Multiplayer Pricing Made Simple

We are making multiplayer pricing simple, here is why:

• Simple Numbers, Predictable Budgets for Scaling
• Human Support at Indie Prices
• Why We Keep Multiplayer Pricing Simple
• Everywhere Low Latency Certified Security
• Future-Proof Tech Stack
  
  

With ≈ 1.4 billion unique players signing in to Photon every month and thousands of live titles running 24/7, Photon Cloud is the default backbone for real-time multiplayer games worldwide. Two decades of focused R&D, and the same founder-led team since day one, give studios confidence that launch-day concurrency, regional roll-outs, and future content drops are backed by a service proven at massive scale with predictable pricing.

That global footprint spans bare-metal data centers on six continents, each tuned for low-latency hand-offs and protected by multi-layer DDoS mitigation. Servers self-heal, regions auto-scale, and new capacity comes online without a single deployment script—so players enjoy stable pings while your team stays focused on gameplay, not infrastructure.

All of this reach is wrapped in a single, Concurrently Connected User (CCU)-based pricing model: start with 100 CCU free forever, burst safely when play-tests go viral, and upgrade to flat-rate tiers— 200 CCU Plus, 500 CCU Growth, 2 000 CCU Growth, and beyond—that already include the bandwidth you’ll push. No regional mark-ups, no connectivity-hour meters, no multi-service dependencies—just one number that lets you forecast costs as easily as you count players.

Simple Numbers, Predictable Budgets for Scaling

Cost certainty starts with a single metric: Concurrently Connected Users. Every Photon plan is a flat CCU allowance with bandwidth bundled in, ensuring the line on your invoice mirrors the peak shown in your dashboard.

For example, Fusion and Quantum let you soft-launch up to 100 CCU (≈ 40 000 MAU) on our 100 CCU Free plan. When your prototype outgrows that evergreen tier, the 200 CCU Plus bundle (100 Free + 100 Paid) gives a full year of headroom for $95, providing indies with a friction-free path from test to beta at a predictable cost.

The 500 CCU Growth plan is $125 per month and bundles 1.5 TB of traffic. You can scale within the public cloud up to 2 000 CCU for $500 per month with 6 TB included.

Because Photon multiplayer pricing bundles ≈ 3 GB of traffic per CCU, producers forecast costs from player numbers, not bandwidth and APIs guesswork.

Photon cost curve stays linear, multiplayer server pricing becomes grade-school math. Commit to any 500, 1 000 or 2 000 CCU tier for one year and receive two months free.

Need to resize? A single click in the dashboard upgrades or downsizes your CCU cap, and any unused fees are credited back automatically. No change-order tickets, no lock-in clauses—just fast, predictable realtime multiplayer pricing.

For planning, we publish our internal rule of thumb— 1 CCU ≈ 20 DAU ≈ 400 MAU—and bundle ≈ 3 GB of traffic per CCU into every tier. That transparency removes “per-gigabyte” surprises and anchors forecasts to real player numbers.

Most teams overestimate bandwidth. If your game ships bandwidth-hungry code, extra GB are simply billed at $0.05–$0.10. Our automated system monitors your game’s bandwidth consumption and notifies you in advance whenever projections show it will exceed the included allowance.

If a viral spike pushes you past your limit, Photon grants a 48-hour CCU burst window so every session stays online. Once you pass the included CCU we will alert you to upgrade. You adjust the tier afterward, protecting revenue without punitive overage fees.

When you surpass 2 000 CCU, your title migrates to our Premium Cloud with DDoS protection, SLA response times, and ops-specialist support while staying on a linear Photon Multiplayer Pricing at a $0.50 per CCU rate for Fusion and Quantum.

Example: Stumble Guys—the #2 most-downloaded mobile game of 2022—paid $25 000 per month for 50 000 CCU while serving 20 million players / month. Global scale, simple cost.

Bottom line: multiply peak CCU by the list price to find your monthly ceiling. That simplicity is why studios worldwide trust Photon to keep budgets as performant as their netcode.

Human Support at Indie Prices

Always-on public channels. Every Photon account includes public Discord, extensive docs, and 80 + samples—no “contact sales” gate. Pricing, seat counts, and features are published up-front. Our Gaming Circle is there for direct support.

*Three-month initial term; cancel any time after that.

How we keep it fair

• Developer seats are tied to individual Photon accounts—no sharing, no surprise audits.
• Cancel or move to month-to-month once launch is stable; retire Circle-only SDKs as required.
• Ops SLAs and Enterprise Cloud are optional add-ons—you upgrade when you need 24 / 7 coverage.

