PubNub
PubNub scores 49/100 on xpay's Agent-Ready Index v2: partial pricing visibility; self-serve checkout is available; a free entry path exists.
PubNub pricing
Free
Free
Starter
$98/user/mo
Pro
Contact sales
How PubNub scores on the agent-ready dimensions
Public pricing visibility
15 / 15
Self-serve checkout
15 / 15
Public API + docs
0 / 20
Usage-based / metered pricing
0 / 20
Free entry path
7 / 7
No sales call required
7 / 7
Card / wallet / x402 payment
5 / 6
Machine-readable bonus (MCP / OpenAPI)
0 / 10
Total
49 / 100
What it actually costs at typical scale
1,000 MAU on Starter plan
$98/mo
1,000 MAU on Pro plan
$190/mo
Can an autonomous agent transact here?
Can create account
Can enter payment method
Can upgrade plan
Can buy more usage
Can cancel online
Payment methods
Human approval recommended
Pricing transparency
full
Purchase motion
self_serve
Demo required
Quote required
Annual commit required
Unknown
Auto-renewal mentioned
Cancellation policy visible
Refund policy visible
Invoice payment available
Purchase orders supported
MSA required
DPA available
Security review required
Trial
Available, no card
Trust & compliance
Certifications
SSO / SAML
RBAC
Unknown
Audit logs
Unknown
Positioning & ecosystem
“Simple, Transparent Pricing”
Buyer persona
Six-step check: can an agent actually buy from PubNub?
Discover price
Select a plan
Pay per task
Avoid a sales call
API docs without auth
Estimate cost upfront
Pros and cons for AI agents
Observational summary written by xpay from the signals captured on 2026-05-06. Not a review of the product — only of its current pricing posture for agent buyers.- Pricing is publicly visible on an indexable page — agents can read tiers without scraping past auth.
- Every advertised tier is self-serve; no tier requires scheduling a call.
- A free tier exists, lowering the bar for an agent builder to prototype before committing budget.
- No per-unit price was advertised, so an agent has no way to estimate the cost of a single task.
- API documentation is gated or absent; an agent cannot inspect the integration surface without authentication.
- PPU requires account creation and an issued API key; a fully unauthenticated agent purchase is not yet supported.
- No /.well-known/ai-pricing.json or equivalent machine-readable pricing manifest is published — agents must rely on HTML scraping.
How PubNub could lift its score
Add a per-unit price (e.g. $X / 1K calls) to the pricing page so an agent can compute its own cost before committing.
| pricing_visible | true |
| headline_phrasing | Simple, Transparent Pricing — All plans include unlimited channels, and all our core features. You only pay for what you use: MAU. |
| tier_count | 7 |
| lowest_paid_entry_usd | 98 |
| free_tier | true |
| free_tier_terms | null |
| per_unit_price | null |
| annual_required | true |
| self_serve_paid_tiers | 5 |
| sales_only_tiers | 0 |
| public_api_docs_url | https://www.pubnub.com/docs |
| api_docs_auth_walled | false |
| ai_pricing_json_present | false |
| agents_txt_present | false |
| anonymous_purchase_path | false |
| per_unit_classification | null |
| usage_headline_present | false |
| custom_tier_present | true |
| agent_friendly | {"ai_pricing_json":false,"agents_txt":false,"llms_txt":false,"sitemap_xml":false,"mcp_server_card":false,"agent_skills_index":false,"x402_supported":false} |
View raw extracted page text →
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See agent-ready picksPubNub
49
/ 100 (rubric v2.0)Cloud Communication Platform
Not advertised
7 (slider / volume ladder)
Yes
$98/mo
5 / 0
Public
No
Not published
2026-05-09
Tier-based subscription
PubNub pricing starts at $0/mo for the Free plan; paid plans begin at $98/mo for the Starter plan and up to $190/mo for the Pro plan, with annual discounts available.
Free plan (Free)
Discovery files and protocols
Side-channel signals — informational, not part of the score. Each protocol is independent; adoption signals the publisher is thinking about agent buyers.ai-pricing.json
agents.txt
llms.txt
sitemap.xml
MCP Server Card
Agent Skills
x402 / MPP
Compare PubNub with peers
Highest-scoring companies in the same category that an AI agent might evaluate as an alternative.Stream Chat
87
Direct7 Networks
85
Voximplant
80
Svix
80
Twilio Flex
80
Signalmash
78
SendBird
74
KaiCalls
71
Explore the Agent-Ready SaaS Index
25,480+ SaaS scored on agent-buyability — browse by readiness band, category, or jump straight to a pay-per-run tool on xpay.tools.