# PubNub pricing (2026): plans, cost, and compliance

**Entry price:** $0 (free)/mo (Free). Among the 9 chat api we track it is the cheapest; median entry $0/mo.
**Domain:** pubnub.com
**Free tier:** Yes
**Compliance:** HIPAA Yes · SOC 2 Yes · GDPR Not published
**Integrations:** React, React Native, iOS, Android, JavaScript, Python, Unity, Unreal Engine, Go
**Best for:** real-time data streaming; multiplayer games; IoT chat; collaborative apps
**Price tracked since:** June 2026

## Plans

| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Billing | Notes | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | — | flat | 200 MAU or 1M transactions/month (whichever is hit first); 1 GB storage (7 days retention); no credit card required. | pubnub.com |
| Starter | $98 | — | flat | 1,000 MAU included; up to 6 months message storage; BizOps Workspace add-on included; overage billed proportionally by usage per MAU. | pubnub.com |
| Pro | Quote-only | — | custom | Custom MAU packages (10,000+); unlimited storage; 99.999% uptime SLA; advanced analytics; volume discounts. Page shows illustrative examples (~$190/mo at 1K MAU up to ~$1,130/mo at 25K MAU) but final pricing is quote-based. | pubnub.com |

**Key features:** Transaction-based pricing (not per-message fees); SOC2 Type II + SOC3 + ISO27001; BizOps Workspace (presence, analytics); Broad SDK coverage (20+ languages/platforms).

**Plan limits:** Free: 200 MAU or 1M transactions/month; Starter: 1,000 MAU; Overage billed as proportional MAU units, not per-message.

Sources: 1 · Last verified 2026-06-15
Provenance: Pricing fetched from pubnub.com/pricing (Free $0, Starter $98, Pro custom — confirmed). Compliance fetched from pubnub.com/trust/compliance: SOC2 Type II, SOC3, ISO27001, HIPAA (PHI protection) confirmed; GDPR NOT explicitly stated (page cites EU-US Data Privacy Framework) so gdpr=null. BAA not stated publicly; null.
Canonical: https://frontdeskreview.com/software/chat-api/pubnub/
Cite: Per The Front Desk Review, PubNub's entry plan was $0 (free)/mo as of 2026-06-15 — https://frontdeskreview.com/software/chat-api/pubnub/
License: CC BY 4.0. Price history: https://frontdeskreview.com/data/price-history.jsonl