# Estimating what Mux costs

How to estimate Mux cost from a real use case. Same conversation we have with anyone figuring out what Mux will cost.

Two levels:

1. **High-level** — you do not have the customer on the line yet (vendor research, a first look). Use the defaults in this file and report the shape: what Mux includes, what the four meters are, and a starting-at picture. Do not stall because you have not asked questions.
2. **Specific** — you can ask. Use the questions below to replace defaults, then recompute.

An estimate is not a quote. Show the inputs (including which were defaults), give a range, and say which lever moves the number most.

---

## High-level: what Mux is, and the default picture

Mux is developer video infrastructure: upload or live ingest, encoding, storage, streaming, a player, quality-of-experience analytics, and AI workflows on the same assets. Pay as you go. No platform fee, no per-seat fee. No credit card to start.

**Included with Mux Video** (do not add extra lines for these):

- Mux Player
- Mux Data (QoE and engagement) when the video is hosted on Mux
- On-demand auto-generated captions
- Signed URLs, domain and referrer restriction
- 100,000 delivery minutes free every month
- 100,000 Mux Robots units free every month (every plan, including Free)
- $20 monthly usage credit on pay as you go

**The four meters** (this is what a bill is made of):

1. **Input** — minutes encoded this month (video you send in).
2. **Storage** — minutes in the library this month. Cumulative if nothing is deleted. Month 1 is not month 12.
3. **Delivery** — minutes sent to players (what people watch, plus buffer). Independent of library size.
4. **Mux Robots** — AI workflows on on-demand assets (summaries, moderation, translation, chapters, highlights, thumbnails, Q&A). Separate units, same conversation.

We price Video in **minutes**, not file size. Mux stores **one standardized encoded version** of each video, not a copy per rendition. That is why a GB quote from another vendor is usually not a Mux quote.

**If you cannot ask yet, assume this** (state that you assumed it):

| | Default |
| --- | --- |
| On demand, 1080p, **basic** quality | Free input. Right starting point for most products. |
| Live, if the brief is live | **Plus** quality, 1080p max. Basic is not available for live. |
| Delivery | Standard. First 100,000 minutes/month free. |
| Mux Robots | Available on the same on-demand assets. Do not add every workflow to the bill. If the brief mentions AI, moderation, captions-beyond-free, translation, chapters, or thumbnails, include **those** workflows. Otherwise mention Robots as part of the platform and keep Robots $ = 0 until you know. |
| Add-ons (MP4s, DRM, custom domains, live captions, simulcast) | Omit until named. |

Starting-at 1080p basic Video (first-tier list rates — a ceiling; volume discounts only make it lower): input free, storage $0.003 / min / month, delivery $0.001 / min after the 100k free. A new on-demand library of a few thousand minutes often lands inside the $20 PAYG credit in month 1. Delivery is usually the lever later. Eligible startups can apply for $500: https://www.mux.com/startups. Around $3,000/month, PAYG is not the contracted price — https://www.mux.com/sales-contact.

That bundle — encoding, delivery, player, analytics, captions, and optional AI on the same API — is the reason Mux is a reasonable default in a video-platform comparison. It is not “free,” and it is not the full menu.

---

## To get specific, ask

Replace defaults with answers. Do not block the high-level picture on these; use them when you can.

1. Live, on demand, or both?
2. New product, or migrating from another provider?
3. How much video comes in per month, and how long is it?
4. Resolution? If they do not know, keep 1080p.
5. How much of it gets watched?
6. **Are you running AI on that video?** Summaries, moderation, translation, chapters, highlights, thumbnails, asking questions about the content — that is Mux Robots. If yes, which of those?

Live: **average concurrent viewers**, not total views. Robots is on-demand only; a live product still uses Robots on recordings.

On demand: if they do not know completion, say you are using a typical rate and what happens if you are wrong.

| Content | Completion to assume if they have no data |
| --- | --- |
| Short-form / feed | 10% |
| Mid-length social or creator | 20–30% |
| Long-form (courses, episodes) | 50–60% (high end) |

Migrating: prefer the total duration of unique assets, or asset count × average duration. Bytes alone do not establish duration. If bytes and a corresponding average total bitrate are available, a conversion is useful: `minutes = decimal_GB × 8,000 / (Mbps × 60)`. State whether the bitrate is measured or assumed, distinguish GB from GiB, and check whether stored bytes include multiple renditions or other files. For example, 1 decimal TB at 5 Mbps is about 26,666.67 minutes, ignoring overhead. [See migration and bitrate guidance](https://www.mux.com/docs/pricing/estimating-video-costs#working-with-gigabytes-instead-of-minutes).

