How to calculate the minutes for Voice & Video Call
For real-time voice and video services, multiple methods are generally used to calculate the service duration for users. The service duration can be calculated commonly by user count or played stream count. ZEGOCLOUD calculates the service duration by user count.
Calculation method comparison
The following example is used for comparison between the two methods of calculating the service duration:
Assume that five users have a 60-minute video interaction in a room. Use the following two methods to calculate the service duration, respectively.
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Calculation by user count: Total service duration = Number of participants x Duration for each participant = 5 x 60 = 300 (minutes)
NoteWhen this method is used, the total duration depends on the number of participants in this interaction but is irrelevant to the number of streams played by each participant.
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Calculation by played stream count: Total service duration = Number of participants x Number of streams played by each participant x Duration of each pulled stream = 5 x 4 x 60 = 1200 (minutes)
NoteWhen this method is used, if a participant plays multiple streams, the duration of each stream is included for fee calculation.
Choice of ZEGOLCOUD
The preceding comparison indicates that the calculation by user count is more simple and more convenient. In addition, differences between the durations (also prices) obtained based on the two methods become greater as the user count increases. ZEGOCLOUD calculates the service duration by user count. For more information related to billing, see ZEGOCLOUD - Pricing per Product.