At ReplyPen’s launch price of €0.25 per conversation, 200 customer conversations a month cost €50, 1,000 cost €250 and 3,000 cost €750, if you use a Draft in every one. A conversation is a thread, so follow-ups do not add to it. Per-seat tools cost the same whatever the volume, so they come out cheaper for one busy person and dearer for a team with light volume. Count your real customer threads first; most inboxes hold far more mail than needs a reply.
What does a month cost at each volume?
Per conversation, at €0.25:
| Conversations per month (threads where you use a Draft) | Monthly cost | Per working day (about 21 days) |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | €50 | about 10 threads |
| 1,000 | €250 | about 48 threads |
| 3,000 | €750 | about 143 threads |
These assume you use a Draft in every thread. Threads where you write the reply yourself, Drafts you never send, emails your Rules skip, and newsletters, receipts, notifications and auto-replies are not counted, so your real number is usually well below your total inbox.
How does that compare with per-seat pricing?
Per-seat tools charge per person, whatever the volume. The comparison depends on how many people answer. An example with a round per-seat price of €20 per user per month (use your vendors’ real prices):
| Conversations | 1 person | 3 people | 5 people | Per conversation at €0.25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | €20 | €60 | €100 | €50 |
| 1,000 | €20 | €60 | €100 | €250 |
| 3,000 | €20 | €60 | €100 | €750 |
Per seat looks cheaper at higher volumes, but the two are often different kinds of tool. AI writing features sold per user mostly help each person write their own replies, from a prompt or a suggestion; a support drafting tool writes a reply for every customer email from your help pages and past replies, before you open it. Compare what you get for the money, not only the monthly total. Per conversation, per seat or per resolution explains the break-even calculation.
How do you count your real volume?
Your inbox total is not the number to use. Count only customer emails that need a reply.
- Pick one normal month, not a holiday month or a launch week.
- In your support inbox, count incoming customer emails. Exclude newsletters, order and payment notifications, courier updates, auto-replies and internal mail.
- Decide how follow-ups count: at ReplyPen a thread is one conversation however often the customer writes; tools that count per email count each follow-up.
- Remove what you would never let a tool draft, such as legal notices.
- Check against your sent folder: the number of replies you sent that month should be in the same range.
If you cannot count a whole month, count one week and multiply by 4.3.
What does each volume usually look like?
Rough profiles, to help you place yourself (every business differs):
- 200 a month (about 10 a working day). Often one person, answering between other work. The main gain is not having to switch into writing mode ten times a day.
- 1,000 a month (about 50 a working day). Usually a shared support@ address with two or three people, and a clear set of repeat questions.
- 3,000 a month (about 140 a working day). A dedicated support role or small team; repeat questions dominate, and consistency between people starts to matter as much as speed.
How do you weigh the cost against time saved?
Estimate it from your own inbox, not a vendor’s claim:
- Time five typical replies without a tool, from opening the email to sending.
- During a trial, time five replies with a draft, including checking it.
- Multiply the difference by your monthly volume, and value the hours.
For example, if a reply takes 6 minutes without a draft and 2 minutes with one, 1,000 emails a month save about 67 hours. Whether that is worth €250 depends on what those hours are worth to you; the timings here are an illustration, so measure your own.
How can you keep the cost down?
- Skip what does not need a reply with rules: suppliers, partners, automated systems you did not catch.
- Fix the causes of repeat questions on your website or in your order emails, so fewer customers write in at all. How to handle the same customer question for the hundredth time covers this.
- Answer completely the first time. With tools that count each customer email, a complete first reply that prevents a follow-up is also the cheaper one.
- Keep internal mail out of the support inbox.
- Check your count monthly in the first months, while you tune your rules.
What does ReplyPen charge at these volumes?
€0.25 per conversation at launch: €50 for 200, €250 for 1,000 and €750 for 3,000 conversations a month, with every feature included and no charge per person. A conversation is one customer email thread in which you use a ReplyPen Draft, by sending it as written or after editing. Further replies from the customer in the same thread do not count again, and regenerated Drafts, Drafts you never send and email skipped by your Rules are not counted. There is no spending limit you can set today. The pricing page has a calculator for other volumes.
For the full picture of AI pricing models and hidden costs, read How much does AI for customer email cost?.