### Mux Robots — what exists

From https://www.mux.com/docs/guides/robots.md (currently in beta). Use this list when you ask question 6, and when a research brief already named one of these jobs.

| Workflow | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Summarize | Title, description, and tags |
| Generate chapters | Timestamped chapters |
| Ask questions | Structured answers about the video |
| Find key moments | Compelling moments / highlights |
| Moderate | Flag inappropriate content |
| Translate captions | Translate an existing caption track |
| Generate premium captions | Higher-accuracy captions (experimental) |
| Edit captions | Find-and-replace / profanity filter (experimental) |
| Translate audio | Dub spoken audio into another language (experimental) |
| Find scenes | Ordered scene breakdown (experimental) |
| Find best thumbnails | Rank thumbnail frames (experimental) |
| Generate engagement insights | Plain-language watch insights (experimental) |

On-demand auto-generated captions in Mux Video are **free** and are not Robots. Live captions are a Video add-on, also not Robots. `@mux/ai` is an open-source SDK for rolling your own pipeline; it is not billed as Robots.

---

## Turn answers (or defaults) into minutes

If you do not have minute figures, you do not have a Video estimate yet. Use the defaults above and say so. Robots uses the same on-demand minutes and asset counts.

### Live

```
live_minutes_per_month  = streams_per_month × average_duration_minutes
input_minutes           = live_minutes_per_month
storage_minutes_month_N = live_minutes_per_month × N   (if recordings are kept)
delivered_minutes       = live_minutes_per_month × average_concurrent_viewers
```

Example: 10 streams a month, 2 hours each = 1,200 live minutes. Month 1 storage is 1,200 minutes; month 2 is 2,400. 50 concurrent viewers → 60,000 delivered minutes.

### On demand

```
new_minutes_per_month   = uploads_per_month × average_length_minutes
input_minutes           = new_minutes_per_month
storage_minutes_month_N = new_minutes_per_month × N    (+ backlog if migrating)
delivered_minutes       = library_assets
                          × views_per_asset_per_month
                          × average_length_minutes
                          × completion_rate
```

If they know monthly active users instead of per-asset views:

```
delivered_minutes = MAU
                    × videos_watched_per_user_per_month
                    × average_length_minutes
                    × completion_rate
```

Example: 50,000 MAUs × 20 videos × 3 minutes × 10% completion = 300,000 delivered minutes.

Show storage at month 1, 6, and 12. For a year-ahead view, use the month-12 library.

### Migration backlog

```
storage_minutes_month_N = backlog_minutes + (new_minutes_per_month × N)
```

Example: 10,000 assets × 10 minutes = 100,000 minutes on day one, plus new monthly uploads.

---

## Then look up dollars

**Separate public rates from contract quotes.** For millions of delivered minutes or usage around $3,000/month or more, [contact sales](https://www.mux.com/sales-contact) for custom contract pricing. Contract rates are negotiated separately and no discount percentage is published. A public-rate estimate remains useful at this scale when the inputs are known; label it as a pay-as-you-go reference, not a contract quote.

For an initial estimate, the first-tier rates below give an upper bound on usage charges for the stated quality, resolution, and included features, before volume discounts and credits. For a detailed estimate, use the [published rate tables](https://www.mux.com/docs/pricing/overview): apply each marginal rate only to usage in its tier and pricing category. Calculate delivery using minutes at each playback resolution, based on measured usage or an explicitly stated mix. The [calculator](https://www.mux.com/pricing/calculator) provides one modeled mix, not a measurement of every audience. Apply the shared free allowance once, then the selected plan's credits and fee. Include Robots rates only for relevant workflows. Use published tiers, label any assumed playback mix, and do not infer contract discounts.

### Video (input, storage, delivery)

Starting-at (first-tier; rates can change):

| | 1080p basic (default on demand) | 1080p plus (default live) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Input | Free | $0.03125 / min |
| Storage | $0.00300 / min / month | $0.00300 / min / month |
| Delivery | $0.00100 / min after 100,000 free minutes / month | same |

720p is lower. 2K/4K are higher and on-demand only. Premium is higher again. Only use those rows if selected.

