Pricing
This page explains how Agora calculates your monthly bill for use of Media Gateway. If you have signed a contract with Agora, the billing terms and conditions within that contract take precedence.
Cost structure
Agora Media Gateway usage incurs fees when transcoding and streaming media streams to Video SDK channels. The related fees are not included in the 10,000 free minutes per month policy.
Agora charges fees depending on whether or not the media stream is transcoded before streaming.
Streaming without transcoding
If the video stream is not transcoded before streaming, only the audio and video streaming fee is charged.
Video streaming fee (without transcoding) = Video streaming unit price (without transcoding) × Video streaming duration
Streaming with transcoding
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Pure audio transcoding and streaming: Audio streams require transcoding, which incurs both transcoding and streaming charges. The total cost is calculated as:
Audio transcoding and streaming fees = audio unit price × duration
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Video transcoding and streaming: If the video stream is transcoded and streamed, video transcoding fees is incurred. The total cost is calculated as:
Video transcoding and streaming fees = video transcoding and streaming unit price × duration
The audio stream in the channel is transcoded and pushed by default. If a channel has both audio and video streams, the fee is calculated based on the video stream.
Unit price
The unit price for streaming with and without transcoding is as follows:
| Usage | Unit price (US$) |
|---|---|
| Pure audio transcoding and streaming | 0.99/1000 min |
| Video streaming with transcoding | 5.99/1000 min |
| Video streaming without transcoding | 2.99/1000 min |
Streaming duration
For each streaming process, Agora monitors when you start and stop streaming. It calculates the duration (in seconds) from the moment streaming begins to when it ends and charges a streaming fee based on that time.
The duration is displayed in seconds in the Agora console and in minutes on the billing invoice. If the duration is less than one second or one minute, it is rounded up to one second or one minute, respectively.
Depending on whether the video stream is pushed or not, the push duration is divided into the following categories:
- Video streaming duration: The duration during which the streaming server handles video. If there are both audio and video streams, the duration is calculated based on the video stream.
- Audio streaming duration: The time during which only the audio stream is transmitted by the streaming server.
Billing examples
Consider the following scenarios to understand the pricing structure:
Video streaming
Suppose that you use the Media Gateway service to push a video stream that does not require transcoding in a channel, and the push duration is 3000 minutes.
The cost of video streaming (without transcoding) = the unit price of video streaming (without transcoding) × the duration of video streaming = $2.99/thousand minutes × 3000 minutes = $8.97
Pure audio transcoding and streaming
Suppose that you use the Media Gateway service to push a pure audio stream in a channel (transcoded by default), and the push duration is 2000 minutes.
The pure audio transcoding and streaming cost = audio transcoding and streaming unit price × audio transcoding and streaming duration = $0.99/thousand minutes × 2000 minutes = $1.98
Video transcoding and streaming
Suppose that you use the Media Gateway service to push a video stream with transcoding in a channel. The transcoded stream duration is 2000 minutes and the video resolution is 1920 × 1080.
The cost of video transcoding and streaming = unit price of video transcoding and streaming × duration of video transcoding and streaming = $5.99/thousand minutes × 2000 minutes = $11.98