Sends add-on

#How it works

The Sends add-on is a reserve of send credits, one per email. It is kept in the team's account and does not change the plan's quota: the monthly quota stays the same, and the reserve shows up on its own, next to it.

• The reserve only kicks in after the plan's monthly sending quota runs out. While the quota has room, no credit is spent.
• A credit is worth one email, counted the same way the quota counts: emails to the test addresses do not spend a credit.
• Each pack has its own validity, in days, or no validity at all.
• The purchase is a one-time payment: it does not change the plan or create a subscription.
• Broadcasts do not use the reserve, but they count in the same monthly sending quota of the plan.
• The plan's daily limit on sends still applies, even with the reserve.

See also: How the reserve is used · Sending quotas.

#When you can buy

Buying depends on your plan and on how the team is billed. Each situation has a result on the Sends add-on card:

#Buy

Where to find it: Settings › Billing. Address: app.postal.so/settings/billing.

1. On the Sends add-on card, check the reserve: Plan monthly quota (N of M used and the date it Renews), Sends reserve and Packs and bonuses.
2. Click Buy sends add-on. The dialog shows Your reserve now: N and the packs for sale side by side, each with its name, the number of sends, the price, the price per thousand sends and the validity (or No expiry). The most popular one has the Most popular badge.
3. Choose the pack with Buy. You go to a secure payment page and come back to Postal when you are done.
4. Back in Billing, the notice says Payment received. The sends join your reserve as soon as the payment is confirmed (right away by card). If you give up, it says Purchase canceled. You were not charged.

Card and Pix

• The payment is one-time, with no subscription. Credit card always works; Pix shows up when the packs' prices are in reais, and the dialog says Pay by credit card or Pix.
• By card, the sends join the reserve right away. With Pix, they join when the payment is confirmed, and the purchase stays as Awaiting payment until then. A Pix that is not paid in time becomes Payment not completed, nothing joins the reserve and nothing is charged.
• The pack is charged in the team's billing currency, when it has a price in it.
• The validity starts counting when the payment is confirmed.
• Only the owner and admins buy.

The purchase history

Under the card, Sends add-on purchases lists the packs bought and the bonuses, with what is left of each. The columns are Date, Pack, Left (N of M), Price, Status, Valid until and the receipt link. The status is Awaiting payment, Active, Used up, Expired, Payment not completed, Refunded or Canceled. Bonuses granted by Postal show as Complimentary, in place of the price.

#How the reserve is used

The order of use

1. The plan's monthly quota is used first.
2. When the quota runs out, the reserve comes in, with one credit per email. The credits that expire first go first, and the ones with no expiry go last.
3. If the reserve runs out and the team turned on Keep sending above the monthly limit (see Billing), sending goes on and the extra emails are charged per thousand. Only the emails the reserve did not cover go into that count.
4. With no reserve and no sending above the limit, the send is refused with 429 monthly_quota_exceeded (over SMTP, 452 4.5.3) until the quota renews, on the 1st (UTC).

What spends a credit

• Each email sent by API or SMTP after the monthly quota ends spends one credit. A batch send uses the credits all at once; if the reserve does not cover the whole batch (and sending above the limit is off), the whole batch is refused, with no emails created and no credit spent.
• An email that fails to be created does not spend a credit, and repeating the same request with the same idempotency key spends only one.
• Emails to the test addresses use neither quota nor credit.
• Broadcasts do not use the reserve. They count in the plan's monthly quota and, if the quota runs out midway through sending, the broadcast is paused and resumes by itself when the quota renews.

The daily limit still applies

The reserve only extends the monthly quota. If your plan has a daily sending limit, it still applies even with a full reserve: when you hit it, sends get 429 daily_quota_exceeded until 00:00 UTC, and the reserve waits. The Billing card reminds you: The plan's daily sending limit still applies, even with the reserve.

#Validity

Each pack has the validity set for it: a number of days, counted from the payment confirmation, or No expiry. The purchase dialog shows each pack's (Valid for N days after purchase or No expiry).

• Once the validity passes, the sends left stop counting and the pack becomes Expired. What was already used stays used.
• Packs with no expiry do not run out. They are used after the ones with a date.
• In Billing, Next expiry shows the date of the first pack to expire, and each pack in the list says N of M · expires [date] or N of M · No expiry.
• The packs that expire first are used first, so the longer-lasting ones are what is left.

#Refunds

If a pack's payment is refunded, Postal takes back only the sends that were not used yet from that purchase. What already left the reserve stays used. The purchase becomes Refunded, with no sends left.

• A Pix that was not paid in time does not join the reserve (Payment not completed).
• A bonus withdrawn by Postal shows as Canceled.

#Where the reserve shows up

#Through the API

The purchase routes use the dashboard session of an owner or admin: an API key gets 403. With a key, you can read the reserve along with the month's quota.

See also: Settings › Billing · Sending quotas · Sends add-on (API).