If you've ever received a message stating you've exceeded your member limit, even when your groups seem to be within your plan's size, this article will explain how your unique contact allotment is calculated and what steps you can take to manage it.
How Your Plan's Unique Contact Allotment Works
Your CallingPost plan tier (e.g., Essentials 50, Premium 75) dictates the maximum number of unique contacts you can communicate with during each monthly cycle. It's crucial to understand how these contacts are counted:
All Contacts Counted on First Send: When you send your first communication in a new monthly cycle, all unique contacts currently in your account (whether active or inactive) are applied towards your monthly allotment. This happens even if you only send that particular message to a subset of your contacts, as we reserve resources for your entire list at that point.
Unique Count Per Month: A single unique contact is only counted once per month towards your monthly allotment, regardless of how often they are communicated with during that cycle.
Deletion Affects Next Month: If you delete a contact after they've been counted in the current month's allotment, they will not be removed from this month's count. Deleting them now will prevent them from being counted in your next month's allotment.
Upgrade for More Contacts: If you wish to add additional contacts beyond your current monthly allotment, the system will require you to upgrade to a higher plan tier at the time of sending.
Hypothetical Scenario: A user on a Premium-75 plan has 75 unique contacts (some active, some inactive) in their account. If they send a communication to only 50 of those contacts with their first message of a new monthly cycle, all 75 unique contacts in the account will be applied toward the monthly allotment.
Why You Might See "Exceeded Limit" (Even with Few Visible Members)
The error message occurs when the total number of unique contacts that have been present in your account during the current monthly cycle (as per the counting rules above) exceeds your plan's tier.
For example, if you have a Premium-100 plan but have added 10 new contacts and removed 6 old ones since your cycle began, you might still be counted against more than 100 unique contacts for that specific month, even if your current visible contact count is below 100.
What to Do If You've Exceeded Your Limit
If you're currently seeing an "exceeded member limit" message, here are your options:
Upgrade Your Plan:
The quickest way to send your message is to upgrade to a higher plan tier that accommodates your current total unique contact count. You can usually do this directly from your account's Billing screen.
Reduce Your Stored Contacts for Next Month:
To stay within your current plan's limit for future cycles, you'll need to delete members from your groups until your total stored contacts are below your plan's maximum allotment. Remember, changes made this month will apply to your next month's allotment.
Refresh Your System:
While this is generally not an error by design, if you believe the system is displaying incorrect data, try logging out and logging back in to refresh your account's display.
Please ensure your contact lists are edited to your liking before sending your first message each monthly cycle to avoid exceeding your allotment unexpectedly.
Tips for Managing Your Contact Count Effectively
To proactively avoid exceeding your monthly unique contact allotment, especially for accounts with just a few groups:
Export Your Current Group:
Navigate to the Groups & Contacts tab and select the specific group in question.
Use the export option (often a button or icon) to download a fresh list of all contacts currently in that group.
Export a Historical Communication Report:
Go to your Reports section (or equivalent for past communications).
Find and export a report for an earlier communication where you know your count was within limits (e.g., the last successful send).
Compare and Identify New Contacts:
Open both exported lists in a spreadsheet (like Excel or Google Sheets).
Use spreadsheet functions (e.g., VLOOKUP, MATCH, COUNTIF, or conditional formatting for duplicates) to identify contacts present in your current group that were not on the older historical list. These are the "new" contacts that likely contributed to your current month's count.
Take Action (Delete Unneeded Contacts):
Once you've identified contacts you no longer need, delete them from your groups within CallingPost. This is crucial for managing your next month's allotment.
By actively comparing your lists and understanding how contacts are counted, you can effectively manage your unique contact count for future billing cycles and prevent unexpected "exceeded limit" messages.