Customer.io Cost Tuning

Overview

Optimize Customer.io costs by managing profiles, reducing unnecessary operations, and right-sizing your usage.

Prerequisites

• Access to Customer.io billing dashboard
• Understanding of pricing model
• API access for usage analysis

Customer.io Pricing Model

Component	Pricing Basis
Profiles	Number of people tracked
Emails	Volume sent (included amount varies)
SMS	Per message sent
Push	Volume sent
Objects	Included with plan

Instructions

Step 1: Profile Cleanup

// scripts/profile-audit.ts
import { APIClient, RegionUS } from '@customerio/track';

interface ProfileAudit {
  total: number;
  inactive30Days: number;
  inactive90Days: number;
  noEmail: number;
  suppressed: number;
  recommendations: string[];
}

async function auditProfiles(): Promise<ProfileAudit> {
  const audit: ProfileAudit = {
    total: 0,
    inactive30Days: 0,
    inactive90Days: 0,
    noEmail: 0,
    suppressed: 0,
    recommendations: []
  };

  // Query via Customer.io App API or export
  // Analyze profile data

  const now = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
  const thirtyDaysAgo = now - (30 * 24 * 60 * 60);
  const ninetyDaysAgo = now - (90 * 24 * 60 * 60);

  // Example analysis
  if (audit.inactive90Days > audit.total * 0.3) {
    audit.recommendations.push(
      'Consider archiving profiles inactive >90 days to reduce costs'
    );
  }

  if (audit.noEmail > audit.total * 0.1) {
    audit.recommendations.push(
      'Remove profiles without email addresses (cannot receive communications)'
    );
  }

  return audit;
}

Step 2: Suppress Inactive Users

// lib/profile-management.ts
import { TrackClient, RegionUS } from '@customerio/track';

const client = new TrackClient(
  process.env.CUSTOMERIO_SITE_ID!,
  process.env.CUSTOMERIO_API_KEY!,
  { region: RegionUS }
);

// Suppress users who haven't engaged
async function suppressInactiveUsers(
  userIds: string[],
  dryRun: boolean = true
): Promise<{ suppressed: string[]; errors: string[] }> {
  const results = { suppressed: [] as string[], errors: [] as string[] };

  for (const userId of userIds) {
    if (dryRun) {
      console.log(`[DRY RUN] Would suppress: ${userId}`);
      results.suppressed.push(userId);
      continue;
    }

    try {
      await client.suppress(userId);
      results.suppressed.push(userId);
    } catch (error: any) {
      results.errors.push(`${userId}: ${error.message}`);
    }
  }

  return results;
}

// Delete users to fully remove from billing
async function deleteUsers(
  userIds: string[],
  dryRun: boolean = true
): Promise<{ deleted: string[]; errors: string[] }> {
  const results = { deleted: [] as string[], errors: [] as string[] };

  for (const userId of userIds) {
    if (dryRun) {
      console.log(`[DRY RUN] Would delete: ${userId}`);
      results.deleted.push(userId);
      continue;
    }

    try {
      await client.destroy(userId);
      results.deleted.push(userId);
    } catch (error: any) {
      results.errors.push(`${userId}: ${error.message}`);
    }
  }

  return results;
}

Step 3: Event Deduplication

// lib/smart-tracking.ts
import { LRUCache } from 'lru-cache';
import { TrackClient } from '@customerio/track';

const recentEvents = new LRUCache<string, number>({
  max: 100000,
  ttl: 3600000 // 1 hour
});

interface TrackingConfig {
  dedupWindowMs: number;
  skipEvents: string[];
  sampleRate: Record<string, number>;
}

const config: TrackingConfig = {
  dedupWindowMs: 60000, // 1 minute dedup window
  skipEvents: [
    'page_viewed', // High volume, low value
    'heartbeat'
  ],
  sampleRate: {
    'feature_used': 0.1, // Sample 10% of feature usage
    'search_performed': 0.5 // Sample 50% of searches
  }
};

export function shouldTrackEvent(
  userId: string,
  eventName: string,
  data?: Record<string, any>
): boolean {
  // Skip excluded events
  if (config.skipEvents.includes(eventName)) {
    return false;
  }

  // Apply sampling for high-volume events
  const sampleRate = config.sampleRate[eventName];
  if (sampleRate !== undefined && Math.random() > sampleRate) {
    return false;
  }

