Is the LINE OA free plan's 300 messages a month enough for your shop?
· 5 min read
For a shop with around 75–100 bookings a month, 300 messages is usually enough, since each booking uses about 3–4 messages. But if the shop often sends promotions to all its friends, the messages run out much faster. If bookings grow beyond that, you can upgrade your plan directly with LINE.
How a message is counted
LINE OA counts the messages your shop sends out per person. Sending to 1 customer counts as 1 message. If you broadcast a promotion to 400 friends, that uses 400 messages in one go.
This is why some shops run out early in the month. It's not that they had lots of bookings; they sent one promotion to everyone.
How many messages one booking uses
If your shop uses LINE for confirmations and reminders, one booking usually uses about 3–4 messages:
- The booking confirmation, sent as soon as the booking is made
- A reminder 24 hours before the appointment
- A reminder 1 hour before the appointment
- A notice when the customer reschedules or cancels (only for some bookings)
Put simply, 300 messages covers about 75–100 bookings a month, if you send nothing else.
Check your shop in one minute
The formula is:
Bookings per month × messages per booking + promotional messages
For example, a shop gets 60 bookings a month through LINE at 3 messages each, which is 180 messages. Send one promotion to 100 customers that month and the total is 280, still within the quota. Send two promotions and you go over 300 straight away.
If your number comes close to 300, it's time to plan what your messages go to first.
Make 300 messages last the whole month
Reminder messages stop customers forgetting their appointments, so keep them for this first and split what's left for promotions.
- Send promotions to a targeted group instead of all your friends. For example, send a foot spa offer only to customers who have had a spa treatment before, or to customers who haven't been in for a while.
- Send fewer but better promotions. One clear offer a month works better than weekly messages that bore customers into blocking you.
- Combine everything into one message. If you have several offers, put them in one message rather than sending several rounds.
- Remind customers who don't use LINE by email. You don't need everyone to add your LINE to get reminders.
When to upgrade your LINE plan
If your numbers go over 300 almost every month, even after cutting back on broadcasts, your shop has outgrown the free plan. At this point you can upgrade directly with LINE.
It's usually worth it. If messages run out mid-month, customers who book near the end of the month won't get their reminders, so they are more likely to forget and you lose the whole slot. Losing just a few bookings can cost more than the extra plan fee.
The best approach is to keep an eye on how much you use each month. If you use MineTurn, the admin panel shows how many messages you've used, and MineTurn charges nothing extra for LINE alerts, so you know before your messages run out.
Summary
300 messages is enough for a shop with up to about 75–100 bookings a month, as long as messages go mainly to confirmations and reminders, and promotions go to targeted groups and not too often. Once bookings regularly exceed the quota, upgrade your plan with LINE so every customer still gets their reminders.