RCS - Message billing
Table of Contents
On RCS, Google does not bill every message sent: it counts billable events, either a single message or a 24-hour conversation. This page explains how your messages are counted, to help you estimate the cost of a campaign or a customer journey. The applicable rates are set out in your Alcmeon contract.
The three billing types
| Type | What is billed |
|---|---|
| Basic message | A message from your brand containing only text, up to 160 characters, that the customer does not reply to. |
| Rich message | A message from your brand with a rich element (image, video, rich card, carousel, buttons) or a text longer than 160 characters, that the customer does not reply to. |
| Conversation | A 24-hour exchange between your brand and the customer, billed once regardless of the number of messages sent during those 24 hours. |
When a conversation starts
A conversation starts in two cases:
- the customer replies to a message from your brand within 24 hours, by typing a message or tapping a quick reply button. The message they reply to becomes part of the conversation: it is not billed on top;
- the customer writes to you first, and your bot or an advisor replies within 24 hours.
The conversation lasts 24 hours from its start. During those 24 hours, your bot and advisors can send as many messages as needed at no extra cost. Further messages do not extend this period: after 24 hours, a new exchange is counted again.
📄 Note: Tapping a button that opens a link, starts a call or shows a location is not a reply. If the customer only taps such a button, your message is still billed as a basic or rich message.
Billing of conversations started by the customer depends on the carriers in each country.
Examples
| Situation | Billing |
|---|---|
| You send a 120-character appointment reminder, with no button. The customer does not reply. | 1 basic message |
| You send a carousel of offers. The customer taps "See the offer", which opens your website. | 1 rich message |
| You send a carousel to 10,000 customers. 300 of them reply with a quick reply button. | 9,700 rich messages and 300 conversations |
| The customer replies to your message, then exchanges 8 messages with your bot and an advisor within the hour. | 1 conversation |
| You send two messages in a row and the customer replies to the second one. | The first message is billed on its own, the second one opens a conversation |
| An advisor follows up with the customer 3 days later. | 1 new conversation if the customer replies within 24 hours, otherwise 1 basic or rich message |
Undelivered messages and SMS fallback
An RCS message is billed when it is delivered to the customer's phone. Google can retry delivery for up to 30 days: a message sent at the end of a month may therefore appear on the following month's invoice.
If the customer's phone does not support RCS and SMS fallback is enabled, the message is sent as an SMS and billed at the SMS rate, per 160-character segment (70 characters if the text contains special characters, such as some accented letters or emojis). Without fallback, a message that could not be delivered is not billed.
RCS agent category
This billing model applies to agents in the "Conversational" category, the category used by Alcmeon. A "Non-conversational" agent is billed for every message, even when the customer replies. The category is chosen when the agent is created and cannot be changed once the agent is launched.
📄 Note: In the United States, there is no conversation-based billing: each message is billed, per text segment for a text message, and as a single unit for a message with an image, a video or a card.