Ask what the monthly total includes
A plan that looks cheaper can cost more for your particular inbox. One service may charge by contacts, another by conversations, and another by AI usage on top of a subscription. A “message” may mean a customer message, an agent reply or both. Comparing the numbers without reading the unit is like comparing delivery prices without checking the destination.
For an Instagram or Messenger business, start with the work: repeated product questions, delivery enquiries, order collection and comments. Then list the pages and agents you need. In AnswerAct you build those agents with your own business data and instructions, and choose a model for their tasks. A plan should fit that workflow before you worry about the biggest allowance on its pricing card.
Build a budget with three lines
First, record the subscription cost and what it includes. Second, estimate additional AI usage after any included credit. Third, add setup or outside services that your particular workflow requires. Keep taxes and currency conversion visible when comparing offers from different countries.
In AnswerAct, check Pricing for the current country-specific offer, then use the dashboard's Usage view to inspect consumption. Different models and tasks can have different costs. A short text reply, a long product comparison, image understanding and audio transcription are not automatically equivalent units. Do not multiply a text-only test by your full traffic if customers often send images or voice notes.
Measure a representative sample
Prepare twenty to thirty questions that reflect your inbox: easy enquiries, multi-part questions, incomplete orders and a few requests the agent should pass on. Use the same business information and reply length you intend to use after launch. Note the AI cost shown for the test period and the number of enquiries that reached a useful outcome.
An illustrative calculation: if a test of 100 comparable enquiries consumes 4 currency units of additional usage, the observed average is 0.04 per enquiry. At 3,000 comparable enquiries, that suggests 120 units of usage before subscription costs and any included credit adjustment. These are example numbers, not AnswerAct prices. Repeat the estimate with a larger allowance for busier or longer conversations rather than treating one small sample as a guarantee.
Compare useful outcomes, not just replies
A long exchange that repeats the same answer costs attention as well as money. Check whether the customer understood delivery, chose a suitable option or supplied the details your team needs. Keep a separate note for orders actually accepted by the business; an enquiry collected by a bot is not automatically a paid sale.
Compare an automated test with your current process using the same kinds of questions. Look at time to a useful answer, avoidable repeat questions, incomplete enquiries and time your team spends fixing replies. These measures help you decide whether a higher-quality model is worth its cost or whether clearer product information would solve the problem more cheaply.
Reduce waste before increasing the budget
Keep answers concise, remove conflicting prices and use a brief smart wait when customers split a question into several messages. Give the agent only the sources it needs for its job. Test the cheapest suitable model against your real questions; choose on answer quality and total usage, not on the model name alone.
Start with one page and one useful task. After a week of representative activity, compare the estimate with actual usage and adjust. If you need help choosing an AnswerAct plan, bring your page count, enquiry volume and the kinds of actions the agent should perform. That is a better basis for a decision than asking which package has the most features.