Pay as you go. The first dollar each month is free.
One plan, no tiers. Usage is metered per request across every service, and the first $1.00 of usage every month is on us. Stay under a dollar and you pay nothing — most side projects never do.
Free under a dollar, then only the difference
Every organization gets the first $1.00 of metered usage free, every month. Go over and you're billed only for the amount above a dollar — not the whole bill. No seats, no minimums, no plan to pick.
Start freeWhat each unit costs
These are the rates your monthly total is built from. Usage is measured precisely and shown live in the console. There's no always-on cluster — you're billed for storage (your documents and their index) and the searches you run, so an index you aren't querying costs only its storage. Index storage counts only the document content you push, which keeps it cheap.
| Service | Metered unit | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Search — queries | per 1,000 queries | $0.50 |
| Search — document storage | per GB-month | $1.00 |
| Search — index storage | per GB-month | $2.00 |
| Channel — message deliveries | per 1,000,000 | $2.50 |
| Channel — connection time | per 1,000,000 connection-seconds | $0.02 |
How the free dollar plays out
- A small app — ~1,500 searches, tiny index≈ $0.80 → free
- Growing — 6,000 searches + 1 GB index$5.00 → you pay $4.00
- A quiet month with almost no traffic$0.00 → free
Rates shown in USD. Your live usage and current total are always visible in the console.
Questions, answered
How does the free tier work?
There are no per-metric allowances to track. Usage is metered per request, and the first $1.00 of usage every month is free for every organization. Stay under a dollar and you pay nothing; go over and you pay only the amount above a dollar.
Is it really just pay-as-you-go?
Yes. There's one plan: pay-as-you-go. No tiers, seats, or minimums to choose between — you pay for the usage you incur, minus the first dollar each month.
How is Search billed?
Search is billed on the queries you run and on storage for your documents and their index. Index storage is billed at $2 per GB-month, but it counts only the document content you push — not per-request indexing operations — so it stays cheap. There's no always-on cluster, so an index you aren't querying costs only its storage.
How is Channel billed?
Channel is billed on two things: message deliveries, and connection time — the total time your subscribers stay connected (about five cents a month per always-on connection). A channel with no open connections costs nothing.
Do I need a credit card to start?
No. Create an organization, add API keys, and use every service with no card. Add a payment method only if you expect to go past a dollar a month.