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Vivox: Pricing and Billing FAQ

Kevin Hendricks
  • Updated

Disclaimer: unless explicitly noted, information in this article concerns standard pricing for general usage in gaming applications (non Industry license): for information on custom pricing, premium priced add-ons, or non-gaming use, please click on the term of interest to jump to the specific entry for those topics.

This information is current as of November 22, 2024. Vivox service pricing and billing terms are subject to change. Please see your actual service agreement for terms and conditions.

Table of Contents

Usage Tracking

How is Vivox usage tracked for pricing purposes?

Vivox pricing is based on "Peak Concurrent Users" (PCU) which represents the single highest count of users signed into the service at any one moment in time during a billing period (typically one calendar month).

For Vivox billing purposes, your peak concurrent user count is the only metric that matters. Other common usage metrics such as daily active users, monthly active users, monthly average users, or bandwidth are not relevant.

How is PCU determined for an individual title?

To determine the PCU for one of your titles, start by logging into the Unity Cloud dashboard (https://cloud.unity.com). For each of your Projects signed up for Vivox, the Vivox Overview page will have a graph titled "Concurrent logged in users" which continually graphs the number of users signed into Vivox at the same time (concurrent users). The highest point on this graph during a calendar month is your PCU for that title for that month.

How is usage tracked when I have multiple titles using Vivox?

Important: When you have multiple projects using Vivox, your billable PCU each month is calculated in the following way: for each Unity project in your Organization that uses Vivox, the individual title PCU for each project each month is added together in order to get the total peak usage for your Org that month.

When considering the free tier of usage, this combined PCU total across titles in your Organization is the number which must stay within free tier usage limits to avoid charges.

Example: if one project had 1000 users signed into Vivox at once on the 5th as the high point for the month, and another project in your Org had 2000 user signed in at its peak on the 17th, that would be 3000 PCU total across your Org for billing purposes that month.

How can I estimate how many players will play concurrently?

Consider what it would mean to have even 5000 people actively playing your game at the very same moment in time. To begin putting this into perspective, think about how often you play each of the games that you've downloaded or purchased: do you play each one of them every minute of every day? Consider the opening week of a new movie released to a popular on-demand streaming service: millions of people might watch the movie during the first week, but if you were to chart around the globe every hour the number of people sitting down and watching right now, what percentage of the week one total viewers do you think it would be?

While the real number might be tough to estimate precisely, it should be clear that before it's realistically possible for 5000 users to be playing your game all at once, you will need way more daily active users, way way more monthly active users, and considerably way even more total game downloads than that.

Aside from a having a critical mass of game downloads, the second largest contributing factor for many players playing at once is timed events or promotions. Whether it's an exclusive item or champion available only to those who log in on a particular day, or a limited time game mode only available for one week, any event or promotion which encourages players to play within a limited time window will result in more players playing at once. The shorter the limited time availability, the more players playing at one time.

Another important factor to consider when trying to estimate PCU is the expected length of a typical play session; this can vary by platform, genre, and game play details specific to your title. For match or session based games (such as many FPS, MoBA, and BR titles) an individual's play time will likely be the length of one or more whole matches. If a typical match is 25 minutes versus 10 minutes, for instance, this can impact the total play time in a typical session, which can in turn lead to more or less players playing at once.

Remember however, that even if your app is popular all around the globe, peak hours for each region are going to vary by timezone and won't all be at once. For many titles, the most engaged players might still only play a few minutes to hours each day; for free-to-play titles many more will download once to try, and then never play again.

The bottom line is that in order to have 5000 users playing all at the same time, you will have already found a lot of success.

Pricing

Does Vivox have a free tier I can use at no cost?

Yes. Using Vivox under the Free tier/plan is completely free to sign up and start using, and all your regular service usage within the free tier usage limits each month will cost you nothing. At the time of writing, the Vivox free tier is 5000 PCU per month, and use of the basic service within this limit each month is free on any plan using standard pricing. Please refer to the Usage Tracking FAQ section above for detailed information on how PCU is defined and calculated when using Vivox in one or more projects.

Is use of the Vivox free tier limited by my Organization size?

