Pricing index · verified 2 September 2026
Chat SDK Pricing Comparison 2026
What Sendbird, Stream, CometChat, TalkJS, PubNub, Twilio, Ably and DeadSimpleChat actually charge - read directly from each vendor's pricing page, with the unit meters, overage rates and compliance gates that the headline price hides. Refreshed monthly. Ethora's own pricing is in the table too, sourced the same way.
Entry pricing at a glance
The cheapest publicly-priced paid plan per vendor, with the unit each vendor actually meters. Prices are the vendor's annual-billing rate where both exist (monthly billing typically runs 15-25% higher). Follow the source link on any row to verify.
| Vendor | Entry paid plan | Price / mo | What that includes | Free tier | HIPAA / BAA | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethora | Small Business | $84 (annual) / $99 monthly | 5,000 MAU, 250 concurrent connections, all chat + AI features, SLA 99.9% | 1,000 MAU / 100 connections, free forever | Yes - self-hosted and dedicated deployments | ethora.com/pricing |
| PubNub | Starter | $98 | 1,000 MAU, up to 6 months data storage | 200 MAU or 1M transactions | Not on published tiers | pubnub.com |
| DeadSimpleChat | Growth | $99 | 50 concurrent users, 2 chat rooms (slider: 500 concurrent = $199) | 5 concurrent / 500 MAU | Not on published tiers | deadsimplechat.com |
| Ably | Standard | $29 + usage | Base fee plus consumption: $2.50/M messages, $1.00/M connection minutes | 200 connections, 6M messages/mo | Not on published tiers | ably.com |
| Twilio Conversations | Pay-as-you-go | $0.05 / active user | Pure usage pricing, no plan tiers; media storage from $0.25/GB | First 200 active users free every month | Via Twilio enterprise agreements | twilio.com |
| CometChat | Basic | $239 (annual) / $298.75 monthly | 1,000 MAU; unlimited messages, 6-month retention; $0.10/MAU overage | Up to 100 users, development only | Advanced plan ($359+) | cometchat.com |
| TalkJS | Basic | $279 | 10,000 MAU; $0.04 per extra MAU; 1 webhook | Free development mode only | Enterprise only | talkjs.com |
| Sendbird | Starter | $349 (annual) / $399 monthly | 5,000 MAU; peak connections capped at 5% of MAU; 6-month retention | 1,000 MAU / 20 connections | Enterprise only | sendbird.com |
| Stream (GetStream) | Start | $399 (annual) / $499 monthly | 10,000 MAU / 500 concurrent connections | 1,000 MAU / 100 connections | Elevate plan ($599+) | getstream.io |
All prices USD, read from the linked vendor pages on 2 September 2026. Vendors meter different units (see below), so the "price / mo" column is not directly comparable across rows without reading the units column.
Three different meters: MAU, concurrent, and pure usage
The single biggest trap in chat SDK pricing is that vendors bill three incompatible units. MAU billing (Sendbird, Stream, CometChat, TalkJS, PubNub, Ethora) counts each user active in a month. Concurrent billing (DeadSimpleChat, and Ably's connection caps) counts simultaneous connections - good for event-style traffic, punishing for daily-active apps. Pure usage (Twilio per active user, Ably per message and connection minute) has no floor but no ceiling either. A 10,000-MAU community with low concurrency prices completely differently on each meter, so model your own traffic before trusting any headline number.
The overage fine print
Published overage rates as of 2 September 2026: Stream charges $0.07-$0.09 per extra MAU, $0.79-$0.99 per extra concurrent connection, $7.00 per million API calls beyond the included quota, and $6.00 per million stored messages beyond tier limits. CometChat charges $0.10 per extra MAU and $1 per extra concurrent user, but bundles unlimited messages and states no hidden bandwidth, storage or translation costs. TalkJS is the simplest: $0.04 per extra MAU on Basic. Sendbird caps peak concurrent connections at 5% of your MAU tier, which effectively forces a tier upgrade for high-concurrency apps. Ably's base fee looks low at $29, but sustained message volume is metered per million messages and per million connection minutes.
Where HIPAA and compliance features sit
For healthcare and other regulated buyers, the gate matters more than the sticker: Sendbird and TalkJS put HIPAA with a BAA behind contact-sales Enterprise tiers; Stream sells it on its mid Elevate plan ($599/mo annual) and CometChat on Advanced ($359+/mo). Message translation follows a similar pattern (Sendbird Pro+, Stream Elevate, CometChat Advanced). Single sign-on is Enterprise-only almost everywhere. Ethora's approach is different: self-hosted and dedicated deployments put PHI on infrastructure you control, which is available from the published plans, not a negotiated tier - see the healthcare chat SDK page.
Who hides pricing
Every vendor in this index publishes at least entry pricing, which is better than much of the enterprise messaging market - but every vendor's top tier is contact-sales, and two of them (Sendbird above 25K MAU, CometChat Enterprise above 10K MAU) push you to sales well inside mid-market scale. Twilio is the only pure pay-as-you-go option, and Ethora the only one where the top published tier ($599+/mo) includes unlimited MAU and on-prem deployment.
Chat SDK pricing FAQ
Verified against vendor pricing pages on 2 September 2026. Refreshed monthly.
How much does Stream (GetStream) chat cost?
Stream Chat starts at $399/month billed annually ($499 monthly) on the Start plan, which includes 10,000 MAU and 500 concurrent connections. HIPAA and message translation require the Elevate plan at $599/month annual. Overages run $0.07-$0.09 per MAU and $0.79-$0.99 per concurrent connection. A free Build tier covers 1,000 MAU.
How much does CometChat cost?
CometChat Basic starts at $239/month billed annually ($298.75 monthly) at the 1,000 MAU tier, rising to $299/month at 10,000 MAU. The Advanced plan, which adds HIPAA/BAA, translation and multi-tenancy, starts at $359/month. MAU overage is $0.10 per user. Messages and storage are unlimited on paid plans.
What is the cheapest chat SDK?
It depends on the meter. For low-traffic apps, Twilio Conversations is effectively cheapest (first 200 active users free, then $0.05 per active user). Among plan-based vendors, Ethora at $84-$99/month for 5,000 MAU and PubNub Starter at $98/month for 1,000 MAU are the lowest entry points; Sendbird ($349) and Stream ($399) are the highest. Self-hosting Ethora removes per-MAU economics entirely at scale.
Why do chat SDK prices look so different across vendors?
Because they meter different units: monthly active users (Sendbird, Stream, CometChat, TalkJS, PubNub, Ethora), concurrent connections (DeadSimpleChat, Ably caps), or pure usage (Twilio per active user, Ably per message). The same application can be cheap on one meter and expensive on another, so model your own MAU, concurrency and message volume before comparing headline prices.
Flat pricing, or no per-user pricing at all
Ethora is $99/month for 5,000 MAU with every feature included - and the self-hosted option removes MAU economics entirely: run unlimited users on your own AWS, GCP, Azure or on-prem infrastructure.
