Short duration call fees

US calling on CallSprout is unlimited, but carriers charge extra when a large share of an account's outbound calls hang up within a few seconds. This page explains what counts, when the charge applies and what it costs.

What counts as a short duration call

A short duration call is an outbound call from your account that connects and lasts 6 seconds or less.

• Inbound calls never count. A caller who hangs up on your menu or your voicemail doesn't affect you.
• Calls that never connect don't count. Busy signals and calls nobody answers aren't part of the math.
• Voicemail counts as connected. If an outbound call reaches voicemail and you hang up within 6 seconds, it's a short duration call.

When the fee applies

At the end of each billing month, we divide your short duration calls by all of your outbound calls that connected that month.

• 15 percent or less: no fee.
• More than 15 percent: every short duration call that month carries a surcharge, not only the ones above the line.

For example, an account that connects 2,000 outbound calls in a month can have up to 300 short ones with no fee. At 301, all 301 calls are charged.

What it costs

The surcharge is what our carriers bill us for each of those calls. We pass it through at cost, with no markup, so there's no separate CallSprout rate. It appears as its own usage line on the invoice that follows the billing month. Unlimited calling covers your minutes, not this per-call charge.

Common causes

• Dialer campaigns that hang up on voicemail. If answering machine detection drops calls as soon as it hears a greeting, each one can be a short duration call. See run an outbound campaign, and ask support before you change the detection timing.
• Old or unchecked lead lists. Wrong and reassigned numbers tend to end in quick hang ups on both sides.
• Hanging up the moment voicemail answers. Leaving a short message, or letting the greeting play before you hang up, keeps those calls over 6 seconds.
• Automated test or check calls. Scripts that dial a number just to see whether it rings produce nothing but short calls.

Check your own numbers

Export your call history for the month, keep only outbound calls that connected, and sort by duration. If more than 15 percent ran 6 seconds or less, look at which users, campaigns or numbers they came from. Contact support if you'd like help reading the results.

For more on why carriers charge for short calls, see short duration calls. The full rule is in our Terms of Service.