Temporal Cloud future pricing
The pricing structure on this page goes into effect in January 2025 for new customers and February 2025 for existing customers. Please refer to the current Pricing page until that time.
Temporal Cloud is a consumption-based service. You pay only for what you use. Our pricing reflects your use of Actions, Storage, and Support. It is flexible, transparent, and predictable so you know your costs.
This page describes the elements of Temporal Cloud pricing. It gives you the information you need to understand and estimate costs for your implementation. For more exact estimates, please reach out to our team.
Cost and billing information are available directly in the Temporal Cloud UI. For more information, visit the Billing and Cost page.
Temporal Cloud pricing model
This section explains the basis of the Temporal Cloud pricing model and how it works. Your total invoice each calendar month is the combination of Temporal Cloud consumption (Actions and Storage), and a Temporal Cloud Plan that includes Support.
Temporal Cloud Plans
How plans work
Each Temporal Cloud account includes a plan with Support, Actions, Active Storage, Retained Storage and platform features. Base allocations help you get started on the Temporal platform, so you can better estimate costs.
- Temporal Cloud Plans are charged monthly.
- Actions or Storage allocations are reset each calendar month.
Temporal offers four plans: Essential, Business, Enterprise, Mission Critical. Prices are outlined in the following table:
Essentials | Business | Enterprise | Mission Critical | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Support Targeting | Basic use | Production deployments that scale | Enterprise deployments w/ stringent uptime demands | Mission-critical applications w/ the highest support needs |
Support Features | Access to Support | |||
Product Features | ||||
Pricing | Greater of | Greater of | Priced annually: contact Sales for details | Priced annually: contact Sales for details |
Partial months are pro-rated to the day. |
Find a complete description of Support offerings and response times in our Support documentation.
Active and Retained Storage allocations are translated into GBh at a rate of 1GB equals 744GBh.
Actions
What are Temporal Actions?
Actions are the primary unit of consumption-based pricing for Temporal Cloud. They track billable operations within the Temporal Cloud Service, such as starting Workflows, recording a Heartbeat or sending messages.
[Toggle to View] The following operations result in Actions:
WORKFLOWS
- Workflow started. Occurs via client start, client Signal-With-Start, Continue-As-New, or Child Workflow start. If a Workflow start fails, an Action is not recorded.
- Workflow reset. Occurs when a Workflow is reset. (Actions that occur before a Reset are counted even if they are no longer visible in Event History.)
- Timer started.
Includes implicit Timers that are started by a Temporal SDK when timeouts are set, such as
AwaitWithTimeout
in Go orcondition
in TypeScript. - Search Attribute upsert requested.
Occurs after a Workflow starts and invokes
UpsertSearchAttributes
. - Signal sent. An Action occurs for every Signal, whether sent from a Client or from a Workflow.
- Query received by Worker. An Action occurs for every Query, including viewing the call stack in the Temporal Cloud UI, which results in a Query behind the scenes.
- Update received by Worker. An Action occurs for every successful Update and every rejected Update.
- Side Effect recorded. For a mutable Side Effect, an Action occurs only when the value changes. (Be aware that some SDKs don't support Side Effects.)
CHILD WORKFLOWS
- Child Workflows spawned. The parent Workflow spawning a Child Workflow results in one Action.
- Child Workflows executed. Execution of the Child Workflow results in one Action.
ACTIVITIES
- Activity started or retried. Occurs each time an Activity is started or retried.
- Local Activity started.
All Local Activities associated with one Workflow Task count as a single Action.
That's because Temporal Cloud counts all RecordMarkers from each Workflow Task as one action, and not N actions.
Please note:
- Each additional Workflow Task heartbeat after counts as an additional Action.
- Local Activities retried following a Workflow Task heartbeat count as one Action (capped at 100 Actions).
- Activity Heartbeat recorded. A Heartbeat call from Activity code counts as an Action only if it reaches the Temporal Server. Temporal SDKs throttle Activity Heartbeats. The default throttle is 80% of the Heartbeat Timeout. Heartbeats don't apply to Local Activities.
SCHEDULES
Schedules allows you to "schedule" a Workflow to start at a particular time. Each execution of a Schedule accrues three actions:
- Schedule Start. This accounts for two actions.
- Workflow started. This is a single action to start the target workflow.
EXPORT
Workflow History Export enables you to export closed Workflow Histories to a cloud storage sink of your choice.
- Workflow exported. Each Workflow exported accrues a single action.
