Pricing
EdgeBase Realtime is approximately 300× cheaper than competing platforms due to Cloudflare's WebSocket billing model.
Why So Cheap?
Three structural advantages:
- 20:1 WebSocket billing — Cloudflare counts 20 incoming WebSocket messages as 1 Durable Object request. Outgoing messages are free.
- Fan-out inside the DO — broadcasting to 20 recipients iterates through WebSocket handles inside a single DO. No per-recipient API call or message queue charge.
- Hibernation API — idle WebSocket connections are suspended at $0 duration cost.
Edge (Cloudflare)
| Resource | Included (Workers Paid $5/mo) | Overage |
|---|---|---|
| DO requests | 1M / month | $0.15 / million |
| DO duration | 400K GB-s / month | $12.50 / million GB-s |
Example: Chat App (900M Fan-Out Messages/Month)
| Platform | Billing Model | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | $2.50/M messages (per-recipient) | ~$2,263 |
| Firebase | $1/GB downloaded | ~$5,400 |
| Ably | $2.50/M messages | ~$2,250 |
| EdgeBase | DO requests only (20:1 ratio) | ~$7 |
Example: Small App (10K Concurrent, Mostly Idle)
| Resource | Usage | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Idle connections (hibernated) | 10,000 | $0 |
| Active message bursts | ~2M DO requests | $0.15 |
| Total | ~$0.15/mo |
Self-Hosting
On Docker, Realtime has no per-message or per-connection cost. WebSocket connections run in the same process.
Pricing source
Prices reflect each provider's published rates as of February 2026. The 20:1 WebSocket billing ratio is a Cloudflare platform property, not an EdgeBase optimization.