SMS Credits and Top-Ups
SMS notifications run on prepaid Octavia SMS credits. You buy a top up pack, and each message you send deducts credits from your balance. How many credits a message uses depends on the recipient's country and the length
How Credits Work
Credits are prepaid: you top up first, then send. Each SMS deducts credits based on two things:
- The recipient's country — different destinations consume credits at different rates
- The message length — longer messages are split into more parts (segments), and each part costs credits
Because of this, one top-up does not equal a set number of messages. A short reminder to a local number uses far fewer credits than a long message to an overseas number. One credit pack can be used across any destination — Octavia works out the correct number of credits to deduct for each individual message.
For worked examples of current destination rates and how message length changes the cost, see SMS cost by country and message length.
Checking Your Balance
Your Current balance is shown at the top of the SMS notifications page, in Octavia SMS credits. The same page summarises how billing works so you have it in front of you before you send.
Buying a Top-Up
Under SMS credits and top-ups, each available pack shows its price and how many credits it adds. Choose a pack and click Purchase top-up to go to secure Stripe checkout. When the payment completes, the credits are added to your school's balance and the purchase appears in your history.
Top-ups are one-off purchases, not a subscription — you buy more only when you want to.
Recent Top-Ups
The Recent top-ups table lists your latest purchases with their date, status, credits, and amount. Status is one of:
- completed — the payment succeeded and the credits were added
- checkout incomplete — the checkout was started but not finished; no credits were added
- failed — the payment did not go through
What Happens If You Run Low
If your balance is not enough to cover a send, Octavia does not send a partial batch. The send stops and you are prompted to top up or send to fewer recipients. This "stop rather than half-send" behaviour is deliberate, so you are never left guessing who did and didn't receive a message.
Once a message has been handed to the network, the credit charge for it is final. Later delivery outcomes are recorded for your records but do not automatically refund credits.
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