TEMPORAL NEXUS
- For Nexus Operation scheduled, the caller Workflow starting a Nexus Operation results in one Action on the caller Namespace.
- For Nexus Operation canceled, the caller Workflow canceling a Nexus Operation results in one Action on the caller Namespace.
- The underlying Temporal primitives (such as Workflows, Activities, and Signals) created by a Nexus Operation handler (directly or indirectly) result in the normal Actions for those primitives billed to the handler’s Namespace. This includes retries for underlying Temporal primitives like Activities but not for handling the Nexus Operation itself or a retry of the Nexus Operation itself.
Reach out to our team for more information or to help size your number of Actions.
Storage
How Workflow Storage works
A Workflow's execution might exist for a few seconds, a day, month, or even forever. The Temporal Service stores the Workflow Execution's Event History. Under this framework, a Workflow Execution has only two states, open (Active Storage) or closed (Retained Storage).
-
Active Storage measures the amount of storage used by active Workflows.
-
When the execution of a Workflow finishes, Temporal Cloud stores Event History for a defined Retention Period, which is set by the user per Namespace. This is Retained Storage. Typical uses of Retained Storage include compliance, debugging, workload refresh, and business analytics. When closed Workflow Histories need to be retained for more than the 90-day maximum period on Temporal Cloud, we recommend using our Export feature.
Storage costs are measured in gigabyte-hours (GBh).
Pricing options
How to Pay for Temporal Cloud
After you exceed your Actions and Storage allocations in your base tier, Temporal Cloud offers two payment options: Pay-As-You-Go and Commitments. Both models meter and bill for three primary components: Actions, Storage, and your Temporal Cloud Plan.
- With Pay-As-You-Go, you are invoiced each calendar month based on your consumption. Pay-As-You-Go pricing automatically applies volume prices as your Actions scale.
- With Commitments, you pre-purchase your Temporal Cloud spend with Temporal Credits. Temporal Credits pay for your Temporal Cloud consumption, including Temporal Cloud Plan charges.
Pay-As-You-Go
How does Pay-As-You-Go pricing work?
Pay-As-You-Go pricing is based on consumption. This section explains how you're billed each calendar month and gives examples.
Action pricing
Actions pricing starts at $50 per million Actions ($0.00005 per Action). You gain progressive volume discounts as you scale. Discounts are based on your account's total usage, metered and billed for each calendar month:
Actions | Price per Million Actions |
---|---|
First 5M | $50 |
Next 5M, up to 10M | $45 |
Next 10M, up to 20M | $40 |
Next 30M, up to 50M | $35 |
Next 50M, up to 100M | $30 |
Next 100M, up to 200M | $25 |
Over 200M | Contact Sales for info More discounts, helpful Humans |
Example
If you consume 11.25M Actions in excess of your Temporal Cloud Plan allocation in one calendar month, your bill for Actions will be:
5M Actions ⨉ $50 Per Million Actions = $250
5M Actions ⨉ $45 Per Million Actions = $225
1.25M Actions ⨉ $40 Per Million Actions = $50
Actions
$250 (First Tier) + $225 (Second Tier) + $50 (Third Tier) = $525
Storage pricing
Most accounts’ storage needs are met by our Temporal Cloud Plans. For additional storage within a calendar month, you are billed for Active and Retained Storage as follows:
Storage | Price per GBh (USD) |
---|---|
Retained | $0.00105 |
Active | $0.042 |
Example
If you have 720 GBh of Active Storage and 3,600 GBh of Retained Storage in excess of your Base Tier allocations in one calendar month, your bill will be:
720 GBh Active Storage ⨉ $0.042 per GBh = $30.24
3,600 GBh Retained Storage ⨉ $0.00105 per GBh = $3.78
Total Storage Bill: $30.24 Active Storage + $3.78 Retained Storage = $34.02
Temporal Cloud Plan pricing
Your Temporal Cloud Plan pricing is the greater of the minimum monthly price or a percent (%) of your consumption spend:
- The Essentials tier is priced at the greater of $100/month or 5% of your Temporal Cloud consumption.
- The Business tier is priced at the greater of $500/month or 10% of Temporal Cloud consumption.
- The Enterprise and Mission Critical Support plans must be paid annually. Contact Sales to discuss your needs.
Your Temporal Cloud consumption combines the costs of Actions and Storage.
Example
If you are signed up for Essentials, with $3,000 of monthly spend, your bill will be:
Greater of $100 or 5% ⨉ $3,000 = $150, so $150.
