How We Bill
Your billing is calculated based on your subscription. You can find the details of your subscription on the Plans & Billing page.
Journeys plans
Fair Use Policy (beginning August 1, 2023)
Starting Aug 1, all Journeys plans will include unlimited in-app messages, push notifications, SMS, and webhook messages. You don’t need to do anything to activate unlimited non-email messaging; your plan will be updated automatically.
This change is unlimited, so we’ve instituted a fair use policy to protect against abuse. If you have any questions, please contact us at win@customer.io.
Your Journeys plan includes a base number of people, objects, emails, and Data Pipelines API calls per month. If you go over these limits, you’ll pay additional costs per item. Consult your account’s Plans & Billing page to see your monthly counts and any additional usage rates that apply to the current month and plan.
Additional emails
Emails over your plan’s limit are calculated at a standard rate of $0.12 per 1,000 emails. If you configure your own SMTP service, emails sent through this service do not count towards your total emails.
You’ll find your email count on your Plans & Billing page.
Non-email messages and fair use
Journeys plans include unlimited in-app messages, push notifications, SMS, and webhook messages. We don’t charge for these kinds of messages.
However, while these messages are unlimited, we have a fair use policy of sixty (60) times the number of profiles in your plan each month (unless otherwise stated in your contract) to protect against abuse. This policy is meant to be generous and exceeds the current sending volume of our most active customers (check your current usage here).
However, if you exceed this policy, your messages may be blocked or delayed. You may also receive a warning or be suspended from the platform if you continually exceed this policy without communicating with Customer.io. If you have any questions about our fair use policy, please contact us at win@customer.io.
Additional people
We charge your base plan fee in advance and any additional people or over your base plan the following month. People over your plan’s limit start at $0.009 per additional person.
We base your total count of people on a “high watermark”: we count uniquely-identified people, including those that have been deleted within the previous billing cycle. At the beginning of your next billing cycle, we reset your people count.
You can see your people count and any overages under Settings > Plans & Billing.
For example, imagine that your billing cycle starts at the beginning of every month, like September 1st, and you’re on the Essentials plan.
- During September, you add 7,000 people and delete 50 people. At the end of the billing period, your billable people count is 7,000.
- On October 1st, you’re charged the base rate for your plan for the upcoming month. Then, because the Essentials plan includes 5,000 people, we would charge you for the 2,000 profiles over the 5,000.
- After you’re billed, your billable people count resets to the current amount: 6,950 because you deleted 50 people in the previous billing period.
Additional objects
We charge for additional objects the same way we charge for people: Your base plan fee is charged in advance, and objects above your included amount are charged the following month. Objects over your plan’s limit start at $0.009 per additional object.
We base your total count of objects on a “high watermark”: we charge for uniquely-identified objects, including those that have been deleted within the previous billing cycle. At the beginning of your next billing cycle, we reset your object count.
For example, imagine that your billing cycle starts at the beginning of every month, like September 1st, and you’re on the Essentials plan.
- During September, you add 600 objects and delete 25. At the end of the billing period, your billable object count is 600.
- On October 1st, you’re charged the base rate for your plan for the upcoming month. Then, because the Essentials plan includes 500 objects, we charge you for the 100 objects over the 500.
- After you’re billed, your billable people count resets to the current amount: 575 because you deleted 25 objects in the previous billing period.
We also count new objects that belong to disabled object types when calculating your billable total. We charge for objects that belong to a disabled object type only in the month they were added, however. If you re-activate a disabled object type, the objects again become part of your month-to-month billing cycle.
Additional API calls to Data Pipelines
Our plans include a base amount of API calls, with low costs if you use more.
We only count source API calls. No matter how many destinations a source is connected to, we only count incoming calls from the source.
API Calls do not count towards your limit if:
- Your source’s only destination is Customer.io Journeys. Data Pipelines are an easy way to get started with Journeys and we want to make that a seamless (and free!) experience.
- Your source is not connected to a destination yet. We don’t want to penalize you for calls you make while setting up Data Pipelines or calls that you make inadvertently.
- Your source is connected to destinations that do not have actions enabled. Data doesn’t flow to a destination until you enable one or more actionsThe source event and data that triggers an API call to your destination. For example, an incoming
identifyevent from your sources adds or updates a person in our Customer.io Journeys destination..
Here’s an example:
Workspace 1 has one Data Pipelines source. It’s received 2 million API calls since the last monthly billing cycle.
Workspace 1’s source connects to a Mixpanel destination. Therefore, all 2 million API calls count towards the bill.
Workspace 2 has two Data Pipelines sources. Together, they’ve collectively received 1.5 million API calls since the last monthly billing cycle.
Workspace 2’s sources only connect to Journeys destinations. Therefore, its 1.5 million API calls are free and do not count towards the bill.
