Articles in this section

Usage and Billing

To view your organization's use of Iterable services for each billing period, visit the Usage and Billing screen.

To view the Usage and Billing screen, you'll need to be an org admin or have the Manage Billing org permission. Then, go to Settings > Usage and Billing.

The usage metrics on this page reflect aggregate usage for your entire organization, based on the date range you select.

TIP

Want to understand your data better?

The data displayed on the Usage and Billing screen differs from campaign performance data shown in screens like Campaign Analytics, Data Schema Management, and Messaging Insights. To learn more about the differences, see Understanding Usage and Billing Metrics.

# In this article

# Selecting a date period

When you access the Usage and Billing screen, you can select a date range to view metrics. There are two presets for selecting a date range:

  • Billing Period - This option selects the monthly billing period you want to view metrics for. The page defaults to the current billing period. Iterable displays the current contract term at the top of the screen so you can easily see when you are close to renewal.

  • Custom Date - This option allows you to select a custom date range to view metrics for. When you use this option, the page can only display metrics for the selected date range. Metrics that reflect usage limits are not displayed when you use this option.

    Some metrics are not impacted by the date range you select, such as:

# Billing period

Use the Billing Period dropdown at the top right to select the monthly billing period you want to view metrics for. The page defaults to the current billing period. Iterable displays the current contract term at the top of the screen so you can easily see when you are close to renewal.

The start and end dates for the billing period are based on your organization's contract terms.

# Data processing and viewing the current billing period

Usage data is not reported in real time.

Every day at 12:00 AM Pacific Time (PT), Iterable takes a snapshot of the usage data for the past 24 hours. (Most specifically, billing periods are cut off daily at 12:00:00.000 AM PT, and each billing date covers the period from 12:00:00.000 AM PT to 11:59:59.999 PM PT.)

These metrics are processed overnight and are available in the Usage and Billing screen within a few hours.

When you're viewing the current billing period, usage data reflects this period's usage up to yesterday's date. In the rare case that yesterday's data is not yet available, you'll see the previous day's data instead.

# Custom date range

Use the Custom date range dropdown at the top right to select a custom date range to view metrics for. The page defaults to the current billing period.

The start and end dates for the custom date range are based on your organization's contract terms.

# Metrics on this page

The Usage and Billing screen displays metrics for the following categories:

  • Messaging
  • Global SMS
  • Users
  • Custom Events
  • Journey Events
  • Catalog
  • Smart Ingest

Metrics are displayed as aggregated values for all projects in your organization, unless otherwise specified.

Messaging-related metrics such as send counts include bounces, but do not include send skips or proofs.

Some categories only display on this page if they're included in your contract.

# Usage limits

Only displayed when you view by billing period.

For each usage metric that has a contractual limit, Iterable shows a progress bar to indicate how much of your contract allowance you've used along with the total limit for a given period (per year, month, etc, as displayed with each metric).

The progress bar changes from blue to red when your organization's usage is over the limit.

TIP

Review usage regularly to stay aligned with your contracted limits. Depending on your agreement, usage above included limits may incur overage charges. For questions about limits or forecasting, contact your Iterable account manager.

# Viewing SMS usage limits

Contract limits for SMS usage vary, and don't display as an overall single limit on the Usage and Billing screen. Data is available depending on your SMS provider:

  • Iterable SMS - Organizations that use Iterable SMS have separate limits for each number type (long code, short code, alphanumeric, toll-free), and recipient country. Iterable's billing page doesn't display an aggregate total of these limits. To view the limits for each number type and country, and usage towards these limits, export the Global SMS project breakdown.

  • Third-party SMS providers - Organizations that use third-party SMS providers (Telnyx or Twilio) don't have SMS usage contract limits with Iterable, therefore there is no metric to display for this category.

# High water mark metrics

Iterable tracks and displays a High Water Mark metric for Users and Custom Events. This metric tracks the highest value reached during the current billing period. These values do not carry over to the next billing period, and each billing period starts with a new high water mark.

For each high water mark metric, Iterable displays the date when this peak value was reached. Iterable also displays this value compared to the usage limits for your organization.

# Project breakdowns

To view usage by project, click on the View Project Breakdown link for a category. This takes you to a screen with a breakdown of the metrics by project for the category you clicked on. For Global SMS, the breakdown is available as an exported ZIP file.

# Messaging

The Messaging section displays metrics for the following channels:

  • Email
  • Iterable SMS
  • Iterable MMS
  • Push
  • Web Push
  • In-App

For each channel, Iterable displays the following metrics:

  • Sent this period - Count of campaigns (or for SMS, segments) sent during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. Includes bounces, but not proofs or send skips.

