Plans & Pricing

A Monthly Active Contact (MAC) is a billing metric that we apply to MessageBird customers who use Inbox.

We classify a Monthly Active Contact (MAC) as a single end-user who has had one or more interactions with a MessageBird Inbox customer on one of MessageBird’s communication channels during a single calendar month.

MACs are identified by unique channel identifiers, such as:

• Email address
• SMS-enabled number
• Voice-enabled number
• Chat identity

A single end-user may be counted as multiple MACs when they interact via several channels, and their channel identifiers are not part of the same contact profile.

We classify an interaction as one of the following:

• A single one-way communication from the MessageBird Inbox customer to the end-user
• A response from the MessageBird Inbox customer to the end-user during two-way communication

Calculating MACs

When a MessageBird Inbox customer sends an outbound message to a unique end-user for the first time in a calendar month, we calculate a single Monthly Active User (MAC).

Sending subsequent messages to the same unique end-user within the same calendar month won't result in additional MACs being calculated, no matter which channel you use to communicate with them.

At the start of each new calendar month, MACs are reset. For example, if Customer A contacts you for the first time on September 30, and you send them a message on October 1, they'll be classed as one MAC for September and a separate MAC for October

Charging MACs

Every MessageBird Inbox plan includes a fixed number of charges. For example, if your plan includes 500 MACs per calendar month, you can send multiple messages to 500 unique end-users during that calendar month.

What other charges are applicable in a MAC charging model?

The costs that MessageBird incurs to send a message (such as a WhatsApp template or SMS cost) are passed through to you, the customer. These additional charges are added to your MAC charge. They are also charged to your balance or sent to you in an invoice.

If you use all of your plan’s inclusive MACs, you will be charged an overage rate for each additional MAC that you message. The way that MessageBird charges you for these additional MACs depends on the type of Inbox plan that you have.

Prepaid Inbox customers

If you are a prepaid Inbox customer, you will have a prepaid balance. If you use all of your inclusive MACs before the end of the calendar month, and you have balance remaining, the overage rate will be deducted from that balance.

If you have insufficient balance, you won’t be able to send outbound messages to new MACs until you top up your balance, or until your plan refreshes at the end of the month

Postpaid Inbox customers

If you are a postpaid Inbox customer, MessageBird calculates your bill at the end of each calendar month. Once we’ve calculated your bill, we’ll send you an invoice. You will receive this invoice at the start of the next month.

If you use all of your inclusive MACs before the end of the calendar month, you will still be able to send outbound messages to new MACs. The overage charges for these additional MACs will be added to your invoice.

The MAC overage charge is a charge that will apply if you’ve used all of your monthly inclusive MACs and you want to communicate with additional MACs.

What’s the cost of an additional MAC?

We charge a flat rate of $ 0.30 for every additional MAC that you message. Remember that the overage charge is per MAC, not per message.

If you are a prepaid Inbox customer, you can make sure that you always have enough balance to pay for MAC overages, ensuring there’s no interruption to your day-to-day Inbox use. Take a look at our guide to Auto Top-Up payments for more information

To help you keep track of your MAC usage, we notify you when you’re close to using up your inclusive MACs for the calendar month. This is how our notification process works.

You’ve used 90% of your MACs

When you’ve used 90% of your MACs, we’ll notify you via a banner in Inbox. We’ll also send an email to the workspace owner. You and your team can continue to use Inbox as usual.

To help you keep track of your MAC usage, we notify you when you’re close to using up your inclusive MACs for the calendar month. This is how our notification process works.

You’ve used 100% of your MACs

When you’ve used 100% of your MACs, we’ll notify you via a banner in Inbox. We’ll also send an email to the workspace owner. The notifications you receive depend on the type of Inbox user you are.

If you’re a prepaid Inbox user with Auto Top-Up enabled or enough remaining balance, you and your team can continue to use Inbox as usual. MessageBird will charge you an overage fee for additional MACs.

If you’re a prepaid Inbox user and you don't have enough remaining balance, you and your team will only be able to send messages to existing MACs. We’ll use an Inbox banner to alert you that you won’t be able to reply to incoming messages from new MACs until you top up. MessageBird will charge you an overage fee for additional MACs

If you find that you’re regularly using up your MACs, you can upgrade your Inbox plan to add more inclusive MACs and avoid overage fees for additional MACs. To find out more about upgrading your plan, please get in touch with our support team.