Ably

What it is for

Ably is a realtime pub/sub desk: you open a channel, publish a message, and Free is $0 (200 concurrent connections, 500 messages/second, 6M messages/month). Use it when the job is messages you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Ably React Pub/Sub getting-started UI (connection status, message input, realtime list, presence) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The chat window itself is ops of Pub/Sub.

Key features

• Pub/Sub — a channel you publish to and subscribe from (cover; pricing Messages). One message. Protocols on this pipe are ops of this. Messages are the meter ($2.50/million on Standard/Pro; as low as $0.50/M with volume).
• Presence — who is on the channel now (cover “online users”). A member list, not a payload. Connection minutes ($1.00/million mins) and channel minutes ($1.00/million mins) are meters of being here.
• Chat — a messaging product with reactions, flagging, and history (pricing Chat rows). A room, not a raw channel. Do not count it as another Pub/Sub option.
• History — stored messages you replay (pricing Message history). A log, not a live publish. Max message storage is SKU of the package.
• AI Transport — durable sessions for agents beyond HTTP (How to add durable sessions to the Vercel AI SDK; What are durable sessions?). A session, not a chat room.

Free includes “Build with any Ably product.” Package minimums (Standard $29, Pro $399) sit on top of per-million usage.

Who it's for

Best fit: app teams who will stay on Free $0 (200 connections, 500 msg/s, 6M messages/month) while they ship a first React pub/sub page, then buy Standard at $29/month + usage when they need 10k channels / 10k connections / 2.5k msg/s — or Pro at $399/month + usage for 50k / 50k / 10k.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) from ably.com/pricing. Plans are a minimum; messages / connection minutes / channel minutes still meter on paid packages.

• Free — $0. Proof of concept. 200 concurrent connections. 500 messages / second. 6M messages / month. Build with any Ably product. Community & email support (best effort). No commitment.
• Standard — $29/month + usage. 10k concurrent channels. 10k concurrent connections. 2.5k messages / second.
• Pro — $399/month + usage. 50k concurrent channels. 50k concurrent connections. 10k messages / second.
• Enterprise — custom. Unlimited channels / connections / messages per second. SSO, SCIM, observability. Confirm the live quote — do not invent an Enterprise dollar.
• Usage (paid packages, printed) — Messages $2.50/million (as low as $0.50/M with volume). Connection minutes $1.00/million mins (as low as $0.20/M). Channel minutes $1.00/million mins (as low as $0.20/M). Egress $0.25/GiB.

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Limitations / costs

• $29 / $399 is a floor, not the bill. Messages and minutes still meter.
• Free is 6M messages/month and 200 connections. The next package is Standard, not a second Free bucket.
• A pub/sub desk, not a voice room. For realtime rooms see LiveKit. For canvas collab see Liveblocks.

Alternatives

• LiveKit — realtime rooms and voice agents when you will not run Ably channels.
• Liveblocks — multiplayer CRDT rooms when the job is a document, not pub/sub.
• Convex — reactive backend functions when you want queries, not a message bus.

Official tutorial

Official Ably Realtime channel video: How to add durable sessions to the Vercel AI SDK with Ably AI Transport (oEmbed author: Ably Realtime). First-party AI Transport walkthrough; the React Pub/Sub getting-started still is the cover.

Written path: ably.com/pricing plus the React getting-started still.

Website

https://ably.com

Repository

https://github.com/ably/ably-js

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Ably React Pub/Sub getting-started UI. Dollars checked on ably.com/pricing (Free $0; Standard $29+usage; Pro $399+usage; messages $2.50/M; connection/channel minutes $1.00/M mins). Tutorial oEmbed author: Ably Realtime.

Last verified

2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.