  • Total usage - Total number of campaigns (or for SMS, segments) sent during the current plan term, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. This metric is only displayed when you view by billing period.

  • Percent Used - Iterable shows your organization's total usage as a percentage of your total usage limits for this contract term, the total limit for this contract term, and an overall usage progress bar. This metric is only displayed when you view by billing period.

  • Limit - The total limit for this contract term. Can be per month, per year, or a maximum limit. Iterable displays this metric next to the percent used, and above the usage progress bar. This metric is only displayed when you view by billing period.

To view more detailed metrics for email and SMS, click Show Breakdown. This expands a table with a breakdown for email and SMS campaigns.

# Email breakdown

These metrics are displayed below the overall Messaging metrics for accounts that use Iterable to send email campaigns to CC and/or BCC recipients.

  • To Sends - Count of email campaigns sent to To recipients during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

  • CC Sends - Count of email campaigns sent to CC recipients during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

  • BCC Sends - Count of email campaigns sent to BCC recipients during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

# SMS breakdown

SMS breakdown metrics are displayed below the overall Messaging metrics for accounts that use Iterable to send SMS campaigns.

Each of these metrics are broken down by SMS service in separate columns: Iterable SMS, Telnyx Direct, Twilio Direct, and a Total.

The SMS breakdown metrics include:

  • SMS Segments Sent - Count of outbound SMS segments sent during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. Includes bounces, but not proofs or send skips.
  • SMS Segments Received - Count of inbound SMS segments received during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.
  • SMS Segments Total - Count of total SMS segments sent and received during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.
  • MMS Sent - Count of outbound MMS messages sent during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. Includes bounces, but not proofs or send skips.
  • MMS Received - Count of inbound MMS messages received (such as replies) during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.
  • MMS Total - Count of total MMS messages sent and received during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.
  • SMS Verifications - Count of total SMS verification codes sent via SMS that were verified during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

DISCLAIMER

Metrics for third-party SMS providers, such as Telnyx and Twilio, only reflect activities executed from the Iterable platform. These metrics may differ from metrics utilized by each third-party provider due to different reporting mechanisms and scope. Telnyx and Twilio report all activities executed from their messaging services, including sending directly from their own platforms, and activities from other connected services, while Iterable only reports activities executed from the Iterable platform.

# Messaging project breakdown

To view messaging usage by project, click on the View project breakdown link in the Messaging section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page uses the same billing period selector as the Usage and Billing screen.

Use the Columns selector to choose the metrics to display for each project:

  • Email:

    • Emails sent

  • SMS:

    • SMS segments sent
    • SMS segments received
    • SMS segments total
    • MMS sent
    • MMS received
    • MMS total
    • SMS verifications

  • Push:

    • Push sent

You can sort the metrics ascending or descending by clicking on the column headers.

# Global SMS

Only available for Iterable SMS customers - not available for third-party SMS.

Global SMS metrics reflect usage activity from Iterable SMS services. If you're sending international SMS through your own Telnyx or Twilio account, this table doesn't count those campaigns.

  • SMS Segments Sent - Count of outbound SMS segments sent by Iterable SMS during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. Includes bounces, but not proofs or send skips.

  • SMS Segments Received - Count of total inbound SMS segments received by Iterable SMS during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

  • MMS Attachments Sent - Count of outbound MMS attachments sent by Iterable SMS during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization. Includes bounces, but not proofs or send skips.

  • MMS Attachments Received - Count of inbound MMS attachments received by Iterable SMS during the selected billing period, across all the Iterable projects in your organization.

  • SMS Usage by Country - Counts of total outbound SMS segments sent and MMS attachments sent by Iterable SMS. Countries are ordered by descending value.

    This table only shows the top 5 countries based on SMS segments sent; if you send to more than 5 countries, it shows an aggregate value for all other countries not displayed.

To view metrics for all countries, use the Export Project Breakdown tool.

# Export project breakdown for Global SMS

Available for projects with Iterable SMS that also have Global SMS enabled. Not available for third-party SMS.

When you click Export Project Breakdown, Iterable provides a zipped folder containing two CSV files that describe Global SMS usage: an organization-level summary and a project-level breakdown (by project and country).

When downloaded, Iterable provides a zipped folder named Global_SMS-<org-name>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.zip, where the <org-name> is the name of your organization and <YYYY-MM-DD> is the date the export was generated.

Unzip the folder to access these two CSV files:

  • Global_SMS-org_breakdown-<org-name>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv: This file contains an organization-level summary with only one row of data for the selected period.

    To see a list of all of the fields in this file, see Org breakdown for Global SMS below.

  • Global_SMS-project_breakdown-<org-name>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv: This file contains project- and country-level detail with one row per project, sender phone number type, and recipient country.

