Short answer
Extra conversations are a top-up pool of conversations added to your organization on top of your plan's included amount. They're used automatically once your plan's included conversations run out, and before any per-conversation overage charge — so they save you money, not cost you extra. Each batch (a grant) has its own balance and expiry date, and it survives plan renewals, plan changes, and even cancelling.
How a conversation gets paid for
Every new client conversation is covered from exactly one of three places, checked in this order:
Your plan's included conversations — 5/month on Pay-Per-Lead monthly, or 15/quarter on the quarterly plan. Resets at renewal.
Extra conversations — if you have any, drawn from the grant that expires soonest first.
Overage — once both are exhausted, billed instantly at $19 per conversation, same as always.
On Unlimited, there's no quota or overage, so your extra-conversation pool is simply on hold — untouched and not draining — for as long as you're on that plan.
Where you see them
Next to your org picker: a small green +N chip next to your plan usage shows unused extra conversations. Hover it for the full breakdown.
Settings → Billing: an "Extra conversations" card lists every grant — how much is left of the original amount, and when it expires.
If a grant is expiring within 14 days, a callout on the Billing page reminds you before it's gone.
Once the whole pool is used up, a callout lets you know further conversations are billed as overage until you get more.
Expiry and renewals
Extra conversations don't reset with your billing cycle the way your plan quota does. Each grant keeps its own expiry date (12 months from when it was granted, by default) and carries over renewals and plan changes untouched. It only disappears if it expires unused.
If you cancel or downgrade
Extra conversations live outside your billing cycle, so cancelling your subscription doesn't remove them — any unused balance is still there, and still counting down to its own expiry date, if you resubscribe before then.
How to get extra conversations
Extra conversations are granted by the Lancer team — for example as a prepaid top-up, a promo, or a goodwill credit for an issue on our end. If you'd like a top-up, message us in the chat and we'll take care of it.
Prepaid top-ups are non-refundable, and conversations left unused when a grant expires aren't refunded or credited. See Refund policy: does Lancer offer refunds?.