  // Deduplicate identical events
  const eventKey = `${userId}:${eventName}:${JSON.stringify(data || {})}`;
  if (recentEvents.has(eventKey)) {
    return false;
  }

  recentEvents.set(eventKey, Date.now());
  return true;
}

Step 4: Email Cost Optimization

// lib/email-optimization.ts
interface EmailOptimizationConfig {
  // Skip transactional emails for users who never open
  skipInactiveAfterDays: number;
  // Consolidate multiple notifications
  batchNotifications: boolean;
  batchWindowMinutes: number;
  // Suppress bounced emails
  suppressAfterBounces: number;
}

const emailConfig: EmailOptimizationConfig = {
  skipInactiveAfterDays: 180, // Skip users inactive 6 months
  batchNotifications: true,
  batchWindowMinutes: 30,
  suppressAfterBounces: 3
};

// Check if user should receive emails
async function shouldSendEmail(
  userId: string,
  emailType: 'transactional' | 'marketing'
): Promise<boolean> {
  // Always send critical transactional (password reset, security)
  if (emailType === 'transactional') {
    return true;
  }

  // Check engagement history
  const user = await getUserMetrics(userId);

  // Skip users who haven't opened in 6 months
  const sixMonthsAgo = Date.now() - (180 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
  if (user.lastEmailOpenedAt < sixMonthsAgo) {
    return false;
  }

  // Skip users with high bounce count
  if (user.bounceCount >= emailConfig.suppressAfterBounces) {
    return false;
  }

  return true;
}

Step 5: Usage Monitoring Dashboard

// lib/usage-monitor.ts
interface UsageMetrics {
  period: string;
  profiles: {
    total: number;
    new: number;
    deleted: number;
  };
  events: {
    total: number;
    byType: Record<string, number>;
  };
  emails: {
    sent: number;
    delivered: number;
    opened: number;
    bounced: number;
  };
  estimatedCost: number;
}

async function getUsageMetrics(
  startDate: Date,
  endDate: Date
): Promise<UsageMetrics> {
  // Query Customer.io Reporting API
  // or aggregate from your tracking

  return {
    period: `${startDate.toISOString()} - ${endDate.toISOString()}`,
    profiles: {
      total: 10000,
      new: 500,
      deleted: 100
    },
    events: {
      total: 50000,
      byType: {
        'signed_up': 500,
        'feature_used': 20000,
        'page_viewed': 25000 // Candidate for sampling
      }
    },
    emails: {
      sent: 15000,
      delivered: 14500,
      opened: 4350,
      bounced: 150
    },
    estimatedCost: 299 // Monthly estimate
  };
}

// Alert on unexpected usage spikes
function checkUsageAlerts(metrics: UsageMetrics): string[] {
  const alerts: string[] = [];

  // Profile growth alert
  if (metrics.profiles.new > metrics.profiles.total * 0.1) {
    alerts.push('Unusual profile growth detected');
  }

  // Event volume alert
  if (metrics.events.total > 100000) {
    alerts.push('High event volume - consider sampling');
  }

  // Bounce rate alert
  if (metrics.emails.bounced / metrics.emails.sent > 0.05) {
    alerts.push('High bounce rate - clean email list');
  }

  return alerts;
}

Step 6: Cost Reduction Checklist

## Monthly Cost Review Checklist

### Profile Optimization
- [ ] Remove profiles with no email
- [ ] Archive inactive profiles (>90 days)
- [ ] Suppress hard bounced emails
- [ ] Merge duplicate profiles

### Event Optimization
- [ ] Identify high-volume, low-value events
- [ ] Implement sampling for analytics events
- [ ] Deduplicate redundant events
- [ ] Remove deprecated event types

### Email Optimization
- [ ] Clean suppression list
- [ ] Re-engage or remove inactive subscribers
- [ ] Consolidate notification emails
- [ ] Optimize send frequency

### Plan Optimization
- [ ] Review plan vs actual usage
- [ ] Consider annual billing for discount
- [ ] Evaluate feature usage vs plan tier

Cost Savings Estimates

Optimization	Typical Savings
Profile cleanup	10-30%
Event deduplication	5-15%
Email list hygiene	5-10%
Sampling high-volume events	10-20%
Annual billing	10-20%

Error Handling

Issue	Solution
Accidental deletion	Customer.io has 30-day recovery
Over-suppression	Track suppression reasons
Usage spike	Set up usage alerts

Resources

• Customer.io Pricing
• Profile Management API

Next Steps

After cost optimization, proceed to customerio-reference-architecture for architecture patterns.