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Understanding Amazon Chime SDK costs in AWS Cost Explorer

Purpose

Are you deploying communication solutions with Amazon Chime SDK but finding it challenging to track and optimize your spending? This blog is essential for developers, product managers, and finance teams who need clear visibility into their Amazon Chime SDK costs.

Whether you’re building video conferencing applications, audio solutions, or messaging features, understanding how these services impact your AWS bill is critical for making informed decisions and controlling cloud expenses. As your Amazon Chime SDK usage scales, even small optimizations can lead to significant cost savings.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to effectively use Amazon Cost Explorer to identify the Amazon Chime SDK associated costs, so that you can observe spending patterns, identify cost drivers, and potentially implement practical strategies to optimize your communications infrastructure costs. By the end of this blog, you’ll have the knowledge to confidently navigate your Amazon Chime SDK expenses and make data-driven decisions that benefit both your applications and your bottom line.

About Amazon Chime SDK

Amazon Chime SDK is a set of real-time communications components that developers can use to quickly add audio calling, video calling, and screen sharing capabilities to their web or mobile applications. By embedding intelligent real-time communication capabilities in their applications, developers can deliver more engaging experiences to their customers.

For example, developers can integrate video calling into a healthcare application to enable remote consultations between patients and doctors, or add audio calling to a company website to facilitate quick connections between customers and sales representatives. Using Amazon Chime SDK eliminates the need for developers to create and maintain their own real-time communication infrastructure and services, reducing cost, complexity, and friction. Amazon Chime SDK offers pay-as-you-go pricing with no upfront fees. You can choose to implement some or all of the available media modalities (audio, video, and screen share) for a single rate. Messaging, media pipelines, speech enhancement, and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) audio capabilities are also available with pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information, see Amazon Chime SDK pricing.

Prerequisites

A few things to keep in mind. We presume that you know how to open and have the required privileges to access AWS Cost Explorer. The second item for you to keep in mind is that items will only be visible in AWS Cost Explorer when you have incurred the cost. This means it is unlikely that all of the items enumerated in this blog will be visible in your account. Instead, only the items that are relevant to your own specific usage will be present.

Features of Amazon Chime SDK

Rather than offering a monolithic solution, Amazon Chime SDK is designed with modularity in mind, allowing you to implement only the features that your application needs while maintaining control over costs. Let’s explore the key feature categories that form the foundation of Amazon Chime SDK.

  1. WebRTC Media
  2. Speech Enhancements
  3. PSTN Audio
  4. SIP Trunking
  5. Messaging

Let’s look at what each feature is and the itemized costs that you would find. Note, once you’re in AWS Cost Explorer, you’ll use the Filters on the right side of the screen to select the following Services that start with “Chime”. Depending upon your locale, the number of services that begin with “Chime” may vary. But what you may observe, may look as follows. Please select all that apply.

  1. Chime
  2. Chime Features
  3. Chime Voice Connector a service sold by AMCS LLC

Example list of AWS services related to Amazon Chime SDK

WebRTC Media

WebRTC Media allows developers to integrate real-time audio and video communication with capabilities like screen sharing, video tiles, and background blur/replacement. This technology powers virtual meetings, remote learning platforms, and telehealth applications where high-quality, low-latency media exchange between participants is essential.

WebRTC Media Sessions – Bring two or more attendees together for real-time communication:

  • [Region]-Chime-SDK-attendee-minutes (Rate: Per minute per attendee)
    • Standard quality video meetings attendance
  • [Region]-Chime-SDK-HD-attendee-minutes (Rate: Per minute per attendee)
    • High-definition video meetings attendance
  • [Region]-Chime-SDK-HD-capacity-minutes (Rate: Per minute of capacity)
    • High-definition meeting hosting capacity

Media Capture – Record individual or composited audio, video, or content streams to S3:

  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-ActiveSpeakerCapture (Rate: Per minute per stream)
    • Media capture of active speaker video and combined audio stream
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-AudioCapture (Rate: Per minute per stream)
    • Media capture of individual audio streams from participants
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-AudioStream (Rate: Per minute per stream)
    • Media processes and delivers audio streams to designated endpoints
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-ContentCapture (Rate: Per minute per stream)
    • Media capture of shared content (e.g., screen shares) as separate streams
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-VideoCapture (Rate: Per minute per stream)
    • Media capture of individual video streams from participants
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Compositing-Recording-FHD (Rate: Per minute)
    • Compositing multiple streams into a single FHD (1080p) recorded stream
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Compositing-Recording-HD (Rate: Per minute)
    • Compositing multiple streams into a single HD (720p) recorded stream