No. When using Vivox in games, whether you are a student or hobbyist, indie creator, small, mid-sized, or AAA studio, or anyone else—so long as you are signed up for Vivox with standard pricing—your first 5000 PCU each month is free (even on the Pay-as-you-go plan). Of course, if you previously worked with a Sales associate to negotiate custom pricing, then you will be charged per the terms of the agreed upon custom pricing.

What is the difference between the Free Plan and Pay-as-you-go?

The "Free Plan" and the "Pay-as-you-go Plan" are in fact almost identical. When you initially sign up for most Unity Gaming Services, you start on the Free Plan—no credit card info required—and usage continues free forever so long as you stay within the free tier usage limits for each service. If your monthly usage goes over the free tier threshold for any service, you are switched to the Pay-as-you-go Plan, which means that you're now required to add a payment method to your account in order to continue using the services. When this happens, you will have 30 days to add a valid payment method before live service is interrupted.

At the beginning of the next month, you will receive an invoice for billable usage occurring the previous month beyond the free limit. However, if your Vivox PCU stays within the free tier limit (5000 PCU) for the entirety of the next calendar month, you won't owe anything for that month. To restate simply, the free tier usage limits each month are the same in both plans (first 5000 PCU is free). The only difference is the requirement to have a payment method on file to keep using the service after the first time a free tier is exceeded (when you are moved from the Free Plan to Pay-as-you-go).

How are usage based charges actually calculated? Do I pay per user?

The current standard pricing for Vivox Voice and Text usage can be found on the Unity Gaming Services pricing page here (https://unity.com/solutions/gaming-services/pricing). Pricing for Vivox, as well as Safe Voice and Safe Text, can be found at the bottom of the list at the time of writing. All prices are listed in USD.

Price is not calculated per individual user, although in a general sense, more users using the service each month will typically cost more. The easiest way to think about Vivox pricing is that you're renting buckets that you can fill with users. Each bucket holds a maximum of 5000 users at once. You don't need to rent additional buckets until you already have more users playing at once than your currently rented buckets can hold, and the cost per bucket goes down the more buckets you rent every month. The standard pricing for user buckets is as follows (remember—each bucket will hold up to 5000 users no matter the cost):

  • The first bucket per month is always free.
  • Buckets 2-10 in the same month cost $2,000 each.
  • Buckets 11-20 in the same month cost $1,500 each.
  • Buckets 21-40 in the same month cost $1,250 each.
  • Each bucket after 40 in the same month costs $1000 each.

The cheaper per-bucket pricing you get for renting a lot of buckets resets every month, so the discounts don't accumulate. This means the pricing chart above will be the same every month. And to be clear, you never need to pay for anything in advance and can't actually "run out" of capacity; you will simply be billed near the beginning of the following month based on the previous month's peak concurrent usage with no interruption of service. And if you go back below 5000 users for the entire next month, your usage that month is free again (since it fits in your one free bucket per month).

Example (assuming standard pricing): if you have 5001 users logged into Vivox at any single moment in time during a month, then your free bucket can no longer hold all of them, and you will be billed for 1 extra bucket that month at a total cost of $2,000. However, keep in mind this charge is the same for 6000, 7500, or even 10,000 users! You would still only need 1 extra bucket beyond your free one to hold all your users that month (2 buckets holds 10,000 users), and once you've rented the bucket, you get to keep it the entire month to hold your users. In other words, that first charge doubles your available capacity for the billing period all the way to 10,000 peak users.

Is there a pricing calculator for Vivox?

Yes, Vivox offers a cost estimator tool which allows you to input a Peak Concurrent User (PCU) count and detail the estimated monthly cost at standard service pricing, including the cost breakdown per pricing bracket. This tool is available on the "About Voice and Text Chat" page on the Unity Cloud Dashboard, located here (https://cloud.unity.com/vivox). Select the "Pricing" tab or scroll down to the "Pricing" section on this page to view the cost estimator.

What about Industry use (non-gaming): is this charged the same?

No, non-game applications are priced differently. Use of Vivox Voice and Text in Unity projects licensed under the Industry SKU, or in other non-gaming or B2B applications (such as VR medical simulation software, for instance) is subject to an alternative pricing model different than Vivox standard pricing. Please get in touch to speak with a member of our team about your non-gaming project (https://create.unity.com/contact-us-vivox).

Are any parts of the Vivox Service metered/charged separately?

