> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.senderz.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# SMS credits

> Prepaid credits pay for SMS, WhatsApp and voice. Where the balance lives, how a send draws on it, how to buy more, and what happens when it runs out.

SMS credits are **prepaid**. You buy them in packs, they sit in your workspace wallet, and every phone message you send draws them down. There is no invoice at the end of the month for messages you already sent.

One balance pays for three things: SMS, WhatsApp and voice calls. They are charged at different rates, but they all come out of the same pot.

## Where the wallet lives

Open **Settings → Plans & Billing** and pick the **SMS Credits** tab. That screen holds everything on this page: the balance, the pack picker and the transaction history.

The current balance also appears in two other places, so you do not have to go looking for it:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="On your dashboard" icon="house">
    A **Low SMS balance** alert with a Top up button appears once the balance
    falls below the low balance mark. It only appears if you have bought at
    least one pack.
  </Card>

  <Card title="In the SMS composer" icon="comment-sms">
    The estimate panel shows your wallet balance next to the total credits the
    campaign will cost, and the shortfall if there is one.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Credits are never included in a plan

This catches people out, so it is worth being blunt about it.

<Warning>
  **No Senderz plan includes SMS credits.** Not the smallest one, not the
  largest one, not Enterprise. Your plan pays for contacts and email sends.
  Phone messages are a separate, prepaid purchase.
</Warning>

Nothing tops your balance up automatically. Renewing your plan does not add credits. Upgrading a tier does not add credits. If the balance is empty, phone messages stop until you buy a pack.

## What one credit buys

For **SMS**, one credit covers up to **268 billable characters per recipient**. Every recipient costs at least one credit. Past 268 characters it becomes two credits, past 536 three, and so on.

Shortened links and the unsubscribe line count toward those 268 characters, because they are added to the message before the credits are counted.

<Note>
  **Hebrew and Latin cost the same in credits.** A 268 character Hebrew message
  and a 268 character English message are both one credit.

  Where the two differ is in **carrier parts**, the pieces the phone network
  splits a long message into. Latin text fits 160 characters in one part.
  Hebrew, emoji and any other non-Latin character drop that to 70. The
  composer shows carrier parts so you can see how the message arrives on the
  handset, but they do **not** each cost a credit.
</Note>

The full character and encoding rules, with worked examples, are on the [SMS channel page](/en/channels/sms).

## What else draws on the same balance

| What you send                                   | What it costs                                         |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| SMS campaign or automation step                 | 1 credit per 268 billable characters, per recipient   |
| SMS test send                                   | The same as a real send                               |
| WhatsApp                                        | A flat 3 credits                                      |
| Voice call                                      | 1 credit **per carrier part**, not per 268 characters |
| One-time passcode sent by SMS through the API   | 1 credit per 268 billable characters                  |
| One-time passcode sent by voice through the API | 1 credit per carrier part                             |

<Warning>
  **Voice is counted differently and it is the expensive one.** Because voice is
  charged by carrier part, a short Hebrew voice message costs roughly four times
  what the same text costs as an SMS. Budget for voice separately. See
  [Voice](/en/channels/voice).
</Warning>

### What Senderz pays for

The login and two-factor codes sent to you and your team are a platform cost. They never touch your wallet. Every message you send to a **contact** is billed to you, test sends included.

## Buying credits

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the SMS Credits tab">
    Settings → Plans & Billing → **SMS Credits**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick a pack size">
    Packs come in **500, 2,500, 10,000 and 50,000** credits. Each one is a
    single purchase, not a subscription. The selected pack card shows the
    price and the per credit rate.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm">
    Buy credits opens a confirmation dialog, then hands you to your billing
    provider's checkout. The price in the dialog is approximate. **The final
    amount is the one you confirm at checkout.**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Credits arrive">
    Once the payment clears, the credits are added to the balance and a
    **Credit pack purchase** row appears in the transaction history.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Credits do not expire. Anything you do not use this month is still there next month.

### Where checkout takes you

This depends on how your workspace is billed, and Senderz decides it for you on every purchase. You never get a choice, and you never get the wrong one.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Workspace signed up on the web">
    Checkout opens with the Senderz payment provider, the same one that bills
    your plan. You pay by card there.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Workspace installed from the Shopify App Store">
    Checkout is a **Shopify one-time charge**. You approve it inside Shopify
    admin and it lands on your Shopify bill along with everything else. You are
    never sent to an off-platform checkout.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

If a pack is not configured for your billing provider, the purchase is refused with a clear message rather than half completing.

