# AI support chatbot pricing example

This example shows pricing for an AI support chatbot using Ably's AI Transport, where an agent streams token responses to users. It uses Ably's per-message and per-minute billing model.

## Scenario

- **Chats:** 35,000 per month
- **Prompts per chat:** 4 (to reach resolution)
- **Tokens per response:** 300 token events
- **Agent stream rate:** 75 appends per second
- **Chat duration:** 3 minutes average

**Total cost: $109.50/month**

---

## Cost breakdown

The following breakdown shows the cost of connections, channels and messages in this scenario.

### How messages are counted

Every chat message counts as a billable message. Messages are counted when a user sends a prompt and when the agent delivers a response. Usage is billed in increments of one million messages, rounded up.

One user prompt sent to an agent = 2 messages (one sent to Ably + one delivered to the agent).

**How rollup reduces token messages**

Without rollup, each streamed token would be a separate message: 300 tokens = 300 messages per response. [Rollup batches tokens together](https://ably.com/docs/ai-transport/token-streaming/token-rate-limits.md#rollup), reducing this to 100 messages per response (a 66% saving). Because the append channel rule is required to use this pattern, persistence is automatically enabled and those messages are stored.

#### Messages generated by this scenario

| Message type           | Calculation                                                    | Messages   |
|------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|------------|
| User prompts           | 35,000 chats × 4 prompts × (1 sent + 1 delivered)           | 280,000    |
| Agent responses        | 35,000 chats × 4 responses × 100 msgs × (1 sent + 1 delivered) | 28,000,000 |
| Persisted messages     | 14,140,000 inbound messages persisted                          | 14,140,000 |
| **Total messages**     | 280,000 + 28,000,000 + 14,140,000                              | **42,420,000** |
| **Total message cost** | **43,000,000 × $2.50/M**                                       | **$107.50** |

---

### How connection and channel minutes are counted

Both connection minutes and channel minutes are rounded up per million minutes used.

#### Connection minutes

[Connection minutes](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing.md#connections) are billed based on how long users remain connected.

| Item                        | Calculation                              | Total        |
|-----------------------------|------------------------------------------|--------------|
| Connection minutes          | 35,000 chats × 3 mins × 2 (user + agent) | 210,000 mins |
| **Connection minutes cost** | **1,000,000 mins × $1.00/M**                    | **$1.00**    |

#### Channel minutes

[Channel minutes](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing.md#channels) are billed based on how long channels are active for.

| Item             | Calculation            | Total        |
|------------------|------------------------|--------------|
| Channel minutes  | 35,000 chats × 3 mins  | 105,000 mins |
| **Channel cost** | **1,000,000 mins × $1.00/M**  | **$1.00**    |

---

### Total cost

The total monthly cost for 35,000 chats.

| Item               | Cost              |
|--------------------|-------------------|
| Messages           | $107.50           |
| Connection minutes | $1.00             |
| Channel minutes    | $1.00             |
| **Total cost**     | **$109.50/month** |

<Aside data-type='further-reading'>
Useful links for exploring this topic in more detail.
- [Talk with our sales team](https://ably.com/contact) to get a personalized quote.
- [Learn how HubSpot uses Ably to enable 128,000 businesses with live chat that just works](https://ably.com/case-studies/hubspot)
- [See how doxy.me turned realtime from a liability into a strategic asset](https://ably.com/case-studies/doxyme)
</Aside>


## Related Topics

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- [Support chat](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing/examples/support-chat.md): Calculate Ably Chat pricing for enterprise customer support chat. Example shows 50K MAU, one-to-one messaging, and why consumption pricing at ~$78/month outperforms MAU pricing at $2,500/month for support use cases.
- [Data broadcast](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing/examples/data-broadcast.md): A pricing example that uses Ably Pub/Sub for data broadcast. Example shows how message conflation reduces message costs from ~$1,800 to ~$374/month for 10K users across 50 matches.
- [Realtime dashboard](https://ably.com/docs/platform/pricing/examples/realtime-dashboard.md): Calculate Pub/Sub pricing for healthcare patient monitoring dashboards. Example shows realtime vitals tracking for 100 patients monitored by 5 care coordinators, with total cost of ~$98/month including presence and history features.

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