Twilio.org offers the following pricing benefits to eligible social impact organizations via the Impact Access Program:
- Credits: $100 USD equivalent in product credits for launching
- Discounts: Percentage-based discounts on Twilio products
How do I become eligible for Impact Access pricing benefits?
Social impact organizations can sign up for the Twilio.org Impact Access program to qualify for pricing benefits. For details, please see the Twilio.org eligibility guidelines and signing up for Impact Access.
Discounts
What is the discount for Impact Access members?
25% off list price for many Twilio products. See below for details.
What products get the 25% Impact Access discount?
Click the link to see the standard pricing for each product:
The following products are not currently eligible for Impact Access discounts: WhatsApp, SendGrid Email, Marketing Campaigns, Segment, Conversations, Engage, Sync, Super SIM. Talk to a Twilio.org sales specialist to discuss pricing options for these products.
*Twilio for Salesforce licenses are discounted by 50% rather than the standard 25%
How can I estimate the price I'll pay after the discount?
To calculate your price for a given product, take the unit list price and multiply it by .75. For instance:
- SMS inbound/outbound message list price in U.S. = $.0079*
- Apply 25% discount = $.0079 * .75
- Final price for Impact Access members = $.00559 per message
*List price as of July 2023 and are subject to change. See here for latest SMS pricing.
What is included in the SMS discount?
- Inbound and outbound SMS/MMS (Toll-Free, Local, and Short Code phone numbers)
- Short code leases in US, CA, and UK
- Some premium Messaging features: Message Redaction, Content Inspection, and Sender ID
What is included in the Programmable Voice discount?
- Inbound and outbound calls (Toll-Free and Local)
- BYOC Trunking
- Some premium Voice features: Call Recording and Emergency calling
How can I see the discounts applied to my bill?
You can see the effect of the Impact Access discounts in Console on your bill either by viewing real-time product usage for estimated costs, or monthly invoices for historical actual costs.
How do Impact Access discounts interact with automatic volume-based discounts?
Impact Access discounts “stack” on top of available automatic volume-based discounts.
For instance, SMS volume discounts are available in some countries like the U.S. The Impact Access 25% discount will be applied on top of the volume-based rate.
The 150,001st outbound SMS has a list price of $0.0077*. Therefore, the final unit price for an Impact Access member is $0.0077 * .75 = $.0058 per message.
*List price as of July 2023 and are subject to change. See here for latest SMS pricing.
What if I don't see the product I'm using?
Talk to a sales specialist to discuss your use case and explore pricing options.
Are the discounts country specific?
Unless specified above, the 25% discounts are applied consistently across the list price of any country where Twilio offers the product.
Credits
How do credits work in these programs?
Twilio will allow your account to run a negative balance and ‘true up’ your account each month to cover the cost of your usage, up to the amount of your credit.
We will keep track of your credits separately from your regular account balance. Once a month, typically on the 1st, Twilio will credit your account balance based on your usage in the previous month. At the end of each month, your balance will be reset to the amount when your credits were first applied, and your usage from that month will be deducted from your remaining gifted credits.
For example, if you start the month with $100 in gifted credits and use $25 worth of Twilio services that month, your remaining credits will be set to $75 on the 1st of the following month and your balance reset to $0. So effectively, you wouldn’t need to pay Twilio for that month's services (given you have enough credits left to cover the charges incurred).
Do I need a payment method on file to receive my credits?
We do not require an active payment method such as a credit card or PayPal account to access your Twilio.org credits. However, auto-recharge should be enabled before credits are consumed to ensure uninterrupted service. Your auto-recharge payment method is also used to pay for your Twilio support plan or short code lease, if applicable. If no payment method is on-file, Twilio will send you an email once per month to notify you to add an auto-recharge payment method.
Add an auto-recharge payment method to your account avoid service interruption when credits are used.
Once an auto-recharge is configured, Twilio.org credit recipients will be unable to disable this. You can, however, add a payment method, and specify your project to use this method going forward. Here’s how to make this change:
- Access the Billing page in Console.
- Click Configure Auto-Recharge.
- In the “Payment Method” field, click Change.
- Select the desired payment method, and then click Select Method.
How can I see how much credit is left in my account?
You will be able to review your credit information in the Console Billing Overview page:
- Gifted credits remaining: This is how much credit is left that can be applied towards your current balance.
