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Telephony usage is available on any Close plan!

Your Close calling features include global phone numbers, voicemail, call logging, recording, SMS, Predictive Dialer, Power Dialer, and calling – all built into your CRM plan. You’ll be able to cut other VoIP systems out of your expenses and processes, like RingCentral, Grasshopper, 8x8, Five9, OpenPhone, and others. Close acts as both your virtual phone system carrier and your support team. Just pay for what you use. This article explains how usage is calculated and charged in Close.

Your team's Calling & SMS usage is deducted from your usage credit balance. Calling and SMS are enabled for all Users on any Plan, but you can restrict the use of Communication for specific users via Roles & Permissions. To view and manage your team's usage credit balance, go to the Usage tab in your Billing settings.

Up to $10 in free Usage credit every month

As a Close customer, we reload free usage credit into your account every month. This free credit resets every month and does not roll over.

Once your free credit is used, we'll start to deduct it from your usage credit balance. You can adjust your monthly limit and auto-recharge settings on the Usage tab in your Billing settings.

Here are the free usage credit amounts by Plan per organization:

Usage rates for Calling

Calls are charged per minute and phone numbers are charged monthly according to Twilio’s Voice pricing. Per Twilio's pricing, all phone calls are rounded up to the nearest minute and cent (a 70-second call is charged as a 2-minute call).

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Be smart: Call rates may vary

Call rates vary by country and phone number type. The per minute rate for a call may vary based on the number being called and the number being used to make the call.

For reference, here are some example phone number and per minute rates based on Twilio's current pricing:

How forwarded calls are charged

When an incoming call is made to one of your Close phone numbers and gets forwarded, you will be charged for two separate calls according to the rates associated with those calls:

1. The incoming call that was made to a Close phone number.
2. The outgoing call that is being placed from Close to the phone number in your Call Forwarding settings.

How transferred calls are charged

When you transfer a call within Close, there are at least three separate calls being made:

1. The original call that was made (outbound/inbound).
2. The outbound call that's made by the person transferring the call to another user.
3. Once the call is answered by the other user, that counts as an incoming call.

In the event that a call is transferred more than once, these charges will repeat each time a call is transferred. Calls are charged according to the specific rates associated with those calls.

If you transfer a call to a number outside of Close, you will only be charged for two calls: The original call and the outgoing call being made to initiate the transfer.

How Caller ID calls are charged

When you use an external phone number set as a Caller ID in Close you will be charged based on that number origin. For example, if you have a United States phone number set as a Caller ID and you are calling Australia, the international US to Australia calling rates will apply.

Usage rates for Phone Numbers

The price of a phone number depends on the country and type (local, toll-free, etc.). For a comprehensive list of phone number types and costs, click here.

The cost of Phone Number rentals comes from the organization's telephony budget. Phone Number rental costs are deducted when the number is rented, which can happen when a new user is added to the organization or a new group number is rented.

Rented numbers are renewed each month on the calendar day before the rental, so a number rented on January 2nd would be renewed on February 1st. If the billing day doesn’t exist in the current month, it is billed on the last day of the month.

If a user or phone number is removed from the organization, the phone number will not be renewed, and cannot be retrieved (there is a short grace period when a number can be repurchased, if you have removed your number by mistake reach out to us at [email protected] as soon as possible, we may be able to help you retrieve it).

Usage rates for SMS and MMS

Close supports sending and receiving SMS messages with SMS-enabled phone numbers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. SMS usage is charged according to Twilio's current SMS pricing, rounded up to the nearest cent.

SMS messages cannot be sent between phone numbers from different countries (except for the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico). To determine if your Close phone number is SMS-enabled, please contact Support.

For reference, here are our current SMS rates based on Twilio's current pricing:

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A note about SMS "units"

SMS rates are charged per SMS "unit," not per message. An SMS sent via Close can consist of one or more units. If you're only using characters in the English alphabet, each unit is 140 characters. Otherwise, if you're using foreign characters or emojis, a unit can contain as little as 33 characters.

Close currently supports sending and receiving MMS in the US and Canada. Our current rates based on Twilio's pricing are below: