods, through payment providers such
as Stripe, Razorpay or PayPal. Which ones you see depends on your Soosh setup.
Only cards paid through Stripe can be saved.

A saved card lets you turn on automatic top-up. When the balance falls below an
amount you choose, Soosh tops it up from that card. It counts AI work that
isn't charged yet, so the top-up starts before the money runs out. To protect
your card, it charges at most 5 times a day, with at least 10 minutes between
tries. After 3 failures in a row it turns itself off.

Sometimes Soosh adds money for you. That shows in **Activity** as **Added by
Soosh**. A payment option marked **Test mode** moves no real money.

## When the wallet runs out

When there's nothing left for AI, AI pauses. Chats keep arriving, and your
team can still reply. The bot sends its **Fallback message** instead of an AI
answer. Customer memory and the AI tools agents use, like reply suggestions,
rewrite and translate, wait until there's money again.

The last AI reply before a pause can take the balance a little below zero.
The wallet then says **Your balance is negative. Add money to settle it.**

You can also set a limit on each month's AI spending in
[**Settings > AI usage**](https://app.soosh.io/settings/ai-usage). When the month's AI charges reach it, AI
pauses in the same way. It starts again on the 1st, or as soon as you raise
the limit.

People who manage payments get an email in 3 cases:

- About 3 days of AI spending are left. You get no email if automatic top-up is
  on.
- AI paused because the wallet is empty.
- AI paused because the monthly limit was reached.

The last two emails go out the first time AI would have answered and couldn't.
A workspace that isn't using AI gets none. While AI stays paused, the email
comes again once a day.

> **Tip:** Turn on automatic top-up if your bot answers customers with AI. A paused AI means
> customers get the fallback message instead of an answer.

## Emails about your wallet

These emails always go: they're about money, so the email notifications
switch in your profile doesn't turn them off.

| Email subject | When | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Payment received: `{amount}` added to your wallet | A top-up goes through | Whoever paid, and the people who manage payments |
| Your payment of `{amount}` didn't go through | The card or bank turns a top-up down | Whoever paid |
| Automatic top-up added `{amount}` to your wallet | An automatic top-up goes through | The people who manage payments |
| Couldn't top up your wallet | An automatic top-up fails. Failures right after it don't send it again | The people who manage payments |
| Automatic top-up is off | It failed 3 times in a row and turned itself off | The people who manage payments |
| We added `{amount}` to your wallet | Soosh adds money for you | The people who manage payments |

A top-up you cancel, or leave unpaid, sends nothing. The email for a top-up
that goes through confirms the payment; it isn't a tax invoice.

## Who can see and change it

Only the workspace owner can add money, change automatic top-up or set the
monthly limit. Admins can see the wallet and AI usage but can't change them.
Managers and agents don't see either page. The owner can give these rights to
someone else with a custom role. See [Roles and permissions](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/roles-and-permissions/).

## Related

- [Add money to your wallet](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/workspace/top-up-your-wallet/)
- [Turn on automatic top-up](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/workspace/turn-on-auto-recharge/)
- [Track AI usage and cost](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/analytics/track-ai-usage-and-cost/)
- [How campaign pricing works](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-campaign-pricing-works/)
- [How AI answers are built](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-ai-answers-are-built/)