- Balance: This is your account balance that keeps track of your usage, payments and any applied credits. It is possible for your balance to go negative during the month as you accrue usage before credits are applied in the following month.
- Balance with credits: This is the sum of your current balance and remaining gifted credits. A positive balance with credit indicates the amount of credit that you still have remaining.
Your auto-payment will begin to be charged when your Balance with credits reaches $0. If you don’t have auto-payment set up and your credits are fully consumed, your account will be suspended until you’ve added a valid auto-payment method.
You can also see additional information about your credits by hovering over the tooltip icon next to the amount for Gifted credits remaining:
- Credited period: This is the period during which your credits are in effect. If no end month is specified, it means your credits do not expire.
- Credit last applied: This is the latest month for which credits have been applied from the Gifted credits remaining to your Balance.
- Original gifted credit: This is the initial amount of credit that is gifted to you.
Why don't I see my 'Gifted Credits Remaining' decreasing?
Twilio only deducts the gifted credits remaining amount in the Billing Console based on your usage at the end of each month -- not in real time. When the true-up happens at the end of the month, your regular account balance will be reset to the amount when your credits were first applied, and your usage from the prior month will be deducted from your remaining gifted credits at this time.
Importantly, your regular account balance will be updated regularly throughout the month and will decrease (and become increasingly negative) as you accumulate Twilio usage.
Why is my standard account balance going down if I have credits?
Twilio's credit mechanism is based on allowing your standard account balance to run negative up until your Impact Access credits are consumed. This results in your standard account balance decreasing during the month while your gifted credits remaining stays the same -- this is normal and expected. See above FAQ for an explanation of when the gifted credit amount is updated and your standard balance is trued-up.
Important note: If your account had a positive standard balance at the time of receiving product credits, Twilio will deduct usage against this existing positive balance first before you begin running a negative balance.
What happens when I consume my credits?
Once your credits have been consumed, Twilio will begin to use your auto-recharge payment method to maintain service going forward. If an auto-recharge payment method is not enabled or it fails, your account will be suspended.
After your credits are consumed, the default auto-recharge settings will be enabled in the following calendar month. Your Twilio project balance will be automatically refilled up to $20 any time your balance drops below $10. For example, if your balance reached $8.50, we would bill your saved payment method $11.50 to bring your project balance back to $20. If payment fails and your balance reaches $0, your account may be suspended.For help configuring auto-recharge on your Twilio project, see How do I set an automatic payment recharge trigger.
Why can't I update certain payment settings when I have active credits?
Twilio.org manages some payment settings on your behalf while Impact Access credits are active on your account. This is done to avoid unexpected account suspensions and to gracefully transition your account without interruption once your credits are used.
In particular, when Impact Access credits are active on your account, auto recharge payment settings are not editable by you. These settings normally allow you to set at what balance you'd like your payment method to be automatically recharged, and to what amount.
For accounts with active credits, the following auto recharge settings are automatically applied to your account:
Accounts onboarded to Impact Access after May 31, 2023
- [USD] $20 recharge when account reaches a standard balance of -$100
- [GBP] £20 recharge when account reaches a standard balance of -£80
Accounts onboarded to Impact Access on or before May 31, 2023
- [USD] $10 recharge when account reaches a standard balance of -$500
- [GBP] £10 recharge when account reaches a standard balance of -£400
At the beginning of the month following when your credits are fully consumed, your account will be reset to standard auto-recharge values and you will be allowed to begin editing your auto recharge payment settings in the Billing Console once again.
Why is my credit card being charged so many times?
Impact Access members with a high velocity of Twilio usage while credits are active may experience multiple charges to their payment method on-file in a short period of time. Please see above FAQ for details on the balances at which auto recharge events trigger while Impact Access credits are active.
Customers who are using Twilio at high volumes while credits are active may trigger the auto recharge event multiple times in a given month. This happens if they reach the negative balance threshold (i.e. -$100), are recharged (+$20), then consume enough Twilio to hit the negative threshold again (-$100) in the same month.
As mentioned above, editing these trigger thresholds is disabled until the month following full consumption of your Impact Access credits.
We encourage you to update your auto recharge payment settings once editing is re-enabled for your account (you can check at the beginning of the month following exhausting your credits). By setting your auto recharge thresholds once they are re-enabled, you can reduce the frequency of charges to your credit card.
Will my credits ever expire?
Twilio.org Impact Access program credits do not expire.