Plans and billing
Until Cactus opens plans, no plan can be bought: the Plan page shows its prices with no button, and Cactus stays on for your team. Once plans open, Pro costs $100 a month and Starter $35 a month, and a new team starts with 14 days of Pro free.
On this page
Prices
Until Cactus opens plans, no plan can be bought, and the Plan page shows these prices with no button.
Plan | Price | Answers a month | Extra pack |
|---|---|---|---|
Pro | Price $100 a month | Answers a month 1,000 answers | Extra pack 1,000 more for $20, and they never expire |
Starter | Price $35 a month | Answers a month 200 answers | Extra pack 100 more for $10, and they never expire |
Both plans include every part of Cactus and unlimited teammates.
Start a plan
Until plans open, no checkout opens, and the Plan page shows no buttons. Once they open, only a team's owner can start a plan.
A new team's trial starts with the team, for 14 days of Pro, and asks for no card. A new team may wait for its card and start Pro's trial in Polar's checkout, as follows:
In Settings › Plan, select Start my free trial on the Pro card. It shows only for a team that waits for its card.
Add a card in the checkout that opens. If Polar refuses the owner's email, the checkout opens without it, and Polar's page asks you for an address it accepts.
Pro is free for 14 days, then your card is charged each month until you cancel.
A team whose trial began without a card pauses when its 14 days end, once plans are open, until it picks a plan. To pick one, select Choose Pro, $100/mo or Choose Starter, $35/mo on its card. That checkout has no trial, so it charges from the day you pay.
When you return from the checkout, the Plan page reads your plan from the checkout for up to a minute, showing "confirming your payment" until it lands.
Change or cancel a plan
Until plans open, no team holds a plan to change. Once a team holds one, an owner changes it from the same page.
In Settings › Plan, select Manage billing on either card.
On the page that opens, change the card, read the invoices, switch the plan or cancel.
A cancelled plan reads "ends" with its last day until that day. Owners are emailed when a plan starts, switches, ends, or a payment fails.
Add answers
Once plans are open and your team holds a plan, an owner can buy a pack of answers on the Usage page. Every member can see the Usage page, but only an owner sees the button.
In Settings › Usage, select the button that adds your plan's pack: 1,000 answers on Pro, or 100 on Starter.
Pay in the checkout. If Polar refuses the owner's email, the checkout opens without it, and Polar's page asks you for an address it accepts. The count reads again for a short while until the new answers show.
Packs are used only once the answers in your plan's period are gone, and they never expire.
What counts as an answer
An answer is a reply Cactus writes to someone outside your team: on your help site, in Messenger, in Slack or Discord, or through MCP. Your teammates' questions and greetings never count.
The count starts at the start of your plan's billing period, or at the day the team was created while it has no plan. On the Usage page it shows as "of N answers", with the plan's answers and the packs' answers beside it.
Owners are emailed once each per period when answers reach 80%, and again when all of them are used.
When answers run out
Once a team has used every answer its plan and packs hold, visitors get the pages that best match their question and a way to reach your team, instead of an answer. Your team's own questions are still answered as usual.
If Cactus is paused
What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
"Plans open soon. Until then, Cactus stays on." | What it means Plans are not open for your team to buy yet, and Cactus keeps answering. | What to do Nothing to do until plans open |
"Pro trial" with "ended" and "Cactus stays on for now" | What it means The trial ended before plans opened, and Cactus keeps answering for now | What to do Nothing to do until plans open |
"Cactus is paused" under "No plan" | What it means Plans are open, the trial has ended, and the team has no plan, so Cactus stops answering. Members are told to pick a plan in Settings → Plan | What to do An owner starts a plan, as in Start a plan above |
"No plan" with Start my free trial on the Pro card | What it means A team has not added its card, so its trial has not started | What to do An owner selects Start my free trial on the Pro card |
"payment failed" | What it means The last payment did not go through | What to do An owner selects Manage billing and updates the card |
"Only a teamspace owner can change the plan." | What it means You are a member, so the plan buttons are not shown | What to do Ask an owner of the team to make the change |