# LiveSync pricing

How LiveSync operations contribute to your message count and strategies to optimize costs.

[LiveSync](https://ably.com/docs/livesync.md) publishes database changes as Pub/Sub messages. Each update follows the standard inbound/outbound counting pattern.

## LiveSync operations 

The following table shows how LiveSync operations contribute to your message count:

| Operation | Messages counted |
| --- | --- |
| Database update publish | 1 inbound message |
| Update delivery | 1 outbound message per subscriber |

For example, if the database connector publishes 1 update and 3 clients are subscribed, this counts as **4 messages** (1 inbound + 3 outbound).

## Channels 

Each channel that the database connector publishes to contributes to your [channel count](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing.md#channels).

## Connections 

Ably bills each connected client for [connection minutes](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing.md#connections). A connection-minute is counted for every minute a client maintains an open connection, regardless of activity. Clients that remain connected but idle still accrue connection minutes.

## Cost optimization 

### Minimize change frequency

Configure your database connector to publish only meaningful changes. Reducing the frequency of updates at the source directly reduces your message count.

### Limit subscriber count

Only subscribe clients to channels where they need real-time updates. Fewer subscribers per channel reduces the number of outbound messages generated per update.

## Documentation Index

To discover additional Ably documentation:

1. Fetch [llms.txt](https://ably.com/llms.txt) for the canonical list of available pages.
2. Identify relevant URLs from that index.
3. Fetch target pages as needed.

Avoid using assumed or outdated documentation paths.