When a client's minutes run out

This guide explains what happens as a client uses up its minutes, so you can choose the right settings and answer your client’s questions. Usage is read from the client’s provider account every minute, and every limit below follows from that.

Step by step

The usage warning

When the client has used the share of its plan minutes you set in Usage warning (80% unless you change it), you and the client’s billing contacts are emailed, and a banner shows, for example 80% of plan minutes used.
Plan and pack minutes are used up: overflow starts

If the plan has overflow minutes, calls carry on using them. You and the client are emailed that overflow has started, and the banner reads Using overflow minutes, with how many are left. “Calls stop when they run out.”
Overflow running out

When the client has used the share of its overflow you set in Overflow warning (to you), your team is emailed. This one is for you only, so you can add minutes or call the client in time.
Everything is used up

What happens next depends on the client’s billing setting.

Track only: calls carry on. The extra time is recorded as over the limit, and the banner reads All minutes used with how far over the client is. See Client billing overview for how over-the-limit minutes are settled.

Track and enforce: new calls stop, as described below. You and the client are emailed, and the banner reads Calls have stopped: minutes used up.
Minutes come back

Add minutes, mark a pack or plan payment paid, or let the plan renew. Calls start again within a minute, every provider change is undone, and you and the client are emailed that calls have resumed.

On Track and enforce, a new call is refused as soon as the client has less left than your Minimum minutes to start a call (1 minute unless you change it), so a call does not start only to be cut short.

What stops on Track and enforce

Outbound calls and campaigns

With Stop outbound calls on, the portal checks before every outbound call it places, including every campaign call.

Campaigns pause by themselves. A running campaign shows Paused: out of minutes: “This client has used all its minutes. The campaign resumes automatically within a minute of minutes being added.” You don’t need to restart it.
Each outbound call is capped to the minutes the client has left, when that is shorter than the agent’s own maximum call length.

Inbound calls

With Stop inbound calls on, the portal changes the client’s settings on the provider while the client is blocked, so new inbound conversations are refused. It saves the previous settings first and restores them exactly when calls are allowed again. The client’s Billing page lists every change under Enforcement, and Show what changes shows them in advance.

Provider	What changes while blocked
ElevenLabs	Each agent’s conversation initiation webhook is set to the portal, which refuses new phone, SIP and WhatsApp conversations.
Retell AI	Each number’s inbound call webhook is set to the portal, which rejects calls.
Vapi	Each number’s assistant is removed, and the portal answers with your blocked message, set in Message callers hear when blocked (Vapi).

Some numbers and agents are always left as they are, so your own set-up is never overwritten. They are listed as not blocked under Show what changes:

Retell AI numbers that already use your own inbound webhook, or that also route to another client’s agent.
Vapi numbers that already send events to your own server URL, or that use a squad or workflow.
ElevenLabs agents that already use their own conversation initiation webhook.

Calls already in progress

By default, calls in progress finish. The extra time is recorded as over the limit and settled like any other over-the-limit minutes.

With End calls in progress on, calls end once the time in use reaches the minutes that were left, newest calls first, and only in the directions you stop:

Provider	Calls in progress
Retell AI	End once the minutes are used.
Vapi	Outbound calls end once the minutes are used, and inbound calls too with Exact call limits on. About a minute before the end, callers hear your wrap-up message once.
ElevenLabs	End at their time limit.

Exact call limits (Retell AI and Vapi) checks every inbound call and limits it to the minutes left. With several calls at once, also turn on End calls in progress so the total stays within the minutes.

With Website widget needs minutes on, the client’s ElevenLabs website widget starts conversations only while the client has minutes. The client’s website needs the widget code from the client’s Client settings. With the option off, widget conversations are still counted.

Text channels

Text conversations never use minutes, so they never run a client out of minutes. With Stop text channels too on, a client on Track and enforce also has its WhatsApp and SMS replies stopped:

when its calls stop, and
when its plan’s Chat conversations per month are used up. Then only text stops, until the next period; calls are not affected.

Provider	What stops
ElevenLabs	WhatsApp messaging is switched off for the client’s WhatsApp numbers.
Retell AI	Each SMS number’s inbound SMS webhook is set to the portal, which drops messages.
WhatsApp messages sent from the portal	Each send is checked first. With Stop outbound calls also on, sends are refused while text is stopped.

With Stop text channels too off, or on Track only, text conversations past the allowance are counted, and billed at renewal if the plan has a price per extra conversation.

Unlimited overflow

A client with Unlimited overflow never runs out. When its plan, pack and overflow minutes are used, calls carry on and every extra minute is billed at the plan’s overflow price at renewal. Calls stop only while you pause the client. The banner shows how many overflow minutes are used, and your team is emailed at the interval you set in Unlimited overflow: email me every.

Paused, suspended and outages

Paused by you. On Track and enforce, a paused client is blocked exactly as if its minutes had run out, whatever minutes it has. The banner reads Calls are paused.
Card payment failed. After the grace period, a client paying by card is suspended and blocked until it pays. See Connect Stripe.
Usage can’t be checked. If the portal cannot read a client’s minutes while checking an incoming call, If usage can’t be checked during a call decides: Let the call through (the default) or Refuse the call.
Usage can’t be read from the provider. After 5 failed reads in a row, your team sees Usage can’t be read from the voice provider and gets one email. Check the client’s API key. See Update a provider API key.

Summary by setting

	Track only	Track and enforce
Usage warning and overflow emails	Yes	Yes
New calls when minutes run out	Continue	Stop
Campaigns when minutes run out	Continue	Pause, then resume by themselves
Calls in progress	Finish	Finish, or end with End calls in progress
Text past the chat allowance	Counted	Stopped with Stop text channels too
Pausing the client	Recorded and emailed	Calls stop