Let’s explore a scenario with 10,000 sessions per month to help you understand the cost differences between self-hosting LiveKit and using LiveKit Cloud: LiveKit Cloud: For 10,000 one-hour sessions at 720p, you can expect an estimated cost of $551–$912 per month. This estimate mainly reflects bandwidth usage at $0.12/GB and also includes the benefits of operational overhead, global scalability, and analytics—all handled for you. Self-Hosting: Since LiveKit’s media server is open source, self-hosting is definitely an option! However, it means you’ll be in charge of managing infrastructure, scaling, and maintenance. Your costs will depend on your cloud provider’s server and bandwidth pricing. Also, keep in mind that some features, like global edge network usage and participant minutes, still come with usage-based fees even if you self-host. LiveKit Cloud is thoughtfully designed to offer competitive pricing, especially when you consider the time and effort saved on operational overhead and infrastructure management. To get a clear picture of potential savings, you’d want to factor in your provider’s rates as well as the engineering resources needed for self-hosting. Sources: A Tale of Two Protocols: WebRTC vs. HLS for Live Streaming | LiveKit Use-cases: Livestreaming | LiveKit Pricing | Deploy and scale agents on LiveKit Cloud | Docs::Home