Commitment Pricing
Commitments with Temporal Credits
Temporal Cloud offers the option to commit to a minimum spend over a given timeframe. In exchange for this commitment you receive additional discounts. Key discount levers include:
- Account Action volume over 200M Actions
- Duration of your commitment (1, 2, or 3 years)
Meet your commitments with any Temporal Cloud spend, including Actions, Storage and your Temporal Cloud Plan. After making a commitment, Temporal locks in your Actions price based on your expected volume and discounts your Active Storage costs. This price is used to bill your Actions and Active Storage across your account for the timeframe specified in your commitment.
Commitments must be paid for with Temporal Credits. Temporal Credits are used to pay your Temporal Cloud consumption, including Temporal Cloud Plan charges. A Temporal Credit is equivalent to $1 USD. For example, a credit purchase of $20,000 results in 20,000 Temporal Credits. A minimum credit purchase equivalent to the first year of your commitment is required. For multi-year deals please contact Sales for the most accurate pricing.
Commitment Pricing Q&A
How do multi-year commitments work?
Our sales team works with you to match annual credit purchases in line with your expected spend. This aligns your payments to annual terms rather than one up-front expense.
What happens if I exhaust my commitment-based Temporal Credits before the end of my term?
You continue to receive the negotiated discounted prices for the remainder of your term. You'll be invoiced for another credit purchase based on your most recent calendar month's spend. This amount is multiplied by the months remaining in the annual portion of your term. If your previous month spend was $5,000, and you're 10 months through your annual term, you'll be invoiced for 10,000 Temporal Credits to cover the remaining two months.
What happens if I have unused Temporal Credits at the end of my term?
Commitments can be difficult to estimate. Temporal Cloud offers two ways to roll-over unused credits:
- When you renew a commitment for the same or larger amount, Temporal Cloud rolls over any unused credits into your new commitment.
- Should you need to downsize your commitment, Temporal Cloud rolls over up to 10% of your initial credit purchase amount into the new commitment.
How do I make a commitment and purchase Temporal Credits?
Contact our team at sales@temporal.io or reach out to your dedicated account manager. You can also purchase Temporal Cloud commitments credits through AWS Marketplace.
Credit Balance
Your Credit Balance is adjusted each calendar month based on your Credit Usage.
Example
An account has purchased credits with an annual spend commitment of $72,000. In the first calendar month, the account is billed $500 for a Business plan, $5,000 for Actions, $250 for Active Storage and $50 for Retained Storage, a total of $5800. Their invoice would state:
Beginning credit balance of 72,000 - 5800 credits used = 66,200, Temporal Credits remaining.
If you have additional questions about credits and volume-based pricing, please contact sales or, if you're already a Temporal Cloud customer, reach out to your dedicated account executive.
Other pricing
Temporal Cloud has additional pricing for other elements of the platform. Following are additional pricing considerations for Multi-region Namespaces and SSO/SAML.
Multi-region Namespace (MRN) pricing
How do MRN costs work?
For workloads with stringent high-availability requirements, Temporal Cloud provides multi-region Namespaces (MRNs), which add a failover capability. Each multi-region Namespace automatically replicates Workflow Execution data and metadata to a standby region. This keeps the standby region in sync, allowing for a near-seamless failover should regional outages occur.
Multi-region Namespace pricing aligns with the volume of your workloads. Actions and Storage used in your MRNs contribute to your Actions and Storage consumption. To estimate costs for this deployment model, apply a 2x multiplier to the Actions and Storage in the Namespace you are replicating and include in your account’s consumption.
When upgrading an existing Namespace, some points to consider:
- Temporal won't charge for historical Actions completed prior to upgrading to a multi-region Namespace. Only ongoing (in-flight) and new Workflow Executions will generate consumption on the MRN.
- Temporal charges for all Actions of existing (ongoing) and new Workflows from the point of adding a new region and provisioning multi-region Namespace service onward.
- Temporal charges for Replicated Storage of retained (historical), running (ongoing), and new Workflow Executions from the point of adding a new region and starting MRN service.
Multi-region Namespace invoice charges will include:
- An Actions row, showing the Action count from the active region.
- A Replicated Actions row, showing the Action count from the standby region.
The invoice follows a similar structure for Replicated Storage. It breaks out Storage and Replicated Storage into their own line items.
- If your multi-region Namespace adoption began mid-month, expect to see more Actions than Replicated Actions and more Storage than Replicated Storage on your invoice.
SSO and SAML pricing
What costs are associated with SSO/SAML use?