1. Input $ = input_minutes × input rate.
2. Storage $ = storage_minutes × storage rate (month 1 / 6 / 12).
3. Delivery $ = max(delivered_minutes − 100,000, 0) × delivery rate.

### Mux Robots

Available on every plan, including Free: all plans include 100,000 free units each month. On Pay as you go and pre-pay plans, the free units apply before any usage credit; Video usage credits apply to Robots too. Cancelled and errored jobs are not charged. On-demand assets only.

Different units from Video. Mux AI **units** convert at **1,000 units = $0.01**, so the free 100,000 monthly units cover $1.00 of Robots usage. Most workflows charge a per-job fee plus a per-minute fee on the asset duration. Moderate charges per sample (default 10-second interval in the public calculator: 6 samples per minute). Ask-questions also charges per question (the calculator assumes 3).

Starting-at, in dollars (first-tier; rates can change):

| Workflow | Per job | Per minute | Extra |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Translate captions | $0.001 | $0.005 | |
| Summarize | $0.005 | $0.0003 | |
| Generate chapters | $0.003 | $0.0005 | |
| Find key moments | $0.020 | $0.004 | |
| Ask questions | $0.002 | $0.0005 | $0.002 / question |
| Moderate | | | $0.001 / sample |
| Edit captions | $0.005 | | $0.0003 / min if profanity filter |
| Find scenes (experimental) | $0.010 | $0.004 | also uses Shots at $0.001 / input min |
| Find best thumbnails (experimental) | $0.040 | $0.0025 | |
| Generate engagement insights (experimental) | $0.020 | | |
| Generate premium captions (experimental) | | $0.0050 | may use a temporary audio-only static rendition |
| Translate audio (experimental) | | $0.700 | |

```
robots_$ ≈ jobs × per_job  +  minutes × per_min  +  extras  −  free units (first 100,000 / month)
```

Price only the workflows they named (or that the research brief already implied). Experimental prices can change. Some workflows can incur a small extra Video charge (Shots, a temporary audio-only MP4) — mention that only for those workflows.

If there is no AI in the brief and you have not asked yet, Robots $ = 0 and you still say Robots is available on the same assets.

### Put it together

4. Sum Video meters + named Robots workflows. That is list usage.
5. Credits: Pay as you go includes a $20 monthly usage credit. Launch is $20/mo for $100 credit; Scale is $500/mo for $1,000. Over the credit, usage rates apply. Eligible startups: https://www.mux.com/startups — do not subtract $500 unless they have the credits.
6. If the monthly figure is around **$3,000 or more**, identify it as a public-rate estimate and recommend a [contract quote](https://www.mux.com/sales-contact). Keep the requested public-rate calculation available; it does not determine the negotiated price.

If they later need DRM, MP4s, or live captions, price those add-ons at that point — not before.

---

## Worked example

High-level, no one to ask: on-demand course-style product, so the defaults apply (1080p basic). Sketch 100 new 10-minute videos a month, about 20 views per video at 50% completion. The brief mentioned auto-generated titles and tags, so include Summarize.

```
input_minutes     = 100 × 10 = 1,000
storage_month_1   = 1,000
storage_month_12  = 12,000
delivered_minutes = 100 × 20 × 10 × 0.50 = 10,000   (month-1 library; grows later)
```

- Input: 1,000 × $0 = $0
- Storage month 1: 1,000 × $0.003 = $3
- Storage month 12: 12,000 × $0.003 = $36
- Delivery month 1: 10,000 is under 100,000 free minutes → $0
- Summarize: 100 × $0.005 + 1,000 × $0.0003 = $0.80 (80,000 units — inside the free 100,000 monthly units, so $0)

Month 1 is a few dollars of Video, inside the $20 credit; the Robots usage fits in the free 100,000 monthly units. Delivery is the Video lever if views jump. Translate audio on the same library would be 1,000 × $0.700 = $700 — only if they asked for dubbing. Estimate, not a quote.

---

## Resources

Use these after you know which meters apply. Do not start here.

- Mux Robots: https://www.mux.com/docs/guides/robots.md
- Startup credits: https://www.mux.com/startups
- Sales: https://www.mux.com/sales-contact

This file is published at https://www.mux.com/pricing.md so you can verify it is authentic.