> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.cometchat.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Multi-Tenancy

> Multi-Tenancy — CometChat documentation.

Multi-tenancy in CometChat enables you to manage multiple isolated chat environments under a single billing plan, providing economies of scale and streamlined management for applications serving multiple organizations or customer segments.

## Understanding Apps and Multi-Tenancy

### What is a CometChat App?

A CometChat app represents a self-contained chat environment with its own users, groups, messages, roles, and configurations. Each app operates independently with isolated data.

### Multi-App vs Multi-Tenant Setup

**Multi-App Setup**: Create separate CometChat apps with independent billing plans and configurations. Best suited for:

* Different products within an organization
* Separate departments with distinct P\&Ls
* Applications requiring completely independent billing and metrics

**Multi-Tenant Setup**: Create multiple CometChat apps that share quotas and billing from a single base plan. Best suited for:

* SaaS platforms serving multiple customers
* Aggregator applications
* Vertical-specific software (education, healthcare, etc.)

## Authentication

All Management API requests must be authenticated using the key and secret provided when multi-tenancy is enabled for your account. Include these credentials in the request headers:

```
key: YOUR_KEY
secret: YOUR_SECRET
```

## Common Use Cases

Multi-tenancy works well for scenarios like:

* **Education platforms**: Each school operates as a separate app, with teachers, students, and parents communicating within their school's isolated environment
* **Business communication tools**: Each business or franchise gets its own app, keeping employee and customer conversations separate
* **White-label solutions**: Provide branded chat experiences to multiple clients while managing everything from a single account

## How Multi-Tenancy Works

When multi-tenancy is enabled for your account:

1. A **base app** is created and associated with your billing plan
2. All additional apps created in the account consume from the base app's quotas (MAU, PCC, Voice/Video minutes)
3. Usage across all apps is pooled and billed together through the base app
4. All apps inherit features and configurations from the base plan

## App Management APIs

Once multi-tenancy is enabled, you receive App Management credentials (key and secret) that allow you to programmatically:

* Create and configure new apps
* Enable/disable extensions
* Manage app team members
* Configure webhooks
* Manage widgets

This enables automation and "configuration as code" patterns for managing large numbers of apps consistently.

## Getting Started

To enable multi-tenancy for your account, [contact our support team](https://www.cometchat.com/contact-sales). Once approved, you'll receive your App Management key and secret, and can begin creating tenant apps.

For detailed API documentation on managing apps programmatically, refer to the [Management REST APIs](/rest-api/management-apis).