    To see a list of all of the fields in this file, see Project breakdown for Global SMS below.

# Understanding the Global SMS project breakdown export

Keep the following in mind as you review the export:

  • First-party metrics only
    The file includes only messages sent or received through Iterable SMS. Any third-party sends are intentionally excluded.

  • Aggregated at the right level
    Data is rolled up by the unique combination of Project ID, Recipient country name, and Sender phone number type. Each row represents one of these combinations with metrics already aggregated.

    • Metrics are not aggregated at the sender ID level in this export.

  • Invalid countries removed
    Non-actionable country values—such as Unknown or FirstPartyNonCompliantSmsSend—are filtered out and don't appear in the export.

  • Date format: All dates follow ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD).

  • Dates in file names: The date in the file name reflects when the export was generated—not the billing period selected in the UI.

  • CSV date fields: The billing period you selected appears inside the export files in the columns Selected start date and Selected end date.

  • Empty or missing values
    If a field has no data, it may appear as an empty string (''), a dash (-) for limit metrics that don't apply to the selected date range, or as 0 for numeric values.

  • Limits only available when viewing by billing period.
    The Global SMS export files will only populate limit data when viewing by billing period. If you select a custom date range, limit metrics are still columns in the file, but will show a dash (-) instead of a limit value.

# Org breakdown for Global SMS

In the file Global_SMS-org_breakdown-<org-name>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv, the columns are:

  • Org ID
  • Org name
  • Selected start date
  • Selected end date
  • SMS segments sent
  • SMS segments sent limit
  • SMS segments received
  • SMS segments received limit
  • SMS segments total
  • MMS sent
  • MMS sent limit
  • MMS received
  • MMS received limit
  • MMS total
  • Successful SMS verifications
  • Successful SMS verifications limit

# Project breakdown for Global SMS

In the file Global_SMS-project_breakdown-<org-name>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv, the columns are:

  • Org ID
  • Org name
  • Project ID
  • Project name
  • Selected start date
  • Selected end date
  • Recipient country name
  • Recipient country calling code - International calling code for the recipient country, such as 1 (US/Canada), 61 (Australia), 31 (Netherlands), etc.
  • Sender phone number type - this column can have one of the following values:
    • Alphanumeric - Sender type is an alphanumeric sender ID (up to 11 characters, letters, digits, and/or spaces).
    • LongCode - Sender type is a 10-digit phone number (same as 10DLC).
    • ShortCode - Sender type is a 5- or 6-digit phone number.
    • TollFree - Sender type is a toll-free number.
    • Unknown - Sender type is other or unknown phone number type.
  • SMS segments sent
  • SMS segments received
  • SMS segments total
  • MMS sent
  • MMS received
  • MMS total
  • Successful SMS verifications

# Users

In Users, you'll find the following metrics:

  • High Water Mark - The highest number of users saved by your Iterable organization during the selected billing period. To view the date this metric was recorded, hover over the metric name and view the tooltip.
  • Total Users - The total number of users saved in your Iterable organization during the selected billing period.
    • If you're viewing the current billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total users stored as of the date displayed alongside the metric (typically yesterday, once processed).
    • If you're viewing a previous billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total users stored as of the last day of that period.
  • Users Added - The total number of users added, across all of your Iterable organization's projects, during the selected billing period. Deleted users do not affect this number and this metric doesn't show a net change in the total number of users.

# Deleting and merging users

You can reduce your total user count by deleting and/or merging user profiles. To learn more, read Deleting users and Merging User Profiles.

Deleting users reduces the total user count, but this action doesn't impact the high water mark metric until the next billing period. High water mark metrics are snapshots of the highest value reached during the current billing period. The value cannot be reduced once recorded.

# Anonymous and unknown users

If you are using Unknown User Activation, you should understand the impact on your billing and usage.

Anonymous users aren't added to your Iterable project, so they aren't counted in user volume for billing purposes.

Unknown users (users who are added to your Iterable project after satisfying profile creation criteria) and their associated custom events do count towards your contracted allotment of subscribers and custom events.

# Users project breakdown

To view users by project, click the View project breakdown link in the Users section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page uses the same billing period selector as the Usage and Billing screen, and can display the following metrics:

  • User count - The total number of users stored in each project at the end of the selected billing period.
    • If you're viewing the current billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total users stored as of yesterday's date (or the previous day, if yesterday's data is not yet available).
    • If you're viewing a previous billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total users stored as of the last day of that period.
  • Users added - The total number of users added to each project during the selected billing period. Deleted users do not affect this number and this metric doesn't show a net change in the total number of users.

