Windows Azure Service Bus Topics Billing

Question

I need details related to Windows Azure Service Bus Topics Billing. For example.

Am I gonna be charged for what my applicatons publish or for what my applications receive?

For example. Lets say that I have one publisher and 5 topics. On each topics there are 1000 mesages per second, where every message is 1KB in size. On the other side, I have one subscriber that is subscribed on only one topic and also have applied filter, so it receives only 10 messages per second, instead of 1000.

On the publisher side we have. 5 * 1000 msg/s x 60*60*24*30 * 1KB = 12 960 000 000 messages * 1KB for five topics in one month.

On the subscriber side we have 1 * 10 msg/s x 60*60*24*30 * 1KB = 25 920 000 messages * 1KB.

So, Am I gona be charged for A or B? A: 12 960 000 000 messages * 1KB B: 25 920 000 messages * 1KB

Answer 1

I found this article very helpful in understanding the pricing structure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh667438.aspx

In essence, putting a message on to a queue counts as one message. Reading a message from a queue (or trying to read) also counts as one message. In the case of topics and subscribers, putting the message on the topic is one message and each subscriber reading a message is also one message.

In your example you would be charged for 12 960 000 000 + 25 920 000 = 12985920000 messages. Or ~$13k - which isn't too bad considering you are pushing about 12TB through a transactional queueing system.

Do note that you should use the built-in long-polling support to read the queue, as you will be charged for trying to read an empty queue.

Also bear in mind that there is a nominal charge for obtaining an authentication token, so make sure your code does not obtain a new token for each put or get. See the cost table at the bottom of this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh767287%28VS.103%29.aspx

Answer 2

You will be charged for A+B...

Multiple deliveries of the same message (for example, message fan out to multiple listeners or message retrieval after abandon, deferral, or dead lettering) will be counted as independent messages. For example, in the case of a topic with three subscriptions, a single 64 KB message sent and subsequently received will generate four billable messages (one “in” plus three “out”, assuming all messages are delivered to all subscriptions).

Refer MSDN for more info : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh667438.aspx#BKMK_SBv2FAQ2_6