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Paid plans start at $399/mo. There's also a free plan.
Stream offers a free Build plan for Chat, while paid plans start at $399 per month on annual billing or $499 month-to-month for Start, according to the pricing details checked for this page. Elevate costs $599 monthly with annual billing or $675 monthly. Those plans have specific MAU, connection, message, channel and API limits, with extra usage billed separately. Enterprise pricing is custom. The listed plan limits are for Chat; pricing details for video, feeds and moderation are not specified here.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | $0 | $0 | Makers building with Chat |
| Start | $399 | $499 | Apps needing core paid Chat features |
| Elevate | $599 | $675 | Teams needing advanced Chat features |
| Enterprise | — | Quote | Large-scale deployments needing enterprise support |
Add-ons and overages
- MAU overage: $0.09 per user
- Concurrent connection overage: $0.99 per concurrent connection
- Stored-message overage: $5 per 1M messages
- Channel overage: $100 per 1M channels
- API overage: $7 per 1M calls
- Query Channel API overage: $2.50 per 100K calls
- API bandwidth overage: $0.40 per GB
- CDN bandwidth: $0.17 per GB; storage: $0.07 per GB
- Image resizing: $5.80 per 1,000 images
- Auto-translation: $30 per 1M characters
- AI moderation and Datadog integration are Enterprise add-ons; prices not published
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Usage overages
The listed rates include $0.09 per extra MAU, $0.99 per extra concurrent connection, and $7 per 1M API calls.
Storage and channels
Overages cost $5 per 1M stored messages and $100 per 1M channels, according to the pricing details.
Bandwidth and media
API bandwidth is $0.40 per GB; CDN bandwidth is $0.17 per GB and storage is $0.07 per GB.
Unpublished add-on prices
AI moderation and Datadog integration are Enterprise add-ons, but their prices are not published.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Makers building with Chat | Build | It costs $0 and includes 1,000 MAU, 100 concurrent connections and up to 1M API calls. |
| Apps needing paid Chat | Start | It adds limits of 10,000 MAU, 500 concurrent connections, 5M stored messages, 500K channels and 2M API calls per month. |
| Teams needing advanced Chat | Elevate | It keeps the listed MAU and connection limits but raises message, channel and API allowances over Start. |
04Is Stream worth the money?
Stream is worth considering if your app needs its Chat APIs and SDKs, but the headline plan price is not the whole bill. Start and Elevate have separate caps for users, connections, messages, channels and API calls, and listed overage rates can add up. The pricing details here do not specify plan costs or limits for video, feeds or moderation. Compare those requirements with a quote before switching; Enterprise pricing and some add-on prices are not published.
Stream pricing FAQ
How much does Stream cost?
Build is free. Start costs $399 per month with annual billing or $499 month-to-month. Elevate costs $599 per month with annual billing or $675 monthly. Enterprise pricing is custom, according to the pricing details checked for this page.
Does Stream have a free plan?
Yes. The Build plan costs $0 per month and is described for makers building with Chat. Its listed limits are 1,000 MAU, 100 concurrent connections and up to 1M API calls, with community support.
What is the difference between Start and Elevate?
Both list 10,000 MAU and 500 concurrent connections. Start includes up to 5M stored messages, 500K channels and 2M API calls per month; Elevate raises those limits to 10M messages, 1M channels and 10M API calls.
Are video, feeds and moderation included?
Stream describes APIs and SDKs for video, activity feeds and moderation, but the published pricing details list limits for Chat and do not specify whether those products are included in each Chat plan. Ask Stream for plan-specific costs and limits before budgeting.