During a video or audio session, each user needs to both publish (upload their video/audio content), and subscribe (download video/audio content from the other users).
TokBox charges for subscribed minutes – we don’t charge for published minutes.
The total number of subscribed minutes depends on the length of the session and the use case, as 1:1 and multi-party sessions work slightly differently. You can refer to the table below to calculate the total number of subscribed minutes (when all participants are both publishing and subscribing).
| Use Case | How to calculate usage? | Example |
| 1:1 or 2-participant session |
Each participant subscribes to the stream from the other participant. Number of streamed subscribed minutes = 2 x duration of session |
15-minute session with 2 participants: Total number of streamed subscribed minutes billed will be (2 x 15), which equals 30 streamed subscribed minutes |
| Multi-party session |
Each participant subscribes to streams from the other participants Number of streamed subscribed minutes = n x (n-1) x duration of session |
15-minute session with 4 participants: Total number of streamed subscribed minutes billed will be (4 x 3 x 15), which equals 180 streamed subscribed minutes |
| Broadcast - One-to-many |
Audience will subscribe to 1 stream from the Broadcaster Number of streamed subscribed minutes = n x duration of session |
30-minute session with 1 broadcaster and audience-size of 100: The total number of streamed subscribed minutes billed will be (100 x 30), which equals 3000 streamed subscribed minutes. |
| Broadcast - Few-to-many |
Audience will subscribe to the streams from each of the broadcasters. Additionally broadcasters will subscribe to streams from other broadcasters No. of streamed subscribed minutes = (m x (m-1) x duration of session) + (m x n x duration of session) (where m is the number of broadcasters & n is the audience-size) |
30-minute session with 3 broadcasters and audience-size of 100: The total number of streamed subscribed minutes billed will be (3 x 2 x 30) + (3 x 100 x 30), which equals 9180 streamed subscribed minutes |