Docs / How billing works · 5 min
How billing works
Pay as you go: a prepaid balance, $0.010 per lookup, nothing else.
One model, no subscription
Every feature ships with the one plan: screening, caching, keys, team, the lot. Lookups run on CallerSift's own line-type intelligence, so there is no carrier account to bring and no monthly fee to pay.
- Each lookup costs $0.010, debited from a prepaid balance. Repeat callers hit the one-day cache and cost nothing.
- The opening top-up is $20 minimum, taken at signup with your card. Later top-ups start at $5, any time.
- Auto-recharge is optional: when the balance falls below $5, your saved card is charged $20 automatically.
- Cards are managed right inside the app under Settings → Plan: add one, set the default, remove old ones.
When the balance hits zero
Alerts warn well before anything pauses, by email and in the app. If the balance empties completely (or billing goes inactive), lookups answer HTTP 402 with a machine code (balance_exhausted or subscription_inactive) and screening pauses. Top up and it resumes instantly. A $20 balance screens a lot of calls, and stopping later loses nothing: your data, keys, and history stay put.
Outages are different from billing: a lookup that fails or times out still answers allow. Only a lapsed billing state pauses screening.