Notification usage and monthly message allowances

Your workspace's plan includes a monthly allowance for each paid channel: e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp and mobile push. In-app notifications, the ones under the bell, are never limited. Notification usage shows how much of each allowance has been used this month.

Before you start

You need the Notification usage permission. Administrators have it; your administrator can grant it to other groups in Groups and permissions.

Read the page

Open Administration › System › Notification Usage. The top of the page shows your plan, the month and the date the allowances reset (the 1st of next month). Below it, one card per channel shows:

• what was sent this month against the allowance, with a bar and a state: Within allowance, Near the limit (80% or more), Limit reached or Unlimited;

• Remaining for the rest of the month;

• Failed: messages the provider did not deliver. They do not count against the allowance;

• Held back at the limit and Delivered in-app instead: messages that were not sent on that channel because the allowance was used up, and how many of them still reached the user in the app.

Further down:

• Sent per month (last 12 months) compares the months by channel;

• Top notification types this month and By module this month show what the messages were about, so you can see which notices use the allowance.

When an allowance is used up

• Notifications keep arriving in the app. Only the e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp or push copy is held back, until the allowance resets.

• An e-mail someone sends on purpose, such as a document to a customer, is refused with a message saying the allowance is used up, so they know it did not go.

• Password resets and sign-in codes are always sent and never count.

• Users with this permission receive a notice at 80% and another at 100% of each allowance, in the app and by e-mail. Your provider is told too.

If the page shows Limits are recorded, not yet enforced, your workspace is in a trial period for plan limits: every message is still sent, and what goes over the allowance is shown as Would have been held back.

How to get a higher allowance

Allowances come from your plan. Ask your provider to move the workspace to a plan with a higher allowance, or to add more messages to it. The new allowance applies at once, for the current month.

Common questions

Why does the number not match the outbox? The allowance counts messages delivered on paid channels this month. Failed and in-app notifications are not counted, and the outbox also lists in-app deliveries.

Can I stop some notices from using the allowance? Yes. Change which channels a notification type sends on in Manage notifications, or ask users to turn off channels they do not need in their notification preferences.