A: Thanks for reaching out with this excellent question. I'm happy to clarify what "Messages per month" means.

You are correct that with your own API key, you pay the AI provider (like OpenAI or Anthropic) directly for the cost of generating the AI responses.

The 'Messages per month' limit on our platform refers to the number of messages our infrastructure will process for your bots each month. Think of it as the capacity limit for your subscription tier, which covers our costs for hosting, features, and ensuring your bot is online and responsive.

Regarding your Tier 2 plan:

If you reach the 10,000 messages limit within a month, your bots will temporarily stop responding to new messages. Should this happen, you have a few options:

- Wait for the reset: Your counter will automatically reset at the beginning of your next monthly cycle.
- Purchase a Message Add-on: For a one-time boost, you can purchase an add-on to increase your message limit for the current month. This is perfect for handling temporary traffic spikes.
- Upgrade your Plan: If you consistently need more messages, you can upgrade to a higher tier for a larger monthly allowance.

To summarize:

- Your API Key: Pays the AI provider for the "thinking" or generation of each response.
- Our 'Messages per month' limit: Is your plan's allowance for using our platform's services, which you can top up with add-ons or increase by upgrading.

I hope this clears things up! Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Akshay