Community channels stay open

Our public Discord server, searchable documentation, and samples are available for free, forever. Whether you’re shipping solo or running a 500-person studio, you can get answers, then graduate to engineer chat or SLAs when the time is right.

Why We Keep Multiplayer Pricing Simple

When we launched Photon Realtime over a decade ago, our aim was simple: make real-time multiplayer as predictable as a water bill. That goal still guides us.

• AWS GameLift forces instance-type and spot vs. on-demand math—$0.109/hr for one c5.large, and you still stack bandwidth, matchmaking, fleet scripts.
  
  
• Unity Relay + Lobby + Friends starts free but quickly compounds—after 50 average CCU it’s $0.16/extra CCU plus regional bandwidth and minute meters.
  
  
• PlayFab Multiplayer Servers inherit VM-hour arithmetic; costing requires a spreadsheet.
  
  
• Nakama on Heroic Cloud begins at $600 / mo before traffic, even on the smallest shard.
  
  

We chose a different path: one CCU figure, including traffic, with burst grace baked in. Whether you’re running a WebGL roguelite on 100 free CCU or a 400-player battle arena on a 2,000-CCU plan, the number on your Photon invoice is the same one in your metrics dashboard.

Couple that simplicity with a global bare-metal fleet, ISO 27001:2022 certification, four battle-proven topologies, 80+ Free samples, and human support that starts at $125/mo, and you get a platform that removes operational guesswork so your team can stay laser-focused on shipping great play experiences.

Everywhere Low Latency, Certified Security

Global reach at wire-speed. Photon Cloud spans 15 + regions—from Montréal and Amsterdam to Tokyo, São Paulo, Johannesburg, and Dubai—auto-selecting the lowest-ping location as soon as a player connects.

Bare-metal performance, multi-layer defence. Every region runs bare-metal servers, 24 / 7 NOC monitoring, TLS 1.2+, and a two-tier DDoS shield (edge scrubbing + on-box rate limiting). Failover is automatic at the server, carrier, and data-centre levels.

Audit-ready security posture. The entire Photon stack is ISO 27001:2022 certified with zero deviations—giving studios a turnkey baseline for GDPR, CCPA, and kids-privacy compliance.

Wherever your audience grows, Photon delivers low-latency sessions under an independently certified security framework—no extra middleware, no surprise fees.

Future-Proof Tech Stack

After launching tens of thousands of multiplayer titles, we know no single topology fits every use case. Photon is the only multiplayer cloud with battle-proven engines for all four network topologies, each advancing with new releases, engine verifications, and a growing library of open-source samples. Fusion and Quantum are Unity-Verified; Unreal versions are in private beta.

See the Photon Quadrant for guidance:

1. Shared Authority (Fusion Shared) – Cloud-distributed; ideal for WebGL & mobile.
2. Deterministic Predict/Rollback (Quantum) – Frame-perfect esports, bot SDK, cheat-proof.
3. Dedicated Server (Fusion Server) – Headless Unity/Unreal, full customization.
4. Client Host (Fusion Host) – Player’s device runs the room.

Choosing the proper topology can result in a lower bill. For example, you can build a Tower Defence with 100s of troops and towers with Fusion, but it will use a lot more bandwidth with all the snapshot changes than only synchronizing inputs with Quantum. We want you to succeed by choosing the right network topology.

Relentless product investment

• Two major engine upgrades in the last 18 months (Fusion 2, Quantum 3) delivered Unity-Verified status and dozens of new features and samples.
• Webhooks, mixed-reality add-ons, and Plus bundles landed in the same period—delivery never stalls once a product is “stable.”

80 + open-source samples—continually expanding

Explore the Samples hub for flagship starters like Simple FPS, Platform Shooter 2D, BR200, Action RPG, and WebGL-optimized projects. 

• Beginner intros label code by difficulty.
• Pro showcases cover Fusion AOI, Quantum Flow Fields, and disconnect handling.
• All samples work with the evergreen 100 CCU Free tier.

API breadth that shields you from pivots

Unity, Unreal, JavaScript/TypeScript, .NET, C++, Java, Objective-C, even Construct—maintained side-by-side. Switch engines, add WebGL, or port to Vision Pro without rewriting netcode or renegotiating pricing. All public SDKs are ready today.

Ready to simplify multiplayer costs?
Spin up an App ID, claim your 100 CCU free tier, and see why tens of thousands of studios—from solo indies to top-grossing AAAs—trust Photon to carry ≈ 1.4 billion unique players each month.

Your budget and your players will thank you.