Sell voice and WhatsApp bundles

A bundle is one monthly plan that covers a client’s phone calls, WhatsApp and website chat. The client gets one price and one bill. You get one place to see what each channel uses, and a margin on all of it.

Client billing keeps the two apart where it matters: calls use minutes, and web chat, WhatsApp and SMS use chats. Chats never use minutes. Each has its own allowance, its own packs and its own auto top-up, so a client who runs out of one keeps the other.

From channels to a bundle on the client's bill

Pause

You
Connect the channels
ElevenLabs agent, WhatsApp number and web chat
You
Create the bundle plan
Minutes plus a chat allowance, per conversation or per message
You
Add matching packs
Minute packs and chat packs for busy months
You
Give it to the client
Switch billing on, or Change plan
Your client
Calls and chats use the plan
Minutes and chats counted separately
Voice AI Portal
Renews monthly
Fresh allowance, extras billed, new payment

Before you begin

You need	Why	How
Client billing switched on	Nothing is billed until it is	Set up client billing
A client whose agents run on ElevenLabs	WhatsApp and web chat are set up from the portal for ElevenLabs clients	Connect ElevenLabs
The client’s WhatsApp number linked	WhatsApp chats are counted from the linked number	Connect WhatsApp
Web chat set up on the client’s website	Website chats are counted from the agent’s widget	Set up web chat
A chat-only agent for WhatsApp and web chat (recommended)	Chats keep going when the client’s minutes run out	Step 1 of the setup below
Stripe connected (optional)	Clients can buy packs by card and turn on auto top-up	Connect Stripe
Owner or admin	Owners and admins create plans and packs; the owner switches chat channels on for a client and sets the agency defaults	Team and roles

Retell AI and Vapi clients can have chats in a bundle too. See Retell AI and Vapi clients.

Price the bundle

Know your costs

Cost	Where it comes from	How to measure your own
Call minutes	ElevenLabs lists “Additional call minutes” at $0.08 per minute, with LLM usage billed on top (ElevenLabs pricing (opens in a new tab)).	The provider’s charges for the client’s calls in a month, divided by its billable minutes on the Usage card.
Chat messages	ElevenLabs lists text messages at $0.003 each, with LLM usage billed on top (ElevenLabs pricing (opens in a new tab)).	The provider’s charges for the client’s chats in a month, divided by the messages on the Usage card.
WhatsApp fees	Your client owns the WhatsApp Business account, and Meta bills the business directly.	Not your cost, unless you pay Meta for the client.

The Usage card on the client’s Billing page gives you both sides of the sum, for example “1,240 billable minutes · 412 calls · 186 chats, 1,532 messages (no minutes used)”. Messages divided by chats is the client’s average chat length: 1,532 ÷ 186 is about 8 messages a chat.

The examples below use fictional all-in costs of £0.12 a minute and £0.01 a chat message. With chats of about 10 messages, that is about £0.10 a chat conversation. Use your own figures once you have a month of usage. Selling now? Start from an example bundle on Track only and resize at renewal.

Conversation or message?

Choose	When	How to price it
Conversation	Short, similar chats: website questions, booking requests. Easy to sell: “300 chats a month”.	Price per extra conversation = average messages per chat × your cost per message × your markup. At 10 messages and £0.01, a markup of 2.5 gives £0.25.
Message, Customer and agent messages	Chats that vary in length, such as WhatsApp conversations that run over days. Your price follows your cost.	Price per extra message at about twice your cost per message, for example £0.02 against £0.01.
Message, Agent replies only	You want to bill only for the agent’s replies.	Each exchange counts once, so allow about half the messages and charge about twice the price per message.

Per conversation is easier to explain, but a long chat costs you more than a short one for the same price. If the client’s average chat is long, or growing, bill per message. See Bill your clients for chats for how each is counted.

Example bundles

These fictional plans build on the example plans in Create client plans, for an agency billing in GBP.

	Growth 500 + WhatsApp	Practice 1000	Chat 1000
Good for	A dental practice answering its phones and WhatsApp	A larger clinic with heavy calls and website chat	A business that wants only WhatsApp and web chat
Monthly price	£169	£229	£25
Included minutes per month	500	1,000	0
Overflow minutes	75 at £0.20	150 at £0.18	0
Rounding	Per 6 seconds	Per second	Per second
Unused minutes	Roll over for one period, at most 100	Keep rolling over, up to a cap, bank at most 500	Expire at renewal
Bill chats by	Message, Customer and agent messages	Conversation	Message, Customer and agent messages
Chats per month	2,000 chat messages	300 chat conversations	1,000 chat messages
Price per extra chat	£0.02 per message	£0.25 per conversation	£0.02 per message
Extra chats allowed per month	1,000	100	500
Unused chats	Expire at renewal	Roll over for one period, at most 100	Expire at renewal
Channels that count	WhatsApp and Web chat	WhatsApp and Web chat	All
Matching chat pack	1,000 chat messages for £15	100 chat conversations for £20	1,000 chat messages for £15

