What Happens When Credits Run Out

Summary

When your AI credit balance hits zero, Torqueflow does not turn the AI off. It drops to a degraded mode that keeps customers talking to something useful instead of failing silently. Voice calls still answer (as a message-taker), WhatsApp and SMS still reply (with a canned message), and every interaction is routed to staff. The moment credits are topped up, full capability restores automatically. This article explains exactly what each channel does in degraded mode, how recovery works, and the one edge case where a WhatsApp reply is silently routed instead of sent.

Prerequisites

• You have an account with credits (or a trial account with a trial cost cap).
• You are signed in as an owner to resolve degradation, or as an advisor to handle degraded conversations.

Steps

Understand the “never fail hard” principle

1. Torqueflow’s billing layer is designed to never block AI. If the credit balance cache throws an unexpected error, the system defaults to allowing the interaction - you will never see a black hole where nothing replies.
2. Credit checks happen before the AI starts an interaction (pre-call, pre-classify). Deductions happen after the interaction finishes.
3. This means an interaction that is already in progress when credits hit zero is never cut off. It completes normally. Degradation applies to the next interaction.
4. This is called in-flight grace and it is guaranteed by the architecture - there is no way to accidentally configure it off.

See what happens to voice calls

When the credit balance is zero on a paid org, the next inbound voice call enters Level 3 (message-taker) mode:

1. The AI still answers using your configured persona voice and transcriber.
2. The prompt is simplified to: “Thank you for calling. Can I take your name and number and have someone call you back?”
3. No tool calls are allowed - the AI cannot book appointments, check work order status, or look up customer records.
4. The call log flags the interaction with degradation reason: credit-exhaustion.
5. Staff should check the Voice Dashboard and call logs regularly while in this mode to return the calls the message-taker collected.

See what happens to WhatsApp messages

1. When the AI receives a WhatsApp message and credits are exhausted, no AI service call is made (saving you from being charged for a failed interaction).
2. Instead, a canned response is sent: “Hi! We’ve received your message and our team will get back to you shortly. You can also call us on {orgPhone} or visit {portalUrl}. - {orgName}”
3. The message is routed to the human inbox and flagged for staff attention.
4. A notification/new-message event fires so staff see it in real time.
5. The response only sends if the WhatsApp 24-hour session window is still open. If the last customer message was more than 24 hours ago, Meta rejects free-form messages, so Torqueflow silently routes the inbound message to the inbox instead - no canned reply, no error to the customer. Staff can then respond with a pre-approved template or wait for the customer to message again.

See what happens to SMS messages

1. Same as WhatsApp, minus the 24-hour window rule (SMS has no session window).
2. No AI service call is made. The canned response is always sent. The message is routed to the human inbox with a notification.
3. Customers see: “Hi! We’ve received your message and our team will get back to you shortly.”

Understand the trial cost cap (trial accounts only)

1. Trial organisations use a trial cost cap as their degradation gate, not the credit balance. The cost cap limits total AI spend in pounds during the trial period.
2. When a trial org’s cost cap is reached, all AI channels degrade exactly as described above (Level 3 for voice, canned response for WhatsApp/SMS) - but the degradation reason reads trial-cap, not credit-exhaustion.
3. Trial orgs’ credit balance is used for metering visibility (so you can see what you are using), not as a commercial gate. This avoids the confusing situation where a trial account has “zero credits” but still has plenty of cost cap remaining.
4. A paid org (cost cap disabled, trial_cost_cap = 0) is never degraded by the cost cap regardless of its trial_cost_consumed value.

Fix credit exhaustion (paid orgs)

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Scroll to the Credit Packs section.
3. Buy a pack with enough credits to get you through at least a few days. The packs with the Best Value badge have the lowest per-credit cost.
4. Within a few seconds of the purchase, the balance cache refreshes. The next voice call, WhatsApp message, or SMS will run at full capability.
5. Consider enabling Auto Top-Up so this never happens again - see finance/ai-credits.

Fix trial cost cap exhaustion

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Click Manage Subscription and upgrade to a paid plan.
3. The cost cap is lifted immediately. The next interaction runs at full capability.

Watch for warning notifications

Torqueflow sends proactive notifications before credits run out so you are not caught off guard. Notifications fire at these thresholds:

Threshold	What you see
75% consumed	Soft warning banner on the billing page: “Credits running low.”
90% consumed	Stronger warning: “Credits very low.” Email to the account owner.
100% consumed	Degradation banner: “No credits remaining.” Email to the account owner. AI drops to degraded mode.

The banner colour on the Credit Balance fuel gauge changes from green → orange → empty as you move through these thresholds.

Expected Outcome

• You understand that credit exhaustion never drops customer calls or messages on the floor.
• You know exactly what customers see in each degraded mode.
• You can restore full capability in under a minute by buying a pack or enabling auto top-up.
• You recognise the difference between credit-exhaustion degradation (paid org) and trial-cap degradation (trial org).

Troubleshooting

Problem: Voice AI is answering in a simpler voice than usual. Cause: Level 3 message-taker mode. Either credit-exhaustion (paid) or trial-cap (trial). Fix: Buy credits or upgrade the trial. Full capability restores on the next call.

Problem: Customers report the WhatsApp AI stopped replying to them entirely. Cause: Credits are exhausted and the 24-hour session window has closed. The canned reply cannot be sent because Meta would reject it. Fix: Staff can respond from the Messaging Inbox using a pre-approved template. Buy credits to restore automatic replies. Check whatsapp-ai/whatsapp-24-hour-session-window for how the window works.

Problem: I bought credits but AI is still degraded. Cause: The balance cache usually refreshes within seconds of a purchase. If a call was already in progress when you bought, that call stays in degraded mode. Fix: Wait 30 seconds and make a test call. If the next call is still degraded, contact support - there may be a cache invalidation issue.

Problem: I’m on trial with credits available, but AI is still degraded. Cause: Trial orgs use the trial cost cap, not credit balance. Your trial credits are for visibility only. Fix: Check the trial cost cap status on Settings > Billing. Upgrade to a paid plan to lift the cap.

Problem: I added credits but the degradation banner is still showing. Cause: The banner is driven by the latest credit check. Refresh the page. Fix: Reload the billing page. The banner should clear within 15 seconds of the cache updating.

Problem: Voice call logs show isFallback: true but my credits are fine. Cause: This is a different fallback - the static webhook fallback triggered by an infrastructure timeout, not credit exhaustion. Fix: See troubleshooting/ai-not-responding for the difference between credit-exhaustion degradation and the static webhook fallback.

Notes

• Degraded interactions do not consume credits - the whole point of the mode is that the AI is not making an AI service call. This means a credit-exhausted org does not slide further into negative balance.
• Credit and latency degradation are separate systems. If both would apply at once, credit degradation takes priority (Level 3 config is returned, latency degradation code never runs).
• Demo organisations are treated as having unlimited credits and never degrade.
• Torqueflow Support can manually freeze AI consumption for an org in exceptional cases (for example suspected abuse). This appears to the org as a credit-exhausted state.

Permissions

• billing.credits.view - required to see balance warnings and the degradation banner.
• billing.credits.purchase - required to buy credit packs to resolve degradation. Owners only by default.