Single sign-on (SSO) integration using SAML is included for all customers on the Enterprise and Mission Critical Plans. For business plan customers, a monthly fixed fee based on the number of users registered in Temporal Cloud is required:
Users | Cost per month |
---|---|
0 to 25 | $200 |
26 to 50 | $300 |
51+ | $500 |
Use case cost estimates
Temporal Cloud uses a consumption-based pricing model based primarily on Actions and Storage. Each workload is different. You can estimate the cost of a specific Workflow by running it at a low volume. Use the resulting Storage and compute measurements to project your production scale cost.
The examples below provide general estimates based on workload size. You can also use our calculator on the pricing page to build your estimate. Our team is always happy to [help you estimate costs] (https://pages.temporal.io/contact-us) for your specific workloads and requirements.
Workload size | Cost (monthly) | Characteristics | Actions | Typical use cases |
---|---|---|---|---|
Small | < $50.00 | Modest / transient throughput | < 1M / month (< 0.38 actions per second) | General automation Human dependent processes Data pipelines Nightly batch processes |
Medium | < $2K | Steady or burst throughput | < 40M / month (< 15 actions per second) | Transaction & order systems Infrastructure automation Payment Processing Batch processes |
Large | < $15K | Sustained throughput or multiple use cases | < 400M / month (< 150 actions per second) | Data processing / sync Retail order system KYC & fraud detection |
Web Scale | $20K+ | "Web scale" and / or numerous use cases | 1B+ / month (400+ actions per second) | Social media application SaaS application service |
Billing Questions FAQs
What payment methods does Temporal accept?
You can pay with a credit card, ACH, or wire transfer. To pay for Temporal Cloud with an AWS Account, sign up for Temporal Cloud Pay-As-You-Go on the AWS Marketplace.
How often will I be billed?
Temporal Cloud issues invoices for the previous month’s usage and costs. Invoices are issued on the 3rd of the month for the previous month. For example, invoices for May will be issued at midnight UTC on June 3rd.
Where can I view my usage and billing information?
Account Owners and Finance Admins can view their detailed billing data at any time. Visit the Usage and Billing dashboards in Temporal Cloud. You need appropriate administrative permissions to access this section.
How do I purchase Temporal Cloud credits?
You can purchase Temporal Cloud credits by contacting our team at sales@temporal.io.
What's the minimum cost to run Temporal Cloud?
The Essentials plan starts at $100/month. Consumption in excess of your plan's allocations are billed on a consumption basis.
Can I purchase Temporal Cloud through my Amazon, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform Marketplace?
There are two ways to purchase Temporal Cloud through AWS Marketplace:
- Pay-As-You-Go available here
- Credits: available via private offer, please contact our team at sales@temporal.io
To purchase Temporal Cloud on the Google Cloud Marketplace, please contact our team at sales@temporal.io.
How do I see how many Temporal Cloud credits are remaining?
To view remaining Temporal Cloud credits, Account Owners and Finance Admins can log in to Temporal Cloud and go to Settings > Billing. You need appropriate administrative permissions to access this section.
What happens if I exceed my available credits under a promotion such as the startup program?
Customers with free credits from the startup program or from a promotion are invoiced once their credit balance is exhausted at the end of that month.
Do promotional credits expire?
Credits received through the startup program or an offer have an expiry date. This date is stated as part of the sign-up process.
How do I update my payment information?
Account Owners and Finance Admins can update payment information at any time on the Temporal Cloud Billing page under the Plan tab. You need appropriate administrative permissions to access this section. Select the "Manage Payment Method" button.
See this overview for more details.
What happens if my payment fails?
Temporal will periodically send you email reminders to complete the payment.
How do I view my invoices and billing history?
Invoices are emailed to Account Owners or the designated billing contacts. Account Owners and Finance Admins can view their detailed billing information at any time. See our billing and cost page for details. You need appropriate administrative permissions to access this section. Alternatively, to view invoices and billing history, contact Temporal Finance at [ar@temporal.io](mailto: ar@temporal.io).
Does Temporal charge sales tax/VAT?
We charge applicable sales tax in US jurisdictions as required.
How do I cancel my account?
Account Owners can delete their account and cancel their subscription in the Plans tab in the billing center. See our billing and cost page for details on how to access the billing center.
Will I lose access immediately if I cancel my account?
Customers lose access to Temporal Cloud once Temporal completes the off-boarding process. Billing is independent of this process.
Can I reactivate my account after cancellation?
No. When your account is canceled, your account data is deleted and cannot be restored. To return to Temporal Cloud, you must sign up again. You will be assigned a new Temporal account and be treated as a new customer.