Klaviyo BFCM Plan Limits: Auto-Upgrade or Flexible Overages

A BFCM campaign that reaches the plan limit can be slowed down, skip recipients or be canceled. Klaviyo documents a billing preference that decides what happens at that moment. This article presents the three options, their billing principle and the link with throttling, with no price: the vendor's pricing page remains the reference.

TL;DR. When a plan reaches its sending limit, Klaviyo applies the preference you chose: flexible overages (additional usage for the current billing cycle, same plan), automatic upgrade (next tier) or no option (sending stops). Without auto-upgrade or flexible overages, a campaign that exceeds the limits can be throttled. Klaviyo's page recommends choosing one of the first two options.

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What the upgrade preference decides

The page states that these preferences decide what happens when you reach your plan's usage limits: email sends, Mobile Messaging usage, Helpdesk tickets or Customer Agent conversations (Klaviyo, how to choose your upgrade preference). They do not upgrade you based on your profile count: Klaviyo does that automatically when your billing cycle renews. They are not available for Reviews.

To change them, you must be an Owner or Admin, have Billing Permissions in your user role, and have a paid Profiles & Email, Mobile Messaging, Helpdesk or Customer Agent plan that is not billed through a contract. If your account belongs to an account family, the change is made from the parent account. The available options depend on your plan.

The three options

1. Flexible overages: additional usage for the current billing cycle, for a 1-time fee. The account stays on its current tier.
2. Automatic upgrade (auto-upgrade): moves you to the next plan tier when the plan reaches its email, mobile message, helpdesk ticket or customer agent conversation limit.
3. None: available for Email and Mobile Messaging. When the plan reaches its limit, sending for that plan stops until you upgrade, use flexible overages, or the billing cycle renews. This option does not exist for Helpdesk or Customer Agent.

According to the page, when you first purchase a Profile & Email or Mobile Messaging subscription, auto-upgrade is toggled on by default. For Helpdesk and Customer Agent, flexible overages are the default.

How each option is billed

For plans billed in usage units, a flexible overage charges a 1-time fee for the additional usage needed to reach a higher tier, at your current plan's unit rate (for example, the cost per email send). You can flex several times in a single billing cycle, and your subscription plan does not change.

Auto-upgrade moves you to a new plan, which you stay on until you downgrade. Klaviyo then charges the difference between your current plan and the new plan.

The page compares the two: flexible overages suit you if you occasionally need extra usage during the year and want to stay on your original plan. They can be more expensive than upgrading, because the added usage is paid at your current plan's unit rate. If you frequently exceed your limits, upgrading can be more cost effective. The page asks you to compare the costs shown in your billing preferences. For amounts, see Klaviyo's pricing page.

Notifications and downgrades

Whatever the option, Klaviyo sends several notifications to the Owner when an account approaches a plan's limits (the page cites the 75% and 90% marks).

For Profiles & Email, an automatic downgrade based on active profile count exists, but it cannot be used together with auto-upgrade, and it does not depend on the number of messages sent. Any downgrade takes effect the following billing cycle. An account that stays on auto-upgrade is therefore not auto-downgraded.

Where to set the preference

1. Select your account name in the lower left, then go to Billing > Preferences.
2. Find the plan concerned (Email or Mobile Messaging) and open its upgrade preference dropdown.
3. Choose None, Automatically upgrade or Flexible overages, then read the additional usage and cost shown.
4. Click Update.

Saving takes effect immediately. The page's example: if you choose flexible overages and reach the limit a day later, Klaviyo applies that preference at that time.

A failed subscription payment disables auto-upgrade and flexible overages, and a failed auto-upgrade or flexible-overage payment disables the affected option. You then need to update your credit card, resolve any overdue payment, then return to Billing > Preferences to re-enable the option and click Update. In our view, this point should be checked before the peak, since the option concerned is disabled.

The link with throttling

The throttling page lists, among the possible causes, the case where auto-upgrade and flexible overages are disabled and a campaign exceeds your plan's limits (Klaviyo, understanding email throttling). Its first recommendation is to choose flexible overages or auto-upgrade for a paid email plan.

It also describes a safeguard: if Klaviyo detects at scheduling that a campaign exceeds your plan limits and your account cannot send beyond them, an in-app warning appears and you cannot schedule the campaign. The warning might not appear if many profiles were added between scheduling and the actual send time.

Our article on throttling a large campaign details the extra-hour-per-million-recipients rule and the resend method.

When recipients are counted

The moment a campaign determines its recipients affects send volume (Klaviyo, how to change when a campaign's recipients are determined). With the At send time option, if your lists or segments have grown since you created the campaign, it may use more sends than planned, trigger an automatic upgrade, or require a plan upgrade to reach everyone. The default setting is At time of scheduling. Our article on segment update speed details this point.

If the sending limit is reached

A third page describes the case where the account reaches its limit (Klaviyo, how to resend a campaign that exceeded account sending limits). Klaviyo can then cancel a campaign or skip recipients who exceed the remaining allowance, and this is not limited to A/B tests. A campaign canceled for this reason does not automatically continue sending if you later upgrade your plan.

To check the monthly limit: company name in the bottom left, Billing, then the Profiles and emails card in Overview. To resend, the page asks you to copy the canceled campaign's message ID, create a Received Email (or Received SMS) segment filtered on that ID, clone the campaign and add that segment to the clone's exclusions. In our view, these steps resemble those of the throttling page, which we describe in the dedicated article.

Choosing before the peak: Deliver's reading

The pages do not say which option to pick for a given account. In our view, the decision is made before the first large campaign, with the person who holds billing permissions, by comparing the costs shown in Billing > Preferences. Our BFCM email send calendar helps estimate in advance the days when volumes will be highest. The account default settings can be checked in the same session. The Klaviyo BFCM guide brings the whole preparation together.

Checklist before BFCM

These points are Deliver's advice.

1. The upgrade preference is chosen and verified by someone with billing permissions.
2. The plan payment is up to date, to avoid the options being disabled.
3. The account Owner receives the threshold notifications.
4. The volumes of the heaviest campaigns are compared with the limits before scheduling.

FAQ

What happens if my plan reaches its limit during BFCM?

It depends on the preference. With flexible overages, the additional usage is added for the current cycle. With auto-upgrade, the account moves to the next tier. With None, sending stops.

What is the difference between flexible overages and auto-upgrade?

With flexible overages, the account stays on its plan. With auto-upgrade, it moves to a higher tier and stays there until a downgrade.

Does a campaign canceled for exceeding limits resume after an upgrade?

No. The page states that it does not automatically continue: it has to be resent through a clone that excludes people already served.

Where can I find the prices?

On Klaviyo's pricing page. This article gives no price.

Want an outside view on your sending preparation? We run Q4 readiness audits, or you can talk directly with the Deliver team.