The sums, at the fictional costs above:

Bundle	Your cost for the included minutes and chats	Price	Margin
Growth 500 + WhatsApp	500 × £0.12 = £60, plus 2,000 × £0.01 = £20, so £80	£169	£89, about 53%
Practice 1000	1,000 × £0.12 = £120, plus 300 × £0.10 = £30, so £150	£229	£79, about 34%
Chat 1000	1,000 × £0.01 = £10	£25	£15, about 60%

Every extra is priced above cost too. An overflow minute on Growth 500 + WhatsApp earns £0.20 against £0.12, an extra chat message £0.02 against £0.01, and a pack message £0.015 against £0.01. A pack is a little cheaper than extras, so a client who gets the 80% warning has a reason to buy one.

Worked example: one month on Growth 500 + WhatsApp

A dental practice is on Growth 500 + WhatsApp. This month its calls come to 540 billed minutes and its WhatsApp and website chats to 2,300 chat messages.

Minutes. 500 plan minutes are used, then 40 overflow minutes. Overflow costs 40 × £0.20 = £8, billed at renewal.
Chats. At 1,600 messages (80% of 2,000), the practice and your team get the email “You’ve used 80% of your chats”.
If it buys nothing, 300 messages are extra: 300 × £0.02 = £6, billed at renewal. The month comes to £169 + £8 + £6 = £183. Your cost is 540 × £0.12 = £64.80 plus 2,300 × £0.01 = £23.00, so £87.80, and your margin is £95.20.
If it buys a pack after the warning, the 1,000 chat messages for £15 cover the 300 messages past the allowance and no extras are billed. The month comes to £169 + £8 + £15 = £192, and 700 pack messages stay for later months, until the pack expires.

At renewal, a client on manual payments gets a payment request for next month’s plan, one for “Overflow minutes: 40 min, Growth 500 + WhatsApp” and one for “Extra chat messages: 300, Growth 500 + WhatsApp”. A client paying through Stripe gets them as lines on its renewal invoice.

Set up the bundle

Give chats their own agent

The portal bills a WhatsApp or website conversation as a chat when ElevenLabs records it as text only, and every conversation on a chat-only agent is. ElevenLabs agents that take both voice and chat are judged as voice: when the client’s minutes run out on Track and enforce, such an agent refuses new conversations, chats included. A separate chat-only agent keeps WhatsApp and web chat billed as chats, and going while the client has chats left.
- In the client’s ElevenLabs account, create a second agent for chats, with the same instructions and knowledge as the voice agent.
- In the portal, open the client’s Client settings, go to Agents & numbers, select Refresh, select the new agent and select Save changes.
- Go to Chat channels. On the Web chat tab, choose the new agent in Agent, set Chat mode to Chat only and select Save changes. Chat only applies to every channel the agent answers, so keep the voice agent on the phone numbers.
- On the WhatsApp tab, choose the new agent in Agent answering this number.
- Copy the Embed code and add it to the client’s website. See Set up web chat.

Create the bundle plan

Go to Client billing, then Plans, and select New plan. Enter these values for Growth 500 + WhatsApp, and leave the other fields as they are:

Part of the form	Enter
Name and price	`Growth 500 + WhatsApp`, `169`, GBP
Minutes	`500` included, `75` overflow at `0.20`, Per 6 seconds, Roll over for one period at most `100`
Chats	Message, Customer and agent messages, `2000` a month, `0.02` per extra message, `1000` extra allowed, Expire at renewal
Channels that count	Only WhatsApp and Web chat ticked

Every field is explained in Create client plans, and the chat fields in Bill your clients for chats. Select Create plan. You see Plan created, and the Plans table shows “500 min” with “2,000 chat messages” under Included.

Create matching packs

Go to Client billing, then Packs.
- Chats: select New chat pack and create 1,000 chat messages, holding Chat messages, for 15, expiring after 12 months, with Can be used for auto top-up on.
- Minutes: check you have a minute pack in the same currency, such as 200 minutes for £40.
Each field is explained in Create minute and chat packs.

