About monthly active users for Zendesk bots

Note: We have been actively listening to our customers about this change (thank you) and have decided to revisit our plan for bot usage pricing. This shift is in light of your helpful feedback and our major enhancements to Zendesk AI, Bots, and the broader Zendesk platform. By Q4 2023 we will provide an update on a simplified unit of measure and associated cost model and will not enforce new pricing this year.

For customers on Zendesk Suite plans, usage is measured by identifying the number of monthly active users (MAU) who engage with Zendesk bots.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the MAU pricing model for Zendesk bots, including information about calculating MAU, monitoring your usage, and purchasing additional MAU if needed.

This article includes the following sections:

• How many monthly active users do I get?
• How do you calculate monthly active users?
• How can I manage monthly active users?

How many monthly active users do I get?

Zendesk Suite customers receive a baseline number of MAU based on their plan type. You can also purchase add-on packs to add more MAU to your account.

Note: Legacy Support Suite and a-la-carte plans, such as Support-only, Support + Chat, or Support + Guide, are not impacted by this update. These customers will be migrated to the new pricing model at a later date.

In this section, we’ll discuss the following topics:

• The default MAU allocation per plan
• Adding MAU to your account
• Exceeding MAU allocation

The default MAU allocation per plan

The following table shows the number of included MAU for Zendesk Suite plans.

Plan	Included MAU
Team, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise	1,000
Enterprise Plus	10,000

Adding MAU to your account

The process for purchasing and canceling MAU add-on packs varies, depending on whether you have a self-service or sales-assisted account.

• Self-service accounts can purchase or cancel add-on packs of MAU directly in Admin Center.
• Sales-assisted accounts can purchase add-on packs in Admin Center, but must request a change to their subscription to cancel them. See Requesting subscription changes for more information.

To purchase or remove MAU add-on packs

1. In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Billing > Subscription.
2. On the Subscriptions page, click the Manage button.
3. Click the More products tab.

   

4. Under Additional AI and bots usage, enter the number of add-on packs you want to purchase.
5. Click Update subscription to complete the purchase.

   The updated number of usage packs will appear on your Admin Center subscription page.

   

6. To remove add-on packs, click Remove products or cancel account at the bottom of the page (self-service accounts), or request a subscription change (sales-assisted accounts).

Exceeding MAU allocation

Zendesk will not charge an overage fee for exceeding MAU allocation.

Because MAU is a new concept for Zendesk customers, there is a grace period for existing customers where no action will be taken if you use more than your allocated MAU. You can use this grace period to monitor your MAU usage and modify your Suite plan or your usage as needed.

However, Zendesk will introduce notifications and automatic capping of product functionality for exceeding certain MAU thresholds no sooner than September 2023. More details will be provided in advance of thresholds being introduced.

Note: These changes will not impact customers using Zendesk bots functionality prior to May 10, 2023, until their next renewal and no sooner than September 2023.

See Adding MAU to your account for information on increasing the number of MAU for your account.

How do you calculate monthly active users?

Generally, any unique end user that engages with a Zendesk bot over one calendar month is counted as a single monthly active user.

In most cases, multiple interactions by a single user in the same calendar month will be considered a single MAU. However, in some circumstances the system will not be able to identify a user as the same unique visitor over multiple interactions. This will result in their visits being counted as multiple MAU, often when the user interacts over multiple channels, browsers, or devices.

Authenticated users are more likely to be recognized as the same unique user over multiple interactions, resulting in a lower overall MAU count.

This section covers the following topics:

• Conversation bot MAU
• Autoreply MAU

Conversation bot MAU

Conversation bots are built with Zendesk’s bot builder tool.

With conversation bots, an MAU is counted when the bot receives input from a unique user one or more times in a month.

Input from the user, in this case, can include (but is not limited to) any of the following end user actions in a messaging conversation:

• Free-text entry
• Clicking on a quick-reply option
• Submitting a detail collection form

Conversation bot MAU are applied to both standard and advanced bot interactions.

Autoreply MAU

Autoreplies are automatic responses to customer queries submitted via email or web form. They are built using triggers.

Autoreply MAU are applied to both standard and advanced bot interactions. How they are counted depends on the type of autoreply used.

• Standard autoreplies (called autoreply with articles): An MAU is counted when the bot suggests an article to a unique end user one or more times in a month. If no articles are found, an MAU will not be counted.

• Advanced autoreplies (those that are included as part of the Advanced AI add-on): An MAU is counted when a unique user receives an autoreply in an email that was generated via a trigger with the autoreply action. If the same end user receives a standard autoreply with articles and an advanced autoreply in the same month, they will be counted as a single MAU.

How can I manage monthly active users?

You can keep track of your MAU usage, and, if needed, turn off functionality to limit its usage.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Monitoring MAU usage
• Limiting MAU usage

Monitoring MAU usage

You can monitor your MAU consumption each month, and compare your usage to the MAU allocation included with your plan, on the AI and bots usage dashboard in Admin Center.

To view the AI and bots usage dashboard

• In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Billing > Subscription.

  

The dashboard displays the following information:

• Current month
• The total number of monthly active users currently counted for the month
• The number of MAU included in your current plan
• A breakdown of MAU for the current month, by conversation bot or autoreply (standard or advanced).

Limiting MAU usage

If you want to limit your MAU consumption, you can turn off Zendesk bot functionality as needed.

• Autoreplies: Turn off autoreplies using the autoreply admin settings.

• Conversation bots: Disconnect the bot by channel or revert to default messaging response.