Pricing and billing

Price#

Speech recognition, the language model, speech synthesis, summaries and connections are all included.

How you pay#

There are two ways to pay. Self-serve organizations use prepaid credit; organizations on an enterprise contract can also pay by invoice.

Prepaid credit#

After each call, seconds × per-minute price ÷ 60 is deducted from your balance. At ¥6 per minute that is ¥0.1 per second.

Top-ups#

• In the dashboard under Organization settings → Billing, or with the MCP tool create_topup (owners only). With an API key, POST /v1/billing/topups { amount_yen } creates a top-up URL (payment happens in the browser).
• ¥500–¥300,000 per top-up (excl. tax, in whole yen). ¥3,000, ¥5,000, ¥10,000 and ¥30,000 are one click away.
• Paid by card with consumption tax added. Each payment comes with a qualified invoice (with our registration number) for Japanese tax purposes.
• The card used for your first top-up is saved for auto-recharge.

Expiry#

Each top-up expires 6 months after purchase. Credit that expires soonest is used first, and whatever is left at expiry is removed. Billing in the dashboard, the MCP tool get_billing and GET /v1/billing show your balance and the next amount to expire. Each call's cost is in the call's billed_yen.

When the balance runs out#

• While the balance is zero or below, new calls are refused. On the phone the voice server closes the stream right away (Twilio moves on to your next step); for Web and apps, POST /v1/sessions returns 402 balance_depleted.
• Calls in progress are never cut off. After a long call the balance can go slightly negative; the next top-up covers it.
• The call that takes the balance to zero or below triggers the billing.balance_depleted webhook and an email to the owners.

Auto-recharge#

When the balance falls below a threshold, voicast charges the saved card for a set amount. Configure it under Billing in the dashboard.

• An auto-recharge that would exceed the monthly cap is skipped and reported with billing.cap_reached (kind: 'auto_recharge').
• A declined card triggers billing.recharge_failed and an email, and the charge is retried later. After 3 declines in a row, auto-recharge is turned off.
• Without auto-recharge, billing.balance_low is sent once when the balance falls below the threshold.

Enterprise contracts#

High-volume organizations can agree a per-minute price and payment method in a contract. Contact us.

• With invoicing, the month's total seconds (live and test combined) ÷ 60, rounded up, × the contract price is invoiced at month end and paid by bank transfer. Payment terms are set in the contract.
• When an invoice is overdue, you get the billing.payment_overdue webhook and an email. If it is still unpaid exactly 14 days after the due date, new calls are refused (402 payment_overdue). Paying restores service immediately.

Spending cap#

Invoiced organizations can set a monthly cap (yen, excl. tax). When this month's estimate reaches the cap, new calls (live and test) are refused (402 spending_cap_reached) and billing.cap_reached (kind: 'usage') is sent.

Set the cap under Billing in the dashboard. The MCP tool set_spending_cap can only lower it; raising or removing it is dashboard-only.

Test environment#

Test calls are priced like live calls and deducted from the same balance; they also count toward caps and estimates. Keep trial calls short, and watch the number of calls when automated tests place them.

Usage breakdown#

GET /v1/usage (MCP: get_usage) returns calls, seconds, minutes and an estimated amount for an environment. Use it to bill your own customers (tenants).

curl "https://api.voicast.jp/v1/usage?from=2026-09-01&to=2026-09-30&group_by=tenant" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VOICAST_API_KEY"

{
  "environment": "live",
  "from": 1788188400000,
  "to": 1790780400000,
  "group_by": "tenant",
  "unit_price_yen": 6,
  "total": { "calls": 412, "seconds": 61230, "minutes": 1021, "amount_yen": 6123 },
  "data": [
    {
      "tenant": { "id": "ten_…", "external_id": "clinic-123", "name": "Sakura Dental" },
      "calls": 120, "seconds": 17940, "minutes": 299, "amount_yen": 1794
    }
  ]
}

• Calls that ended within the period are counted.
• minutes is each group's total seconds ÷ 60, rounded up. amount_yen is seconds ÷ 60 × the per-minute price, rounded to yen (an estimate, excl. tax).
• What your organization actually pays is the sum deducted per call (prepaid) or the organization's monthly total seconds (invoice).

Invoices and receipts#

• Top-up invoices, card changes and billing details are under Billing → Manage billing in the dashboard (Stripe's portal; owners only).
• Every balance movement (top-ups, calls, expiry) is listed under Billing in the dashboard.