Between workspaces 1 and 2, 3.5 million API calls were sent. Journeys plans include 1 million API calls, and 1.5 million of these API calls were only sent to the Journeys destination. Therefore, only 1 million of these 3.5 million API calls are billable. The account is charged $200 for these calls at the beginning of the next billing cycle.
The more Data Pipelines API calls you send, the less expensive they become. Here are a few price points for comparison. Note that the premium/enterprise add-on becomes more cost effective than the starter add-on at around 4 million calls; if you send a high volume of calls or want access to data replay features, you should pick the Data Pipelines Premium add-on.
| Monthly API Calls | Journeys Essentials, Premium, Enterprise Plans | Journeys Premium/Enterprise w/ Data Pipelines Premium add-on |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $200/mo | $600/mo pre-paid annually |
| 5,000,000 | $600/mo | $800/mo pre-paid annually |
| 10,000,000 | $1,032/mo | $1,000/mo pre-paid annually |
| 50,000,000 | $4,488/mo | $2,600/mo pre-paid annually |
| 500,000,000 | $43,368/mo | $20,600/mo pre-paid annually |
Track API Calls as Data Pipelines API calls
The Journeys Track API automatically sends calls to Data Pipelines. If you’re already integrated with Journeys, you don’t need to re-integrate with Data Pipelines.
If you connect your Journeys source to at least one non-Journeys destination, Track API calls will also count towards Data Pipelines API calls. Note: Track API identify calls that include cio_relationships count as multiple Data Pipelines API calls. For example, an identify call to the Track API that includes cio_relationships will count as both an identify call and a group call in Data Pipelines.
Data Pipelines-only plans
A Data Pipelines-only plan (Data Pipelines Starter, Data Pipelines Premium) gives you acces to Data Pipelines, but not Journeys. Each includes a base number of Data Pipelines API calls per month with a low additional cost for calls over your base plan.
Consult your account’s Plans & Billing page to see your monthly counts and any additional usage rates that apply to the current month and plan.
Additional Data Pipelines API calls
Data Pipelines Starter includes 1 million calls and Data Pipelines Premium includes 10 million calls.
We only count source API calls. No matter how many destinations a source is connected to, we only count each API call to that source. We don’t count source calls until you connect a source to a destination with one or more enabled actionsThe source event and data that triggers an API call to your destination. For example, an incoming identify event from your sources adds or updates a person in our Customer.io Journeys destination.. This means that we don’t charge for source calls while you set up your integration.
For example, let’s say you’re on the Data Pipelines Starter plan.
- You have two Data Pipelines sources that collectively received 2 million API calls since the last monthly billing period. They’re connected to a Mixpanel destination.
- Because Data Pipelines Starter plans include 1 million API calls, only 1 million of these 2 million API calls are billable. The account is charged $200 for these calls at the beginning of the next billing period.
The more Data Pipelines API calls received, the less expensive they become. Here are a few price points for comparison. Aside from added features (like the ability to resend past data, etc), note that the Premium plan becomes more cost effective than the starter plan at around 6 million calls.
| Monthly API Calls | Data Pipelines Starter | Data Pipelines Premium |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $0 | $1000 |
| 5,000,000 | $600 | $1000 |
| 10,000,000 | $1032 | $1000 |
| 50,000,000 | $4488 | $2600 |
| 500,000,000 | $43368 | $20600 |
If you decide to upgrade to include Journeys, keep the following in mind:
- API calls to Journeys are free. If a Data Pipelines source only sends to Journeys destinations, your API calls are free.
- API calls outside of Journeys count toward your included amount. If a Data Pipelines source sends to at least one destination other than Journeys, all API calls sent to it count toward your monthly included calls.
Payment methods
Each month, on your billing date, we will charge the card on file for your subscription for the upcoming billing period.
If you have a premium or enterprise plan, you can choose to pay annually. If you pay annually, we’ll email an invoice to your account’s invoice contact each year. We accept payment for invoices via domestic(US) wire, ACH, or credit card. Additional usage costs for your account are calculated monthly and charged to the credit card on file.
Taxes
Local, state and federal sales tax may be added to your bill if they are applicable in your location. If your organization is exempt from this for any reason then please email billing@customer.io.
How to keep track of upcoming bills
Check your Plans & Billing page to see an estimate of your upcoming bill.
If you have questions about your upcoming bill(s), reach out to our billing team.
Where to find receipts
When your billing date rolls around, your invoice or receipt will be sent to the invoice contact on file. You can change who receives these emails by updating your invoice contact on the Account Information page.
If you are an admin, you can also access all historical receipts in your Billing History.
Mistakes in your billing
We make every effort to ensure your billing is an accurate reflection of your usage but we know that mistakes can happen. Our standard grace period for reviewing payments is three months but we appreciate that each situation is different. If something looks off in your billing then please reach out to our billing team on billing@customer.io and our billing team will look into it for you.