Media Concatenation – Post process captured media into a single file that can be downloaded:

  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Concatenation (Rate: Per minute)
    • Concatenation of media streams including individual video, combined audio, or composited media

Live Connector – Stream a composited media stream to Amazon Interactive Video Service (IVS), Twitch, or other SRTMP destination:

  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Compositing-Live-Connector-FHD (Rate: Per minute)
    • Compositing multiple streams into a single FHD (1080p) stream in real-time
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Compositing-Live-Connector-HD (Rate: Per minute)
    • Compositing multiple streams into a single HD (720p) stream in real-time
  • [Region]-Media-Pipelines-Live-Connector (Rate: Per minute)
    • Connects live media streams to external services or endpoints

Media Replication – Create meetings with up to 10,000 participants:

  • [Region]-Meetings-Replica-HD-Minutes (Rate: Per minute per attendee)
    • Replication of a high-definition session for redundancy or distribution
  • [Region]-Meetings-Replica-Minutes (Rate: Per minute per attendee)
    • Replication of a standard-definition session for redundancy or distribution

Speech enhancement

Speech enhancement uses machine learning models to improve the quality of audio. This capability provides advanced audio processing features including noise suppression, echo cancellation, and voice focus to deliver crystal-clear audio, even in challenging environments. These capabilities are crucial for professional virtual meetings, customer service interactions, and any scenario where voice clarity impacts user experience.

  • [Region]-SMA-VoiceFocus-Minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • Noise reduction with Amazon Voice Focus
  • [Region]-MeetingML-EchoReduction-SDK-Minutes (Rate: Per minute per participant)
    • Echo reduction with double talk improvement (WebRTC only)

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Audio Application

With PSTN Audio, developers can add telephony to their applications, connecting it to the public telephone network. This enables attendees to dial into an Amazon Chime SDK meeting using a telephone and also allows for programmatically placing an outbound call to a phone number and connecting it to a meeting session. This feature extends the reach of applications built with the Amazon Chime SDK to users who may not have your mobile app installed, do not have access to a computer, or prefer using a traditional phone call.

  • [Region]-SIP-Media-App-Minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • PSTN Audio Application Usage
  • [Region]-SMA-DialIn-[Country]-tollfree-numberscharge (Rate: Per number per month)
    • Monthly charge for maintaining toll-free numbers
  • [Region]-SMA-DialIn-[Country]-did-numberscharge (Rate: Per number per month)
    • Monthly charge for maintaining local numbers
  • [Region]-SMA-DialIn-[Country]-TollFree-mins (Rate: Per minute)
    • SIP Media Application toll-free dial-in minutes for the specified country
  • [Region]-SMA-DialIn-[Country]-minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • SIP Media Application local dial-in minutes for the specified country
  • [Region]-SMA-DialOut-[Country]-minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • SIP Media Application dial-out minutes for the specified country

SIP Trunking

Amazon Chime SDK’s SIP Trunking feature enables businesses to connect their existing phone systems to the cloud with pay-as-you-go pricing from AWS. This capability supports organizations transitioning from on-premise telephony infrastructure to the cloud while maintaining existing investments in SIP-compatible equipment. The SIP Trunking feature is managed under Amazon Chime Voice Connector and supports telephony features such as direct inward dial (DID/DDI), toll-free numbers, and audio streaming services.

  • [Region]-[Country]-did-numberscharge (Rate: Per number per month)
    • Monthly charge for maintaining local numbers
  • [Region]-[Country]-tollfree-numberscharge (Rate: Per number per month)
    • Monthly charge for maintaining toll-free numbers
  • [Region]-[Country]-inbound-tollfree-mins (Rate: Per minute)
    • Inbound toll-free voice calls for the specified country
  • [Region]-[Country]-inbound-minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • Inbound voice calls for the specified country
  • [Region]-[Country]-outbound-minutes (Rate: Per minute)
    • Outbound voice calls for the specified country
  • [Region]-VC-kinesis-audio-streaming (Rate: Per minute)
    • Audio streaming to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams

Messaging

Messaging with Amazon Chime SDK provides APIs that developers can use to deliver persistent, real-time messaging functionality with support for channels, chat rooms, and direct messages, complete with read receipts and presence indicators. This feature powers team collaboration tools, in-app customer support systems, and community platforms where text-based communications complements or replaces audio/video interaction.

