Billing of MixTranscoding and Relay to CDN
MixTranscoding
Billing Components
MixTranscoding is a paid Tencent RTC feature that can mix, transcode, and repackage multiple audio and video streams published in a TRTC room. You can use this feature either via the console or using APIs.
Billing Instructions
Billing mode: Daily pay-as-you-go.
Billing cycle: Billing occurs on a daily basis. MixTranscoding fees incurred each day will be deducted the following day at the time of billing. For the billing details and actual billing time, see Billing Statement.
Since June 1, 2022, the usage measurement for MixTranscoding has been changed from output-duration-based measurement to input-duration-based measurement.
The following scenarios will incur MixTranscoding fees:
Using the MCU cluster provided by TRTC for on-cloud mixed stream mixtranscoding will be charged based on the input duration.
When pushing RTMP streams into a TRTC room or using the Push Online Media Stream feature, mixtranscoding will be performed and charged based on the input streaming duration.
If you use the transcoding feature only, On-Cloud MixTranscoding fees will still be charged according to the rules described in this document.
If you relay transcoded audio and video streams to a third-party CDN, Tencent RTC will charge you relay fees, and the third-party CDN will charge you traffic/bandwidth fees according to their own billing rules.
Note:
When a transcoding task is initiated for a room, the system will assign a robot to the room (for multiple transcoding tasks, multiple robots will enter the room). The robot will subscribe to the audio and video streams that need to be transcoded, which will incur audio/video duration fees.
For the Input Online Media Stream feature, the system will assign a corresponding robot to push the stream, and audio duration fees will be charged for the robot's length of stay in the room.
In other scenarios (including but not limited to transcoding and relay to other rooms or platforms), the robot subscription duration will be normally charged.
Billing Formula
MixTranscoding fee = Audio transcoding fee + Video transcoding fee = Audio input duration × Audio transcoding unit price + Video input duration × Video transcoding unit price (determined by the aggregate resolution of input streams and encoding method for the output stream).
Billing Prices
The following table lists the unit prices of MixTranscoding.
Codec | Billable Item | Unit Price (USD/1,000 minutes) |
Audio transcoding | Transcoding - Voice | 1.99 |
H.264 | Transcoding-H264-High Definition HD | 5.99 |
H.264 | Transcoding - H264 - Ultra High Definition FHD | 13.99 |
H.264 | Transcoding-H264-2K | 25.99 |
H.264 | Transcoding-H264-4K | 69.99 |
H.265 | Transcoding-H265-High definition HD | 17.99 |
H.265 | Transcoding-H265-Ultra high definition FHD | 37.99 |
H.265 | Transcoding-H265-2K | 69.99 |
H.265 | Transcoding-H265-4K | 189.99 |
Note:
MixTranscoding supports only pay-as-you-go on a daily basis. The fees incurred the previous day are deducted at 10:00 AM each day.
Usage Calculation
MixTranscoding usage is the duration of audio and video processed by the TRTC MixTranscoding MCU for all applications under your Tencent Cloud account. Depending on the input streams in the room, the transcoding duration falls into two categories: video input duration and audio input duration.
Video Input Duration
Video input duration refers to the length of a video segment in the input streams before they are transcoded. Each duration is categorized based on the aggregate video resolution of the input streams and charged separately. The relationships between video categories and resolutions are as follows:
Video Category | Input Resolution |
High Definition HD | Not exceeding 1280 × 720 (inclusive) |
Ultra High Definition FHD | 1280 × 720 - 1920 × 1080 (inclusive) |
2K | 1920 × 1080 - 2560 ×1440 (inclusive) |
4K | 2560 × 1440 - 4096 × 2176 (inclusive) |
If a segment of an input stream contains both video and audio, the segment will only be charged as a video duration.
The resolution of the same input stream may change over time, in which case TRTC will calculate the usage in segments. The data is usually updated every 60 seconds. Whenever a resolution change is detected, it will be reported and updated immediately.
