Response allowance is the number of responses your users can leave using either Feedback or Surveys. They are determined by the Ask plan (Basic, Plus, Business, or Scale) your Site is currently on. The response allowance isn't affected by your Observe plan session allowance.
Response allowances reset on the first of each month. This can be a different date from your account’s normal billing cycle. In this article, you'll find a few possible scenarios explained:
- Mid-billing cycle upgrade
- Mid-billing cycle downgrade
- Switching to a yearly subscription mid-billing cycle
- FAQs for the Ask response allowance
Mid-billing cycle upgrade
When upgrading in the middle of your current billing cycle, you’ll be charged a pro-rata amount, but we don't pro-rata your response allowance. Instead, you’ll receive the full response allowance for the plan you upgrade to, minus any responses already collected.
For example, if you were on the Ask Basic plan and had already collected 20 responses, then you upgraded to the Ask Plus plan, here’s what this looks like:
- Ask Basic plan: Collected 20 responses.
- On the 15th of July, you upgrade to Ask Plus: 250 (Ask Plus) responses - 20 (Ask Basic) already collected = 230.
- You will have 230 responses for the remainder of July.
Mid-billing cycle downgrade
When downgrading your Hotjar Ask plan mid-billing cycle, the downgrade will take effect at the end of your current billing cycle. Any remaining responses will be available until the downgrade takes effect on your billing date.
If the 1st of the month occurs before your next billing date, your Ask plan responses will be reset as normal on the 1st of the month. The response allowance will then reset to our Ask Basic plan allowance of 20 responses when the downgrade takes effect on your billing date.
For example, if you were to downgrade the Ask Plus plan mid-billing cycle, here is what that would look like:
- Plus Plan was purchased on July 15th.
- On the 15th of August, your Plus plan is renewed, and you have used 200 of your 250 responses so far for the month of August. An allowance of 50 responses remains for that month.
- On the 20th of August, you choose to downgrade the Ask Plus plan to Ask Basic (which will take effect at your next billing date, the 15th of September). You will still receive the 50 remaining responses available until the end of the month of August.
- On the 1st of September, your Ask plan responses will be reset to your Ask Plus plan allowance of 250 responses and be available until your next billing date when the downgrade takes effect (the 15th of September).
- On the 15th of September, the downgrade to Ask Basic will be actioned, and your Plus plan response allowance will be replaced with our Ask Basic Plan allowance of 20.
- On the 1st of October, your Ask Basic plan allowance will reset for a total of 20 responses.
Switching to a yearly subscription mid-billing cycle
When upgrading an Ask Plan to a yearly subscription, the response allowance behaves identically to the mid-billing cycle upgrade scenario outlined previously.
You will be charged a pro-rata amount to align with your yearly billing renewal date, and you will receive the full response allowance for the plan you upgrade to, minus any responses already collected. Your Ask Plan allowance will continue to be reset on the 1st of each month.
FAQs for the Ask response allowance
Below, you'll find answers to the most common questions related to the Ask reponse allowance.
How is the response allowance calculated?
The response allowance is a total allowance for all Surveys and Feedback widgets on a site. For example, if you have two Surveys with 50 responses each and one Feedback widget with 30 responses, your total responses would be 130.
Where can I see how many responses I have left for this month?
Inside the Hotjar platform there’ll be a banner at the top of your Survey or Feedback widget indicating when you’re at 50% and 100% of your response allowance. The Account Owner will also receive emails that 50% and 100% of responses have been reached.
I ran out of responses this month, when will they reset and what can I do?
The response allowance resets on the first day of the calendar month for all sites. You can upgrade to get more responses or wait until the next calendar month when you’ll get a new response allowance.
If I’ve reached my response allowance limit, can I get new responses if I delete some existing responses?
The response allowance is the number of responses that occurred during your current allowance cycle. If you’ve reached your allowance limit, then deleting already collected responses won’t reset this.
If I upgrade my Ask plan halfway through my billing cycle, how many responses will I get for the remaining time?
We don’t prorate responses for the first month upgraded. That means that even if you've paid a pro-rata amount for the upgrade, you’ll still get the full allowance of responses. However, responses that were already collected during the same billing cycle will count towards your new plan limit.
Example scenario: You are on an Ask Plus plan that allows for 250 responses per month, and you've already collected 100 responses. During the same month, you decide to upgrade to Ask Business, which allows for 500 responses.
After upgrading, your previously collected responses will count towards your new monthly allowance, and you will have 400 responses remaining for that same month. On the 1st day of the next month, your allowance will reset to 500 responses as allowed by your Ask Business plan.
Can I see past responses that I couldn’t access at the time because of my allowance limit if I upgrade now?
When your allowance limit is reached, we stop showing the Survey or Feedback widget on your site. This means it isn’t possible for users to leave a response and that there are no past responses to be viewed by upgrading at a later time.
Is a response only for completed Surveys/Feedback or does it also count for partial completions?
When responding to your survey or feedback widget, some users will choose to abandon the survey or feedback widget or leave the page. You will have access to the answers they've provided and the response is counted as part of your response allowance.
What if I don’t know how many responses I need?
You can start with one of our lowest plans and upgrade as you go. Visit our pricing page to see the available response options and you can also contact Sales via that page if you’re looking for many more responses.
How can I collect less responses?
Surveys and Feedback offer the ability to set up conditions for when they’ll be shown to your users. By using these targeting options, which includes settings like traffic percentage, you can reduce the frequency your Survey or Feedback widget is shown. More details on setting this up can be found in our How to Set Up Surveys and How to Set Up Feedback articles.
Do I need to pay for previously collected responses?
No, previously collected responses are yours and we won’t charge you for them. If you downgrade your plan, you’ll still have access to past responses.
Can I limit the number of responses to be collected for a specific Survey or Feedback widget?
It's not possible to put a limit on the number of responses each Survey or Feedback widget should receive. However, you can manually deactivate a Survey or Feedback widget inside its set up page when it has reached the number of responses you wanted.
What happens to the Survey or Feedback widget when I’ve reached my response allowance limit?
We stop showing the Survey or Feedback widget on your site once your response allowance limit is reached. They will reappear when your response allowance is reset the next calendar month or if you upgrade in the meantime to make more responses available.
What will respondents see if a Link Survey has reached its limit?
They’ll see a message that the survey isn’t collecting responses or was removed.
Can I still create a new Survey or Feedback widget when I’ve reached my response allowance limit?
You can create a new Survey or Feedback widget, however it won’t show until your allowance limit is increased by upgrading or until the next calendar month starts and you receive a new response allowance.