A chat pack must hold the same kind of chats as the plan: messages for Growth 500 + WhatsApp, conversations for Practice 1000.
Check the agency defaults (owner)

Go to Client billing, then Settings.
- Under Defaults for clients, set Chat warning (80% to start with) and check that Stop text channels too is on, so chats can stop at the limit on Track and enforce.
- Leave Chats left needed to start a new chat under Calls and payments at 1. It counts in each client’s own unit, so a higher agency value would refuse new chats to clients billed per conversation.
- Select Save settings.
- For a client billed per message, open its Client settings, go to Client billing and, under Chats, set Chats left needed to start a new chat to 10. A new chat then starts only while at least 10 messages are left, so one long WhatsApp chat can’t run far past the limit.
Give the bundle to the client

For a client that isn’t billed yet: open its Client settings, go to Client billing, choose Track only or Track and enforce under Billing for this client, choose the bundle in Plan, and select Switch on (or Turn on Track and enforce). “A plan starts a period today and creates its first payment request.”

For a client already on a plan: open the client, select Billing in the Agency only box, select Change plan, choose the bundle and select Save plan. Moving from Growth 500 to Growth 500 + WhatsApp is an upgrade (a higher price), so it starts today: unused plan minutes carry over, a new period starts and is billed at the bundle’s full price, and the renewal day moves to today. The payment already raised for the old period stays due. To avoid two charges in one month, change the plan on the client’s renewal day.
Show billing to the client

In Client settings, under Client billing, turn on Show billing to the client, and make sure the client has a billing contact. See Bill a client.

Track only or Track and enforce

	Track only	Track and enforce
Calls when minutes run out	Keep going, counted	Stop once plan, pack and overflow minutes are used
Chats when chats run out	Keep going, counted	Stop on ElevenLabs WhatsApp, ElevenLabs chat-only agents and Retell AI SMS once chats, packs and the extra chats allowed are used
Extras	Billed at renewal when priced	Billed at renewal when priced, up to the limits you set
Good for	The first month on a new channel, and clients you trust	Clients who must stay within what they pay for

On a bundle with a chat allowance, minutes and chats are judged separately. A client out of minutes keeps chatting while it has chats, and a client out of chats keeps calling while it has minutes. Stopping inbound calls and text changes settings in the client’s provider account. These provider changes are off until our team enables them for the client. See When minutes run out.

What your client sees

On their Billing page, billing contacts see:

Card	What it shows
Your plan	The bundle’s name and its renewal date.
Minutes this period	Plan, pack and overflow minutes used and left.
Chats this period	“Billed per message, from the customer and the agent. Chats never use minutes.”, the chats used and left, and any extras marked Billed at renewal.
Need more minutes? and Need more chats?	Your packs, with Request minutes or Request chats, or Buy now once your Stripe account is taking payments.
Auto top-up and Chat auto top-up	When you offer packs for auto top-up and Stripe is taking payments: each with its own pack and threshold, on one saved card.
Payments	The plan payment each month, and any overflow or extra chats billed at renewal.
Usage	Billable minutes, calls, chats and messages, by day, agent and channel.

They also get emails: the minutes usage warning, “You’ve used 80% of your chats”, and “You’ve used your 2,000 chat messages” when the plan chats are used, with what happens next. See Client billing for your clients.

Retell AI and Vapi clients

Chat billing works for every provider. A Retell AI or Vapi client can have a plan with minutes plus chats, billed per conversation or per message, with chat packs and auto top-up:

Retell AI: SMS and chat agents count as chats. On Track and enforce, new inbound SMS chats stop when chats run out. Other Retell AI chats keep going and count as extra chats.
Vapi: chats count as chats and keep going on Track and enforce, as extra chats billed at renewal when priced.

You set up chat for these clients in Retell AI or Vapi. WhatsApp is set up from the portal for ElevenLabs clients. See Set up web chat.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
WhatsApp or web chat stops when the client’s minutes run out	Answer chats with a chat-only agent (step 1 of the setup), and check the bundle has a chat allowance.
The client doesn’t see Need more chats?	Check you have an active chat pack in the client’s currency that holds the same kind of chats as its plan, and that Client can request packs is on for the client.
This client is billed for chat messages, and this pack holds a different kind of chat.	Create a chat pack that holds chat messages for this bundle.
A plan change says the client’s chats would stop counting	The client holds chats in the other unit. Use them up, remove them or settle the request first.
“This client has used all its chats.” when sending a WhatsApp template	Add chats or a chat pack, or wait for the allowance to reset.
Chats aren’t counted on WhatsApp	Check WhatsApp is ticked under Channels that count on the plan.
No Chat auto top-up card for the client	Turn on Can be used for auto top-up on a chat pack the client can buy, and check your Stripe account is taking payments.