Manage Your Contact-based Plan

Help Scout offers several different plans with different features and limits, allowing you to choose the plan that works best for your team's needs. Each plan has a number of contacts helped included in the plan, with scalable options to grow as your needs do.

This guide is for active Help Scout account holders with contact based billing accounts to help you find where to view or change your current account plan or billing information, as well as answer some general billing questions you might have.

Note that this article is for accounts on contact-based plans and will not accurately reflect details for user-based plans. Check the User Based Billing and Plans Guide for help with that billing.

If you haven't started a Help Scout account yet, our pricing page has our current plans and free trial options.

All amounts shown in Help Scout and our documentation are in U.S. Dollars (USD). Note that the images shown in this article are for illustrative purposes only — your plan details will be specific to your account and available plans may vary.

View Your Plan Details

The Account Owner, Administrators, and any Users that have been given the Manage Account: Billing and plan changes permission are able to view your current plan details in app any time. Light Users are not able to view this page.

Click on your avatar or initials in the top right corner of the top menu in Help Scout, then choose Your Plan to see all of the details. Users without the correct permission and Light Users will not see this option.

You can also just head directly to this link: https://secure.helpscout.net/members/plan/

You will only be able to edit the information here if you have the appropriate permissions to do so. Only Account Owners have that permission by default.

Take a look at User Roles and Permissions for more on permission settings and contact your Help Scout Account Owner if you need permission changes in your account.

Next Billing

Your current account plan is shown at the top of this page (for example, Help Scout Plus), and a breakdown of your upcoming billing for that plan is detailed below, along with a usage summary from the past.

This chart will show you how many contacts you have served for the past few billing cycles as well as what your upcoming bill will be.

Note that the image shown below is for illustrative purposes only — your plan details will be specific to your account.

Fair Billing Policy

When your contact volume fluctuates in seasonal or otherwise busy periods, we've got your back. Help Scout determines your contact tier based on the average of your last three months of usage.

The example below illustrates the impact of this policy. For a company that would otherwise be in a different contact tier every month — thus paying different amounts — the fair billing policy smooths out the bumps so the bill only changes once. Although the customer exceeds 5,000 contacts on three occasions, the three-month average never exceeds the 5,000-contact tier. We cover the overage to keep your bill more consistent and predictable.

Payment Details

Scroll down on the Your Plan page to change the credit card that your account is billed to and switch between monthly or annual payments. Click the Edit link next to Payment Method or Contact Details to change them.

Available Plans and Change Your Plan

From Your Plan, click Plans in the left navigation menu to see the currently available plans, along with the details of what each plan includes.

Click the Monthly or Annual toggle to see the cost calculated in real time. More on annual payments here: About Annual Payments.

Note that the image shown below is for illustrative purposes only — available plans may vary from what you see here.

Included in all plans

Outstanding 24x6 support
Help Scout mobile apps (iOS and Android)
Beacon, our help widget with live chat and proactive messaging

Still have questions about your plan? Let our support team know what questions you have, and we'll get you answers!

What is a Contact?

A contact is someone you've helped, which includes:

Email conversations with at least one reply
Phone conversations created in Help Scout
Channel conversations (such as Messenger or Instagram) with at least one reply
Chats accepted and replied to by a user in your account
Questions resolved by AI answers

Note: You can interact with the same person across multiple channels, but they only count as one contact. The contact count resets to zero each monthly billing cycle.

Some additional clarifications:

Auto replies sent using the Inbox auto-reply feature do not count as a reply.
Automatic replies sent via workflows do not count if that is the only reply
Only the To: address in an email conversation counts as a contact; any addresses in the CC or BCC fields do not count.
AI answers resolutions from unidentified users are distinguished by the device ID recorded with each session. Sessions with the same ID are associated with the same contact. More about identifying customers via Beacon here.

Subscription Questions

What types of payment do you accept?
We accept all major credit cards in-app for monthly and annual payments for all accounts. Alternate payment options are available when payment due is more than $2500 and are prepaying annually. See Payments and Invoices for more detail on those options.

Do you offer non-profit or education discounts?
We offer a 10% discount to non-profit organizations and educational institutions, which can be combined with the annual payment discount. For the non-profit discount, reach out to our support team with government documentation showing your organization is non-profit. For example, if you're US-based, we'll need to see proof of your 501(c)(3) status.

If you are in the United States and have been granted sales tax exemption by your state, you'll also need to provide a copy of your state sales tax exemption documentation. Non-profits are not automatically tax exempt in all states.

We offer a more significant discount on Help Scout (up to 100%) for organizations that focus on human rights, environmental sustainability, or underrepresentation in tech. Are these issues a part of your core mission? Check out Help Scout for Good to learn more and apply.

Why did I receive a Failed Payment Error email?
We were unable to charge the credit card you have on file or you have not provided a card for payment. If you are simply at the end of a trial account and do not wish to add a card for payment, you can Cancel Your Help Scout Account to put a halt to these notifications.

If you are a current customer with a card on file, contact your credit card issuer to inquire as to why your card was declined or change the credit card on your account.

Your Account Owner and any other users who have the Manage Account permission can head to Your Plan to update the billing information. Click on the Edit link next to your card details, double check that it's all correct, and we'll give it another go at the next billing run.

If you've been locked out of your account, send us a quick email and we'll work with you to get it sorted.

Can I get a refund?
If for any reason you are unhappy with your Help Scout purchase, we offer a 30-day money back guarantee on your first payment.

If you decide not to use Help Scout in your business within 30 days from your first payment, you may request a full refund by emailing us. This applies to both annual and monthly subscriptions.

Docs Knowledge Base

How much does Docs cost?
All plans include at least one Docs site. Account Owners and Administrators can see the number of included Docs sites at Your Plan in-app. There is no limit to the number of collections, categories, or articles you can add to any single Docs site.

Can I have more Inboxes than are included in my plan?
Sure thing! Just head to Manage > Inbox(es) and click New Inbox. Each additional Inbox over what is included with your plan is $10 per Inbox, per month.

Can I add more Docs sites?
Add more sites for $20 per site, per month on any plan. Just head to Manage > Docs and click New Site to add as many as you need! Delete any extra Docs sites if you no longer need them to immediately halt billing for them.

Can I just pay for Docs and not use the help desk or Beacon?
Docs is not offered a stand alone product. You are welcome to sign up for our lowest priced plan and only use Docs though!

Annual Subscriptions

Check out About Annual Payments for all you need to know!

If you still have questions about your plan or billing that isn't covered here, reach out to our team with any questions, and we'll be happy to help!