How connected time billing works

Connected time billing charges for a call based on how long it stayed connected after it was answered, rather than charging a flat rate for every call that was attempted or delivered.

What counts as connected time and what does not

Connected time is measured after the buyer's destination number or softphone answers. Ringing time before answer is excluded entirely: a call that rings for fifteen seconds and is never picked up has zero connected time, regardless of how long it rang. Once the call is answered, the clock is running, whether the buyer is speaking to the caller directly or the call landed in the buyer's own IVR or voicemail system.

Ring time

The period before the call is answered. Never counted and never billed.

Connected time

The period after the call is answered on the buyer's end. This is what is measured against the buffer.

Buffer

The minimum connected time a call must reach before it is billed. See what is a call buffer for detail.

When the charge actually happens

The call is charged once, at the moment connected time reaches or passes the selected buffer for that campaign. It is not charged per minute after that and it is not billed a second time for staying connected longer. If a call never reaches the buffer, no charge occurs at all, whether it went unanswered or was answered and ended quickly.

Why this model exists instead of a flat per-call price

A flat price per call, charged the moment a call is delivered, puts all of the risk on the buyer: a call that rings once and drops costs the same as one that runs five minutes. Connected time billing shifts that risk. The buyer only pays once a call has demonstrated it reached a meaningful length, which is a proxy for a real conversation having started.

What buyers should check before assuming a call is billable

• Which buffer applies to the campaign the call came in on.
• Whether the destination that answered was the one you set, since a misconfigured destination can affect what counts as answer.
• Whether the call was answered by a person, your IVR, or voicemail, since all three start the connected-time clock the same way.

How this shows up in Callmart's billing

Buyers fund a prepaid wallet on Callmart, processed through Stripe, and a charge is deducted from that wallet only when a call reaches the buffer for its campaign. Buyers see the price and the connected-time threshold for each campaign before switching buying on, and can review call activity to see how a given charge was calculated. If a charge looks wrong, buyers can submit a call dispute for review.

A worked example of how a charge is calculated

Say a campaign offers a tier priced at $50 for a 30 second buffer. A call rings the buyer's destination for eight seconds before it is answered; that eight seconds is ring time and is not counted. Once the destination answers, the clock for connected time begins. If the call stays connected for 34 seconds before either side hangs up, it has passed the 30 second buffer, and the buyer is charged $50 once. If the same call had ended at 22 seconds, connected time would never have reached the buffer, and no charge would occur.

Why buyers should track connected time, not just call count

Looking only at how many calls arrived in a day misses the more useful number: how many reached their buffer and were billed versus how many did not. Tracking both together shows whether a campaign's buffer tier fits how your team actually handles calls, and whether a shorter or longer buffer might be a better fit going forward.

• The caller hangs up quickly, for reasons unrelated to the agent, such as changing their mind or dialing by mistake.
• The buyer's destination fails to answer properly, such as a misconfigured forwarding number.
• The call reaches the buyer's voicemail and the caller hangs up without leaving a message.

Connected time billing applies the same way to every call on a given campaign, so a buyer does not need to worry about one call being measured differently than another. The clock starts at answer and stops when either party disconnects, and the total is compared against the buffer for that campaign's tier.

Buyers sometimes assume a slow or choppy connection somehow changes what counts as connected time. It does not. Connected time is a measure of duration after answer, not a measure of call clarity. Audio quality and connected time are tracked independently of one another, and a poor connection does not by itself exempt a call from billing once it crosses the buffer.

Common questions