Yes, there are several premium Voice and Text features which are offered at additional pricing. To discuss pricing or enable these features for your project or studio, you can reach out to your existing Sales contact or client partner manager, or contact us using the following form (https://create.unity.com/contact-us-vivox). At the time of writing, Vivox premium priced offerings include the following:

  • Dedicated hosting on a customizable Vivox server environment.
  • Speech-to-text (transcription of incoming speech into text messages).
    • Note that text-to-speech (converting text messages into synthesized speech) is included in the base offering.
  • Adaptive chat filter. Filter tough-to-stop, unwanted words and phrases in real-time, based on each user’s set language. Severity and topics can be finely configured to match your own community standards.
    • Note that a basic chat filter (static list of forbidden words) is included in the base offering.
  • On-premises deployment of Vivox, for example, in a LAN-only trade show environment.

Of interest to Vivox Voice and Text Chat users, Unity's Communications and Safety suite also includes companion products Safe Voice and Safe Text, as well as Moderation (which can be used without Vivox), each with their own pricing. You can learn more about these offerings on the following pages.

Note: two previously offered Vivox premium features known as "server-side recording" (SSR) and "text evidence management" (TEM) have had their functionality rolled into or replaced by Unity's Safe Voice and Safe Text products. You may still see references to these past offerings in Vivox documentation, but they are no longer directly available for new signups under those names. Please use the links above to learn more about the replacement offerings.

Is custom pricing available?

Need a custom pricing solution? If you believe your project requirements are unique or scale is exceptional, feel free to reach out to a Unity Sales representative to discuss your needs (https://create.unity.com/contact-us-vivox). If you are already an enterprise Unity partner and would like to expand your agreement to include custom pricing for Vivox, you can also start the conversation with your existing Sales contact or client partner manager.

Billing

How do I tell how close I am to exceeding free tier usage limits?

Metered service usage for your Organization can be monitored at any time from the Cost and Usage Reporting dashboard (https://cloud.unity.com/metered-billing/usage). This includes usage information for each Unity Gaming Services product used across your Org. In order to accurately track your Vivox PCU for the current billing cycle, be sure to select billing cycle as the time range on the right side panel—otherwise you might only see your usage peak for some other period, such as the past 7 days.

Automatic usage alerts are also presented in the form of both dashboard banners and emails to alert you when you are approaching free tier limits. If you don't already have payment info on file (Free Plan), these alerts will be sent out when usage goes above 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% of the free tier limit for each UGS product. If you do already have payment info on file (Pay as you go Plan), automatic usage alerts are only send out at 75% and 100%.

Can I set my own usage alerts at other thresholds that I define?

No. The only alerts relating to service usage itself are the free tier limit alerts (dashboard and email) at the predefined percentages mentioned above.

It is possible however, to set your own budget alerts rather than alerts based on usage amount. It is possible to set these custom alerts at different budget thresholds (which must be above $0.00) to help manage spending and monitor usage as it relates to cost. Please note that budgets are for notification purposes only. When you reach your budget, services are not disabled and continue to be billed at their applicable rates.

For more information on this topic, please review the Budget Alerts FAQ and documentation. For other general information you can refer to the Unity Gaming Services General Billing FAQ.

What actually happens when I exceed the free tier?

If you are on the Free Plan...

Most Unity Gaming Services (UGS) products—including Vivox—offer a free tier of service, and you can sign up to use these services within the free tier limits at no cost, without entering credit card information. If you signup on the Free Plan, then the first time you exceed the free tier limit of any UGS service, you will be moved to the Pay as you go Plan and be required to provide payment information (e.g. enter a credit card) to continue using all UGS services.

When the free tier limit is reached, admin functionality in the Unity Cloud dashboard will be blocked for all services until payment info is provided. The live services in your game will continue to work as normal without interruption past this point, but you will receive a bill at the beginning of the next month for usage occurring during the previous month that went above the free tier limits. Only if you fail to provide payment info for 30 days after exceeding the free tier and moving to the Pay as you go Plan will usage of the service APIs be suspended and UGS functionality in your apps stop working (grace period).

During this 30 days grace period, until you enter a payment method you will to see dashboard banners on various pages warning you that free tier limits have been exceeded, and that payment info must be entered to avoid service suspension. The owner of the Organization can also expect to receive emails explaining this, and describing how to add a payment method to continue service.

