Temporal Cloud pricing
Temporal Cloud pricing structures will update in January 2025 (February 2025 for existing customers).
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 Support.
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. Includes sending a Signal from a client or from within a Workflow to another Workflow.
- Query received. Queries aren't recorded in Event History. An operation such as viewing the call stack in the Temporal Cloud UI results in a Query.
- 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.)
- [NEW] Workflow Update. Workflow Updates is a primitive that combines a Signal and Query together for a single Action.
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 particular 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) and they are measured per Namespace.
Support
How Temporal Support tiers work
Each Temporal Cloud account includes access to expert support. The Temporal Developer Success team has extensive knowledge of how Temporal operates and how to optimize your deployment. Our team consists of engineers who are well-versed in Temporal and actively contribute to its development.
Each account is required to have a Support plan. We offer two Support tiers: Basic and Premium. Support costs are outlined in the table below. A complete description of Support plans and response times can be found in our Support documentation.
Basic | Premium | |
---|---|---|
Pricing (per month) | Greater of $200 or 10% of monthly usage | Contact Sales |
Pricing options
How to Pay for Temporal Cloud
Temporal Cloud offers two payment options: Pay-As-You-Go and Temporal Commitments. Both models meter and bill for three components: Actions, Storage, and Support.
- With Pay-As-You-Go, you are invoiced each calendar month based on your consumption. Pay-As-You-Go pricing applies a flat rate for Actions and Storage.
- 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 uses consumption pricing. This section explains how you're billed each calendar month and gives examples.
Action pricing
You are only billed for the Actions you use. Actions are metered and billed on a calendar month for each Namespace. The Pay-As-You-Go rate is $25 per million Actions per month. This rate applies across all Namespaces:
Actions | $25 per million Actions |
---|
Example
If you use fewer than one million Actions per month, your bill for Actions will be less than $25 for that month. For example, if you use 800,000 Actions in a month, you're billed:
0.8M Actions ⨉ $25 Per Million Actions= $20
Storage pricing
You are billed for your Namespace’s Active and Retained Storage each calendar month:
Storage | Price per GBh (USD) |
---|---|
Retained | $0.00042 |
Active | $0.042 |
Example
If you have 720 GBh of Active Storage and 3,600 GBh of Retained Storage in one calendar month your bill will be:
720 GBh Active Storage ⨉ $0.042 per GBh = $30.24
3,600 GBh Retained Storage ⨉ $0.00042 per GBh = $1.51
Total Storage Bill: $30.24 Active Storage + $1.51 Retained Storage = $31.75
Support pricing
Support pricing offers two tiers:
- Basic Support is priced at the greater of $200/month or 10% of Temporal Cloud consumption.
- Premium Support is priced at the greater of $2,000/month or 10% of Temporal Cloud consumption.
Temporal Cloud consumption is based on the combined cost of Actions and Storage.
Example
If you are signed up for Basic Support, with the above example, your Basic Support will be:
Max of $200 or 10% ⨉ ($20 (Actions) + $31.75 (Storage)) = $5.18, so $200.
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.
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 align with the volume of your workloads. After activation, the new MRN begins replicating data to the standby region. Due to this replication, MRNs double your current Action and Storage costs. To estimate costs for this deployment model, apply a 2x multiplier to your existing Actions and Storage Namespace costs.
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 incur the "2x" charge, as these are actively replicated.
- 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.
Temporal Nexus pricing
- 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.
- No Action results for handling the Nexus Operation itself.
- No Action results for a retry of the Nexus Operation itself.
SSO and SAML pricing
What costs are associated with SSO/SAML use?
We offer single sign-on (SSO) integration using SAML at a monthly fixed fee based on the number of users registered in Temporal Cloud:
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 | < $25.00 | Modest / transient throughput | < 1M / month (< 0.38 actions per second) | General automation Human dependent processes Data pipelines Nightly batch processes |
Medium | < $1K | Steady or burst throughput | < 40M / month (< 15 actions per second) | Transaction & order systems Infrastructure automation Payment Processing Batch processes |
Large | < $10K | 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 Admin can view their detailed billing data at any time via the Usage and Billing dashboards in Temporal Cloud.
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 Temporal Cloud service is consumption-based. You pay only for what you need with no minimum usage requirement. Basic Support has a monthly fee starting from $200.
Can I purchase Temporal Cloud through my Amazon, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform Marketplace?
Yes. You’ll enjoy streamlined billing through AWS and GCP.
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, 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?
Temporal automatically invoices customers who purchased credits to reload their balance. The invoice amount is based on annualizing the most recent month’s usage. Customers with free credits from the startup program or from an offer 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?
To update payment information, contact Support.
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 Admins of Temporal Cloud. Admins can view their detailed billing information at any time. See our billing and cost page for details. Alternatively, to view invoices and billing history, contact Support.
Does Temporal charge sales tax/VAT?
We charge applicable sales tax in US jurisdictions as required.
How do I cancel my account?
To cancel your Temporal Cloud account, contact Support.
Will I lose access immediately if I cancel my account?
Customers will lose access 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.
What happens to my credits if I cancel my account?
Prepaid but unused credits purchased after June 17, 2024 will be refunded if the account is canceled.