Yes, Stream has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes 1,000 monthly active users included and 100 concurrent connections included. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $160/mo, and no credit card is required to sign up.
About
Stream provides APIs and SDKs for building real-time chat messaging, video and audio calling, activity feeds, AI moderation, and Vision Agents. The platform includes shared infrastructure, prebuilt UI components, low-level clients, backend SDKs, webhooks, and integrations across web and mobile stacks.
The free offering includes a perpetual Build plan with 1,000 MAU and 100 concurrent connections, no credit card required, plus a separate Maker program that provides $100 monthly free credit for eligible small teams and low-revenue companies. Paid plans add higher MAU, concurrency, storage, channel, and API limits.
- 1,000 MAU free plan
- 100 concurrent connections included
- No credit card required
- $100 monthly Maker credit
- Chat, video, feeds, moderation APIs
- SDKs for web and mobile clients
- Global edge infrastructure
Free Tier Value
This free tier includes 1,000 monthly active users and 100 concurrent connections, while the cheapest paid plan starts at $399/month for 10,000 MAU and 500 concurrent connections. Using the published overage rates, the free allowance is worth about $159.60/month in avoided usage charges, and it does not require a credit card. The offer is perpetual but capped, so it lands well below the paid plans while still being genuinely usable for small projects.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Access to all Chat features on the free plan.
- 1,000 monthly active users included.
- 100 concurrent connections included.
- No credit card required.
- Community support included.
See Stream pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Start
- MAU
- 10,000 / mo
- Concurrent connections
- 500
- Robust Chat features
- Advanced Moderation & Filters
- Global EDGE Network
- Offline Support
- Data Export
Elevate
- MAU
- 10,000 / mo
- Concurrent connections
- 500
- Start Chat features plus more
- Multi Tenancy/Teams
- Advanced Search
- HIPAA
- Message Translations
Enterprise
- MAU
- 1,000,000+ / mo
- Concurrent connections
- 750,000+
- AI Moderation
- 99.999% SLA
- Dedicated Servers
- Shared Slack Channel
- Onboarding Services
- Migration Guarantee
- 24/7 Support
- SAML/SSO
Pricing extracted from Stream's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Stream free forever?
Yes. Stream has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does Stream require a credit card?
No. You can start on Stream's free tier without entering card details.
What happens when you exceed Stream's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. Stream's cheapest paid plan is Start at $399 / month.
What is Stream's free tier worth?
Stream's free tier is worth about $160 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 79/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