  • [Region]-SDK-Messaging-Messages (Rate: Per message)
    • Send standard message
  • [Region]-SDK-Messaging-ControlMessages (Rate: Per message)
    • Send control message
  • [Region]-SDK-Messaging-SystemMessages (Rate: Per message)
    • Send system-generated message
  • [Region]-SDK-Messaging-Recipients (Rate: Per endpoint)
    • Send the same message to multiple endpoints.
  • [Region]-SDK-Messaging-Storage (Rate: Per GB per month)
    • Store messages for future retrieval

Total costs

Solutions using Amazon Chime SDK will usually include other AWS services as well, such as AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, Amazon Kinesis, and more. While the costs for these ancillary services are often relatively low in comparison to the primary Amazon Chime SDK services, they should be considered when reviewing the true total cost of the environment.

For customers coming from tradition telecom, the key components of communications can be characterized through total minutes and total costs. Once they have these, they could determine how to chargeback those costs to their internal organizations as needed. With Amazon Chime SDK, AWS Cost Explorer is a source for viewing both total costs and total minutes. Costs can be broken out by PSTN, WebRTC, or all services together.

Cost Explorer report parameters:

Amazon Chime SDK costs

  • Set Group by – Dimension to ‘Services’.
  • Set Filter – Service to include the Amazon Chime group of services
  • Set Filter – Linked account to include the desired accounts
  • [Optional] Set Filter – Tags to include the relevant resource tag(s)

Example of Cost Explorer graph for AWS services related to Amazon Chime SDK usage

Total costs

  • Set Group by – Dimension to ‘Services’.
  • Set Filter – Linked account to include the desired accounts
  • [Optional] Set Filter – Tags to include the relevant resource tag(s)

Example of Cost Explorer graph for all AWS services

Additional Cost Explorer notes:

  • The Group by – Dimension can also be set to other values, such as Linked account, Region, etc.
    • We recommend reviewing these choices to determine the best dimension for your data needs.
  • All Cost Explorer views will produce both a chart and a table.
  • All table data can be exported to CSV
    • Be careful with Row 2 and any “Total” columns on the CSV files
    • We recommend deleting those rows/columns before doing manual calculations, so values don’t get counted twice.
  • All data can be aggregated on a daily or monthly basis
    • By default, cost and usage data is kept for 15 months

Conclusion

Throughout this blog, we’ve navigated the landscape of Amazon Chime SDK cost management. We’ve explored how to effectively use Amazon Cost Explorer to gain visibility into your Amazon Chime SDK expenses across its components: WebRTC Media, Speech Enhancements, PSTN Audio, SIP Trunking, and Messaging.

Understanding Amazon Chime SDK costs will help you make strategic decisions that impact your applications performance and your organization’s bottom line. By mastering cost tracking, you can:

  • Identify usage patterns that reveal opportunities for optimization
  • Make data-driven decisions about which features to implement or scale
  • Allocate costs accurately to internal teams or client projects
  • Forecast future expenses as your communication solutions grow

The pay-as-you-go pricing model of Amazon Chime SDK offers a lot of flexibility, but this flexibility demands vigilance. As shown, Cost Explorer provides the granular insights needed to maintain this balance between compatibility and cost-effectiveness.

Don’t let communication costs remain a mystery in your AWS bill. Here are a few things you can do right now:

  1. Set up dedicated Cost Explorer Views for your Amazon Chime SDK usage
  2. Implement proper tagging to attribute costs to specific applications or teams
  3. Schedule monthly cost reviews to identify trends and anomalies
  4. Explore the AWS documentation we’ve referenced for deeper insights
  5. Let us know if this blog was helpful by leaving us a comment

By taking control of your Amazon Chime SDK costs today, you’re positioning your communication solutions for sustainable growth tomorrow and your finance team will appreciate the clarity and control you bring to cloud spending.

About the Authors

Author image for Justin Nale Justin Nale is a Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS, specializing in financial services and payment solutions. Throughout his career in technology, he has guided organizations ranging from innovative fintech startups to Fortune 500 companies in their cloud transformation journeys. A firm believer that simplicity enables innovation, he has a passion for helping customers turn complex challenges into elegant solutions.

Author image for Jigar MandliJigar Mandli is a Lead Technical Account Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he supports cloud solutions for financial services and payment providers. With expertise in cloud infrastructure and security, he partners with enterprise customers to drive innovation, ensure operational excellence, and deliver business value through AWS technologies.

Author image for Michael PhornMichael Phorn is a Sr. Solutions Architect supporting the financial services industry, specializing in payments customers. He’s worked in AI and machine learning and enterprise software development for more than a quarter century.