Relay service pricing is a comprehensive model designed around two key components: the number of Average Monthly Concurrent Users (CCU) and the amount of Relay Bandwidth consumed.
Average Monthly Concurrent Users (CCU)
The Average Monthly CCU reflects the number of active users connected simultaneously throughout your monthly billing cycle.
- Relay takes occasional snapshots of active users throughout the day to create a daily average. At the end of the billing cycle, these daily averages are combined to determine your final Average Monthly CCU.
- If your game has 100 active users for 12 hours and 0 users for the remaining 12 hours, your daily average is 50. If this pattern continues every day, your final monthly average will be 50 CCU.
- 1 CCU is equivalent to 43,200 connectivity minutes.
Free Tier
The free tier offers a number of average monthly CCU for free, allowing developers to explore the service without upfront costs. As of August 2023, 50 average monthly CCUs are provided for free (equal to 2,160,000 connectivity minutes for a month of 30 days).
Beyond the free tier, additional average monthly CCU are priced at a standard rate, enabling scalable pricing to match various project needs. For example, if the free tier offers 50 concurrent users per month, and you have 51 average concurrent users, you will be billed for 1 concurrent user.
Relay Bandwidth
Relay Bandwidth is the total data transmitted from the Relay servers to users, including initial transmission and propagation to other players within a game environment.
Free Tier
A set amount of bandwidth is provided for free per monthly CCU, this means that at the current free tier limit of 50 CCU, and 3 GiB per CCU, there is a maximum free tier allowance of 150 GiB. But if you have a lower CCU your free tier allowance of bandwidth will also be reduced.
Bandwidth usage is combined across different regions. Beyond the free tier, bandwidth is billed based on the location of the Relay allocation, with varying rates for different regions.
Dashboard Daily Costs vs. Final Invoice
In the case where your CCU is less than the free tier allowance, there may be discrepancies between the daily cost and usage amounts and your final invoice due to the changing CCU throughout the month and the changeable Bandwidth allowance
- Daily Dashboard Costs (Running Snapshots): The Cost and Usage dashboard displays a running, point-in-time balance. As players connect and your CCU grows, your newly earned free bandwidth offsets new data usage, which can temporarily pause or reduce the daily overage costs shown on the dashboard. The dashboard does not go back in time to retroactively rewrite the costs plotted on previous days.
- The Final Invoice (Reconciliation): Unity calculates your true bill at the very end of the billing cycle. The system locks in your final Average Monthly CCU, calculates your definitive free data allowance for the month, and subtracts it from your total data used. This singular calculation overrides daily fluctuations and becomes the official overage charge on your invoice.
The Relay pricing structure is transparent, scalable, and adaptable to different needs. It offers a competitive and adaptable model tailored to the unique requirements of each project. For a detailed, up to date, breakdown of the pricing structure, please refer to the official Unity Game Services pricing page. or contact Unity support for personalized assistance.