For the same stream mixing task at a certain moment, if the ratio of the output resolution to the aggregate input resolution is greater than 2:1, to guarantee the quality of the output video, the system will add an input stream with the same resolution as the transcoding output. This additional input stream will also incur MixTranscoding fees.
When the host uses H.265 as the stream codec and the audience in TRTC room does not support H.265 decoding, the stream codec of the host will automatically downgrade to H.264 to ensure the playback experience of the audience in the room. Also, to ensure a consistent CDN playback experience, when streams are relayed to CDN, the TRTC background will automatically transcode the streams to H.265, which will incur H.265 transcoding fees.
Audio Input Duration
Audio input duration refers to the length of an audio-only segment in the input streams before they are transcoded. If there are multiple audio-only streams, they will be charged as one audio transcoding duration.
Note:
Durations for each day are calculated in seconds for each application (SDKAppID) and then converted to minutes (rounded up to the nearest minute) for billing.
If an input section has no video data at all, to ensure the output quality, the system will add a black screen stream with the same resolution as the transcoding output. This additional input stream will also incur MixTranscoding fees.
If one segment of an input stream contains only audio and another segment contains video, the audio-only segment will be charged as an audio transcoding duration, and the video segment will be charged as a video transcoding duration.
Billing Examples
Audio Live Streaming
An anchor streamed audio-only content for 30 minutes and then co-anchored with someone for 30 minutes, during which the two anchors’ streams were mixed and then published to Tencent Cloud’s live streaming system.
In the first 30 minutes, because there was only one anchor, no MixTranscoding fees would be charged. In the 30 minutes afterward, there were two anchors who communicated over audio, so audio MixTranscoding fees would be charged.
MixTranscoding fee = 1.99 x 30/1,000 = 0.0597 USD.
Video Live Streaming
Anchor A streamed video content at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for 30 minutes and then co-anchored with anchor B over video for 10 minutes. Anchor B’s video resolution was 1280 x 720. The two anchors’ streams were mixed and then published to Tencent Cloud’s live streaming system.
For anchor A, his or her own video was displayed as the big image, and anchor B’s video appeared in a small window in the top right corner. The resolution of the video viewed by anchor A was 1920 x 1080. For anchor B, his or her own video was displayed in the large video window, and anchor A’s video appeared in a small window in the top right corner. The resolution of the video viewed by anchor B was 1280 x 720.
In the first 30 minutes, because there was only one anchor, no MixTranscoding fees would be charged. In the 10 minutes afterward, two anchors communicated over video, and two MixTranscoding tasks were started, which would be charged separately. The aggregate resolution of both tasks was 1920 x 1080 + 1280 x 720 = 2,995,200, and the H.264 codec was used, so the H.264 2K category would apply. Note that the applicable video category is not determined by the resolution of the output video.
MixTranscoding fee = 25.99 x 10/1,000 + 25.99 x 10/1,000 = 0.5198 USD.
Relay Fees
Note:
The following billing mode applies to Tencent Cloud accounts registered after October 23, 2025: the Relay to CDN feature shall use the "Duration Billing" mode. For accounts registered and used TRTC services before October 23, 2025, the Relay to CDN feature will continue to use the "Bandwidth Billing" mode; please refer to the previous version of the Relay to CDN billing documentation.
Description
Billing mode: post-payment billing after daily settlement.
Billing cycle: Daily settlement. The billing details and bill issuance time shall be subject to the actual billing statement.
Billing formula: relay bandwidth-based fee = duration usage × relay unit price
Relay Unit Price
Relay unit price for TRTC is as follows:
Usage Type | Unit Price (USD/Thousand Minutes) |
Stream relay | 2.99 |
Note:
TRTC counts the duration of Relay Service usage (measurement unit: 1,000 minutes) under the same account within the billing cycle.
Billing Example for Retweets
Example
On November 1, 2025, you used the Relay Service, and the generated duration usage during this period was 2 hours.
Analysis:
Duration usage within the billing cycle = 2 hr × 60 minutes × 0.001 = 0.12 1,000 minutes
The Duration Fee for this retweet = 2.99 (USD/1,000 minutes) × 0.12 1,000 minutes = 0.3588 USD.