Use the Columns selector to choose the metrics to display. You can sort the metrics ascending or descending by clicking the column headers.

# Custom events

The Custom Events section of the Usage and Billing screen displays the following metrics:

  • High Water Mark - The highest number of custom events stored for your Iterable organization during the selected billing period. To view the date this metric was reached, hover over the metric name and view the tooltip.
  • Total Events Stored - The total number of custom events stored.
    • If you're viewing the current billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total custom events stored as of the date displayed alongside the metric (typically yesterday, once processed).
    • If you're viewing a previous billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total custom events stored as of the last day of that period.

TIP

Reduce your total custom events stored by setting data retention policies, which define how long Iterable stores your custom events before deleting them. To learn more, read Managing Custom Event Retention.

Deleting events reduces the total event volume, but this action doesn't impact the high water mark metric until the next billing period. High water mark metrics are snapshots of the highest value reached during the current billing period. The value cannot be reduced once recorded.

# Custom events project breakdown

To view custom events usage by project, click on the View project breakdown link in the Custom Events section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page uses the same billing period selector as the Usage and Billing screen.

This page displays the Custom Events Stored metric for each project.

  • If you're viewing the current billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total custom events stored as of yesterday's date (or the previous day, if yesterday's data is not yet available).
  • If you're viewing a previous billing period, this metric reflects a snapshot of total custom events stored as of the last day of that period.

You can sort the metric column by ascending or descending by clicking on the column header.

# Journey events

Journey events metrics report Journey Events usage from your organization's projects.

# Date range for Journey events metrics

To help you stay on track with your journey events usage, journey events metrics are only available for the current month. You can find the date period for the metrics displayed underneath the Journey Events section title.

Historical data isn't available for previous periods. The metrics displayed in this area don't change when you select a different billing period or a custom date range.

# Journey events metrics

  • Total Events Tracked - The total number of journey exit events tracked for the current month for all projects in your organization.

  • Percent Used - Iterable shows your organization's total events tracked as a percentage of your usage limit for the current month, next to the total limit for the current month, and an overall usage progress bar.

# Journey events usage limit

Each organization has a standard monthly limit of 2M journey exit events, unless otherwise specified in your contract. This limit resets on the first day of every month.

When your organization's total events tracked exceeds your monthly limit, journey event tracking pauses. To learn more about what happens when you reach the limit, see Monitoring Journey Engagement.

# Journey events project breakdown

To view journey events usage by project, click on the View project breakdown link in the Journey Events section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page uses the same billing period selector as the Usage and Billing screen, and displays the Total Events Tracked metric for each project.

You can sort the metric column by ascending or descending by clicking on the column header.

# Catalog

The Catalog section displays these metrics:

  • Lookup References - The total number of catalog lookups made by Iterable to support #catalog Handlebars references, during the selected billing period, across all your organization's Iterable projects.

  • Collection References - The total number of catalog lookups made by Iterable to support #catalogCollection Handlebars references, during the selected billing period, across all your organization's Iterable projects.

# Catalog project breakdown

To view catalog usage by project, click on the View project breakdown link in the Catalog section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page uses the same billing period selector as the Usage and Billing screen, and can display the following metrics:

  • Lookup references
  • Collection references

You can sort the metrics ascending or descending by clicking on the column headers.

# Smart Ingest

The Smart Ingest section displays sync counts for all syncs that have run at least once during the current calendar month. These metrics are not impacted by the billing period selection, and reset on the first day of the next calendar month.

The Smart Ingest section displays the following sync counts:

  • Production syncs - The total number of production syncs that have run at least once during the current calendar month, across all your organization's Iterable projects.

    • When your organization's total production syncs exceeds your sync limit, creating a new sync is disabled.

    IMPORTANT

    Deleted and disabled syncs that have run at least once during the current calendar month count towards the sync limit until the first day of the next calendar month.

    Deleting or disabling a sync doesn't remove its usage from the total sync limit for the month.

  • Test syncs - The total number of test syncs run during the current calendar month, across all your organization's Iterable projects.

    • Test syncs do not count towards your organization's sync limit.
    • To exclude syncs performed in a test project from your organization's sync limit, talk to your customer success manager.

To learn more about Smart Ingest sync counts, read Smart Ingest Number of Syncs.

# Smart Ingest breakdown

To view Smart Ingest usage by project, click on the View project breakdown link in the Smart Ingest section of the Usage and Billing screen.

This page displays the following metrics for each project:

  • Production syncs
  • Test syncs

You can sort the metrics ascending or descending by clicking on the column headers.

# Questions?

If you have billing-related questions, please contact billing@iterable.com.

# Want to learn more?

For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out this Iterable Academy course. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!

Related articles