Chat quotas and new-chat pauses

Included quotas

How capacity is consumed

• A new session first uses remaining included chats in the current plan period.
• After the included quota, Stand can consume one chat from the organization’s reserve chat balance.
• Eligible Pro and Business organizations may refill that balance through manual or automatic top-ups.
• When neither included quota nor balance is available, the quota decision denies new sessions until capacity returns.

What a pause means

A pause affects only creation of new visitor conversations. Sessions already accepted continue normally, including human takeover and follow-up messages. The visitor surface does not promise availability when Stand cannot accept another session.

Capacity returns when the plan period resets, the owner adds eligible chat balance, or the organization changes to a plan with available entitlement.

Who sees what

• Owners see plan, subscription, current-period usage, balance, purchase controls, and reset context.
• Non-owners see read-only plan and quota guidance when it affects new chats.
• Usage is shown at organization scope even though activity analytics can also show member or site scopes.
• Email and in-app guidance points to the action available for that plan: wait for reset, top up, upgrade, or contact Stand.

Boundaries

• Unused included chats follow the stated plan period and are not described as a cash balance.
• Quota exhaustion does not delete sites, Stand-ins, or History.
• A plan’s knowledge, retention, or branding entitlements are separate from its chat count.
• Displayed reset times and billing periods are authoritative for the current subscription state.

Related features

• How chat usage is counted — Stand counts one newly created visitor conversation as one chat, regardless of who answers or how long the conversation becomes.
• Chat balance and top-ups — Chat balance is prepaid reserve capacity used one chat at a time after the included plan quota, with owner-controlled manual and automatic purchase options.
• Trials, subscriptions, and plan changes — The plan view manages eligible trials, paid subscription changes, invoices, and end-of-period downgrades while showing when each entitlement takes effect.