If you are on the Pay as you go Plan...

If you are already on the Pay as you go Plan, you will simply receive a bill at the beginning of the next month for usage occurring during the previous month that went above the free tier limits. You will not be charged for usage within the free tier threshold, only usage exceeding it.

How do invoices work? Am I billed right away?

Under the standard service agreement, billing periods are the same as calendar months, and usage is tracked from the beginning of the first day of the month (00:00:00 UTC) to the very end of the last day of the month (11:59:59 UTC). When the free tier limit is exceeded, you will owe money for the usage that exceeded the free tier, but you won't be billed right away—even if you have a payment method on file. Usage charges for most Unity Gaming Services are combined into a single monthly invoice, and it is not until the beginning of the next month that final usage for the previous month is calculated and an invoice generated and sent out, usually within the first 5 business days.

Typically for invoices charged via credit card, the charge is executed the same day you receive the invoice; when paying via another method, such as wire transfer for large amounts, there could be a separate due date listed. Under the standard service agreement, even if you exceed the free tier for a service in the middle of a month, you should never be charged mid-month for the current month's UGS usage.

Can I configure a "hard cap" or "hard limit" to prevent usage from exceeding the free tier?

No. Vivox does not currently have any built-in mechanism to hard cap usage at a predetermined usage or cost threshold, whether $0.00 or any other budgeted amount. There is no such setting available in the SDK package or on the Cloud dashboard to ensure that the free tier cannot be exceeded. The 5001st concurrent player to log into Vivox will successfully login—just as those before and after.

This will trigger the 100% free tier usage alert for Vivox for that month and will result in money owed, which will be invoiced and billed the following month. If you hadn't yet previously entered payment info, you would be prompted to do so at that time. Similarly, usage which results in charges owed above a previously set budget alert will trigger the alert notification, but will not disable service or prevent further Vivox logins.

I want to limit Vivox usage myself: how do I implement my own hard cap?

For developers wishing to themselves limit the number of players which can be logged into Vivox at once in order to cap PCU and control spending, you will need to code your own mechanism which tracks users logging into the service and prevents further Vivox logins when the desired cap is reached. To be clear, we do not recommend this, as it cannot be done reliably—even for a single title—and will lead to frustrating and confusing player experiences.

Creating such a hard cap is easiest if you have only a single title using Vivox, and requires that you have a central game server authorizing individual Vivox login requests. For instance, a game client could request permission from your game server for user Alice to login into Vivox, and later notify the game server when Alice intends to logout. The game server can roughly track the concurrent logged in user count for a single title in this way, and deny login requests from clients after the desired cap is reached. It would be up to you to determine how to communicate a voice chat login failure to your players and to implement appropriate retry logic. If a certain number of players typically join voice chat together, such as a squad of four players, it would be up to you to devise a strategy that tries to ensure such groupings are prioritized.

Important: if you plan to programmatically monitor and limit usage yourself like this, be sure to leave some PCU overhead for unexpected and untracked logouts, ones where the client does not notify the server in advance. This can happen in cases of extended network interruption (unrecoverable internet outage) or loss of CPU (device sleep/suspend). In these cases, the Vivox server will detect the lost connection and timeout the user before long, but they could stick around on the server for a little while before this.

Understand that even though the Vivox server will be able detect and timeout the lost connection—and that user will no longer count towards the official concurrent user total once timed out—it will be up to you to figure out how to track and eliminate these lost connections from your separate, unofficial count. Assuming you are set up to track individual user logins rather than just a tally of logged in players, the worst case scenario should be that the user is counted on your side against your hard cap limit until that user next signs back in and then signs out again normally. In the event that they never play the game again, you will slowly accumulate a rising floor of lost logins unless you eventually time out or otherwise eliminate these users yourself.

Important: if you're attempting to prevent yourself from exceeding the free tier of usage, and if you have more than one Project in your Org using Vivox, it's critical to understand that it's not enough to merely track the live total of all Projects' individual Vivox usage summed together to keep that under 5000. This is because the individual titles' monthly peak user counts are added together at the end of the month to determine your billable PCU, meaning those peaks could happen on different days for each title, and still exceed the free tier even if the live total across all titles at any singular moment in time never exceeds 5000 users. If you have multiple titles using Vivox, you will need to devise and implement a strategy to account for this.

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