## Reading the transaction history

The wallet card lists the most recent entries. **All transactions** opens the full list.

| Entry                | What it means                                                                   |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Credit pack purchase | You bought a pack. Balance goes up.                                             |
| SMS sends            | Credits were taken for a send. Balance goes down.                               |
| Refund               | Credits were given back, normally because a send failed or was never delivered. |
| Adjustment           | A manual correction made by Senderz support.                                    |

Every row shows the amount, the balance immediately after it, and when it happened. The log is **append only**. Nothing is ever edited or removed, so it is the record to check if a balance is not what you expected.

## How the balance moves during a send

Understanding this explains most surprises in the history.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Credits are reserved before the message is handed over">
    When a send is authorised, the credits come off the balance straight away
    and an **SMS sends** row is written. This happens before the carrier is
    contacted, so the balance can drop a moment before anything actually goes
    out.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The reservation is held for five minutes">
    A reservation that is not settled within five minutes is swept up
    automatically. If the message was genuinely sent, the reservation is
    finalised. If it was not, the credits are returned.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Delivery to the carrier finalises the charge">
    Once the carrier accepts the message, the reservation is committed and the
    credits are spent for good.
  </Step>

  <Step title="A failure returns the credits">
    If the carrier rejects the message, or the connection fails, the
    reservation is released and a **Refund** row is written for the same
    amount.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
  **The balance can never go negative.** If two sends race for the last few
  credits, one of them is declined rather than overdrawing the wallet. A
  declined send costs nothing.
</Info>

### When a message is uncertain

If the connection drops after Senderz has handed the message over, Senderz cannot tell whether it went out. It returns your credits, marks the message failed, and does **not** retry. You are never charged twice for one uncertain message, and one uncertain message is better than two real ones to the same person.

## When the balance runs low or runs out

The low balance mark is **100 credits**. It is fixed and cannot be changed.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Below 100 credits: you cannot start an SMS campaign">
    This is a hard block, not a warning. The campaign builder shows **Your SMS
    credit balance is too low to send campaigns** with a Buy credits button,
    and the send control stays disabled until you top up. It applies at 99
    credits, not only at zero.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not enough for this specific campaign">
    Even above 100 credits, the SMS composer blocks the send if the estimated
    total is more than your balance. It tells you exactly how many more credits
    you need for that campaign.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Credits run out mid-campaign">
    The remaining recipients are **skipped**, not queued for later. The campaign
    is marked failed and reports **Not enough SMS credits**. Recipients who
    already received the message are unaffected. Top up, then send again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Credits run out during an automation">
    That recipient's message step is skipped and the automation carries on. The
    automation is not paused or stopped. Contacts who reach that step while the
    balance is empty simply do not get the message, and there is no retry once
    you top up.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What Senderz tells you">
    The wallet card shows a **Low balance** or **Zero balance** badge, and the
    dashboard shows a Low SMS balance alert. **No email is sent.** Check the
    balance before a large SMS campaign rather than relying on being told.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Refunds and non-refundable credits

Two different things share the word refund, so keep them apart.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Credits returned for a failed send" icon="arrow-rotate-left">
    Automatic, immediate, and shown as a **Refund** row in the history. Nothing
    to request. A skipped or rejected message never ends up costing you
    credits.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Money back for a pack you bought" icon="credit-card">
    Credits are prepaid and non-refundable except where the law requires
    otherwise. Buy the pack size you expect to use.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Limits worth knowing

* **There is no automatic top up.** The balance is never recharged for you.
* **The low balance mark is 100 credits and is not editable.**
* **All transactions shows the most recent entries**, not an unlimited scroll back through history.
* **One wallet per workspace.** Credits are not shared between workspaces and cannot be moved between them.

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="SMS" icon="comment-sms" href="/en/channels/sms">
    Character counting, carrier parts, the unsubscribe line and everything that
    affects what a message costs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WhatsApp" icon="comments" href="/en/channels/whatsapp">
    The flat 3 credit charge and how WhatsApp opt-in works.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Voice" icon="phone" href="/en/channels/voice">
    Why voice is charged per carrier part and what that means for Hebrew.
  </Card>

  <Card title="SMS Sender names" icon="id-badge" href="/en/deliverability/sender-ids">
    An approved Sender name is checked before any credits are reserved.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>