Sendbird Pricing Review: What You’re Really Paying For (and How to Pay Less)

As businesses increasingly seek to enhance user engagement through real-time communication, the choice of a chat SDK or API has never been more critical.

If you're exploring Sendbird for your app's messaging and calling needs, you're likely wondering about its pricing structure and whether it offers the best value for your investment.

In this blog post, we break down Sendbird’s pricing, compare it with CometChat, and help you assess whether Sendbird is the right long-term choice for your product.

Sendbird offers four pricing plans designed for different stages of product maturity and scale.

Free trial / Developer plan

Sendbird provides a 30-day free trial that includes Pro features and supports up to 1,000 MAUs. After the trial ends, accounts are downgraded to the Developer plan, which supports up to 100 MAUs with limited functionality. This plan is intended primarily for testing and early development.

Starter

The Starter plan is positioned for production use and typically starts at approximately $400+ per month for around 1,000 MAUs. This plan includes unlimited messages but enforces limits on peak concurrent connections (PCC).

Pro

The Pro plan is designed for higher-scale applications and generally starts around $499 per month for approximately 5,000+ MAUs. It includes more advanced features and higher concurrency limits but still enforces PCC caps, typically around 5–10% of MAUs.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan is custom-priced and targeted at large organizations with advanced requirements. It includes capabilities such as dedicated infrastructure, data export, advanced security controls, and priority support.

Across paid plans, Sendbird pricing is MAU-based with unlimited messaging. However, costs can increase as applications experience spikes in peak concurrent connections or require advanced features available only in higher tiers or as add-ons.

Sendbird’s pricing structure is broadly aligned with other enterprise-focused chat SDKs, offering MAU-based tiers and a custom Enterprise plan.

That said, customer feedback frequently highlights Sendbird as a premium-priced solution. The entry point can be high for early-stage startups, and costs tend to increase as applications scale, particularly when peak concurrency exceeds plan limits or when advanced capabilities are required.

Another consideration is pricing transparency. While base MAU tiers are discussed during sales conversations, overage pricing for peak concurrent connections and feature availability across tiers is not fully visible upfront. This makes it harder for teams to forecast costs accurately as engagement patterns evolve.

When comparing Sendbird with CometChat, the differences are less about raw capability and more about cost structure, feature inclusion, and scalability.

CometChat offers a flatter, more transparent pricing model with clearer inclusions across tiers. Customers switching from Sendbird to CometChat often report savings of 30–70% while maintaining access to a comparable or broader feature set.

Schedule a personalized demo to see how CometChat compares to Sendbird for your specific use case.

1. Peak concurrency overages increase costs

Sendbird plans include a limited number of peak concurrent connections, typically capped at 5–10% of total MAUs. When applications exceed this limit, overage charges apply.

Reported rates indicate Sendbird charges approximately $5 per additional concurrent connection, whereas CometChat charges closer to $1. For applications that experience spikes in real-time usage, such as events or live collaboration, these overages can materially increase monthly costs.

CometChat also offers a zero overage guarantee for Enterprise customers, providing more predictable scaling as engagement grows.

2. Advanced features are tiered or add-ons

Several commonly used chat capabilities are not universally included across Sendbird plans and may require upgrading to Pro or Enterprise tiers, or purchasing add-ons.

While these features are not strictly “hidden,” they are tiered in a way that can increase total cost as usage and feature requirements expand.

CometChat includes most essential and advanced chat features directly within its plans, reducing the need for incremental upgrades.

3. Core capabilities gated behind higher tiers

Sendbird reserves several advanced but commonly required capabilities—such as data export, HIPAA compliance, and enhanced security controls—for its Enterprise plan.

In contrast, CometChat avoids feature paywalls for core chat functionality. Customers gain access to essential tools from the base plans onward, without needing to upgrade purely to unlock standard industry features.

Conclusion

Sendbird is a robust, enterprise-grade chat platform with strong messaging capabilities and global adoption. However, its value proposition is best suited for teams that are prepared to manage tiered pricing, peak concurrency limits, and incremental feature upgrades as they scale.

For many businesses, the challenge lies not in initial adoption, but in long-term cost predictability. As MAUs grow and real-time engagement peaks, pricing can increase meaningfully due to PCC overages and tier-based feature access.

CometChat offers a more cost-effective and scalable alternative, with transparent MAU-based pricing, flatter feature inclusion, and enterprise-grade protections such as zero overage guarantees. For teams prioritizing predictable costs and faster time to value, CometChat provides a simpler path to delivering a high-quality chat experience—without unexpected charges.

Haris Kumar

Lead Content Strategist , CometChat

Haris brings nearly half a decade of expertise in B2B SaaS content marketing, where he excels at developing strategic content that drives engagement and supports business growth. His deep understanding of the SaaS landscape allows him to craft compelling narratives that resonate with target audiences. Outside of his professional pursuits, Haris enjoys reading, trying out new dishes and watching new movies!