"FirstFiveMin Text"
FirstFiveMin Text
FirstFiveMin Text is the messaging half of the product, sold as a monthly add-on in three sizes. Every plan pays the same for each size — the smallest plan pays exactly what the largest one pays — and you can buy it on its own, without the assistant, if texting is all you want.
What it is
- The Text us / Call me bubble on your site and on your hosted page. - Replies from your own phone. You answer from your handset or by email, and it goes to the customer from your FirstFiveMin number — so your personal number stays yours, and the whole exchange lands on the lead. - Quick replies you fill in.
How it is priced
Text is sold by capacity: each size includes a set number of conversations a month, with a message ceiling as the safety net. If you also hold a FirstFiveMin plan, you pay $10 less than buying Text on its own, and it shows on your invoice as a discount line. Every figure is on the Usage page before you buy anything.
Your included messages reset every billing period. Nothing is billed per message unless you turn that on yourself (see *Overage* below), and nothing is ever billed to you by surprise.
When you need more
- Top-ups. You can buy extra messages in bundles. A top-up is used only after your included messages for the period are gone, oldest bundle first, so a quiet month never spends what you bought. Top-ups last 12 months and end with your Text subscription. They have no cash value and are not refundable or transferable. A top-up is always priced so that moving up a size is the better deal per message — we tell you that rather than hide it. - Auto-add (off by default). You can set a rule: when you run out, add a bundle of the size you choose, up to a maximum you set per period. Every time it fires you get a text saying what was bought, what it cost and your new balance. If the card fails, the rule pauses for the period and you are told; nothing is retried behind your back. - Overage (off by default). If you would rather never stop than ever pause, you can turn on a per-message overage: once your included messages and any top-ups are gone, further messages bill at a stated rate per message, up to a maximum you set per period. The running total is on the Usage page all month, so you never learn it from an invoice.
The order is always the same: included messages first, then your oldest top-up, then auto-add if you set a rule, then the overage if you turned it on. If none of those apply, messaging pauses at your ceiling and we tell you — we never drop a message silently.
The meters
The Usage page shows two balances, never merged into one number: what you have used of this period's included messages, and what you have banked from top-ups, with the next expiry date named. It also shows your auto-add and overage state at all times, and — if you hold more than one number — a breakdown per number, each line named the way you named the number.
Pictures (MMS). Picture messages are off by default. A picture costs about two-and-a-half times a plain text message (about 2.5×) and counts as three messages of your allowance; it works in the US and Canada only, and only from your own number. The cost is stated next to the switch, before you turn it on.
Segments. Carriers split long messages, and messages with emoji or accented characters, into more segments. Your meter shows how many extra segments came from that — as information, so your bill is never a surprise. It changes nothing about your limits: every limit and every price counts messages, never segments, so a message in Spanish counts exactly the same as one in English.
If you cancel the assistant
Text stays on your account: your number, your threads and your history do not change. From your next period it moves to the standalone price, because the plan discount ends with the plan. The confirm screen states the new figure before you confirm.
Buying Text on its own
You can buy Text without a FirstFiveMin plan. Two things are true of that, and we say them before you pay rather than after:
- Your own number is part of signing up, because a shared number cannot receive a text from someone who is not already one of your leads. Registering it with the carriers takes about two weeks. - You start on the FirstFiveMin shared line the day you sign up. Your web leads can text you and you can reply; the acknowledgement names your business. Texts from people who are not yet your leads wait for your own number - the shared line cannot tell whose they are - and so does the missed-call text. The shared line has a daily limit shared with other businesses; when it is spent you are told and the message waits. - When your number goes live, new conversations move to it. Anyone you were already texting is told once, from the shared line, what the new number is; that conversation then continues on your line. Each message in a thread shows which line it went out on.
The assistant stays off until you add a plan. Everything you need in order to use Text stays on: your inbox, your threads, your numbers, your team's history, and every compliance control.
What stays included, always
Consent, STOP handling, the hours we are allowed to contact people, and your carrier registration are included — in Text and on every plan. We do not sell compliance as an extra and we never will. Nothing you already have moves behind this upgrade either.
Turning on the assistant
Text is the messaging surface. If you also want the assistant to answer, qualify and book, that is a FirstFiveMin plan — one switch, and everything you already set up carries over.
A card about the other product
If you have Text without a plan, or a plan without Text, you may see one card suggesting the other - on the dashboard, the Numbers page, a lead's thread, Usage or Analytics. It says what the other product does, uses your own numbers where they exist, never claims you lost anything, and never appears next to a compliance notice. Not now hides it for good. Prices on it come from the same price list as everything else.