Interactive Whiteboard Pricing
This article introduces the billing policy for the whiteboard service provided by Agora.
- Your billing details may differ if you have signed a contract with Agora.
- If your scenario involves other Agora products or services, such as the RTC SDK, RTM SDK, or Cloud Recording, expect additional charges for these products or services. For details, see the billing policy for each Agora product or service.
Overview
Billing for the whiteboard service begins once you enable and implement the service in your project. Agora sends your bill and deducts the payment from your account on a monthly basis. For details, see Billing, fee deduction, and account suspension.
Composition
At the end of each month, Agora adds up the usage of each whiteboard feature in all projects under your Agora account and subtracts your monthly free usage allowances. Agora multiplies each resulting usage number by the corresponding price and adds up the cost of each feature to get the total cost for that month.
Agora's whiteboard service provides the following features:
- Online whiteboard
- File conversion, including file conversion to images and file conversion to web pages
Cost of each whiteboard feature = (monthly total usage - free-of-charge usage) × unit price
Total cost = online whiteboard cost + file conversion cost
Unit price
The unit price for each whiteboard feature is as follows:
| Whiteboard feature | Unit price |
|---|---|
| Online whiteboard | $1.40/1,000 minutes |
| File conversion | $0.50/1,000 images |
Usage calculation
This section describes how to calculate the usage of each whiteboard feature.
Online whiteboard
The usage duration of each whiteboard room equals the total sum of usage duration of all users in the room.
For each user, Agora calculates the usage duration from the user joining a room to the user leaving the room. The usage duration is calculated in minutes.
File conversion
Agora calculates the usage amount by the number of images and web pages successfully converted from source files.
- The cost of converting a file to web pages is five times the cost of converting it to images. When charging for file conversion to web pages, Agora multiplies the number of generated web pages by five in order to use a consistent unit price for the file conversion feature.
- Agora does not charge for a failed file conversion task. You can call the Query file conversion progress API to get the result of a file conversion task.
- The file conversion feature can also be charged by QPS. See QPS-based Pricing.
Free-of-charge usage
Agora gives each whiteboard feature the following free-of-charge usage each month:
| Whiteboard feature | Monthly free-of-charge usage |
|---|---|
| Online whiteboard | The first 10,000 minutes |
| File conversion | The first 1000 images (effective from September 1, 2022) |
- If the monthly total usage of a whiteboard feature does not exceed its free usage allowance, the feature is free of charge for that month.
- The remaining free-of-charge usage is cleared at the end of each calendar month.
Check your current usage
You can check your usage of the whiteboard service on Agora Console. Perform the following steps:
Log in to Agora Console, and click the Products & Usage button on the left navigation panel.
Click the arrowhead
in the top left corner, and select the project you want to check in the drop-down box.
Click Duration under Whiteboard, select a time frame, and check the usage duration.
- The time frame cannot exceed 12 months.
- Only Agora accounts that are assigned with the role of Admin or Finance have access to the usage statistics.
- The usage duration provided by Agora Console is for reference only. Your actual billing may differ.
Examples
This section shows how to calculate your monthly usage of the whiteboard service, as well as the total cost based on the corresponding unit price.
Scenario description
User A joins a whiteboard room to give an online lecture and successfully converts a 50-page PPTX file to HTML files using the file conversion feature. Another 200 users join the room to watch the lecture. The lecture lasts 60 minutes. When the lecture ends, all users leave the room at the same time.
The usage calculation is as follows:
| Feature | Usage |
|---|---|
| Online whiteboard | |
| File conversion to web page | 50 web pages = 50 × 5 = 250 images |
Cost calculation
The following table shows the calculation of the total cost of the lecture:
| Billed service | Unit price | Cost of each service ($US) | Total cost($US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online whiteboard | $1.40/1,000 minutes | (12,060 - 10,000)/1000 × 1.40 = 2.884 | 2.884 ≈ 2.89 |
| Document conversion to web page | $0.50/1,000 images | 0 (The first 1000 converted images are free of charge） |
FAQ
Will usage calculation continue if live streaming has ended but users are still in the room?
Yes. Usage calculation for the whiteboard service depends on the presence of active long-lived connections. To avoid additional costs, Agora recommends that you:- Call
disconnect()to cut off a user's connection when the user leaves the room, and ensure that you receive theonPhaseChanged(disconnected)callback. - Call the Interactive Whiteboard RESTful API on your app server to move all users out of the room when live streaming ends.
