Voice Minutes: How the Pool Works

The short version

• Each plan can include a monthly pool of AI phone minutes per voice-enabled agent-client. The pool is shared across your whole agency, not locked to one client.
• Every answered call draws on the pool, rounded up to the next whole minute — the same billable minutes you already see on each call in Voice Call Tracking.
• When the pool is used up, calls pause by default. Pay-as-you-go minutes beyond the pool are opt-in, switched on by an agency admin, and only on plans that allow them.
• Your phone-carrier (Twilio) charges are always separate and billed by Twilio, not by AgentLane.

How the pool is sized

The pool for a month is fixed when that month’s first call is counted:

pool = minutes your plan includes per agent-client × voice-enabled agent-clients

A voice-enabled agent-client is a client with at least one active agent and voice switched on in its configuration. A client you switch on mid-month joins the pool the following month. A client you switch off keeps the minutes already counted.

How a call is counted

1. When a call ends, its billable minutes are taken from the pool first.
2. Anything past the pool is recorded as overage minutes.
3. If Twilio later reports a more accurate duration than AgentLane’s own estimate, the call is corrected in place — the pool moves by the difference, never by the whole call twice.

Overage minutes are only ever chargeable when you have opted in and the plan allows pay-as-you-go and billing for voice is switched on. Minutes recorded while any of those was off stay visible in your usage and are never billed later.

When the pool runs out

With pay-as-you-go off (the default), a new call that arrives after the pool is used up is not taken by the AI agent. If the client has a transfer number configured, the call is forwarded to it; otherwise the caller hears a short apology and the call ends. A call that is answered while the pool is low is given at most the minutes that were left when it started (never less than one minute), and its maximum duration is shortened to match.

Two calls that start at the same moment while one minute remains can both be answered, so a pool can run slightly past zero. Those minutes are recorded but never billed unless you opted in.

Per-client monthly limit

A client’s voice configuration can also carry its own monthly minute limit. When that client reaches its limit, its calls pause the same way, even if the agency pool has minutes left. There is no portal field for this limit yet; contact AgentLane support to set one.

Where to see it

• Dashboard → Billing and Dashboard → Voice show the month’s pool, minutes used, minutes remaining, and a per-client breakdown, once minute counting is switched on for your agency.
• Your clients see their own minutes on Calls (/client/calls) in their portal.
• The pay-as-you-go switch is on Dashboard → Billing and can only be changed by an agency admin.

What is switched on today

Minute counting and voice billing are each behind a switch that is off in production. Until minute counting is on, the minute cards do not appear and calls are never paused for minutes. Until voice billing is on, no voice minute is priced or invoiced, whatever the pool shows.