PubNub Account Setup
Build real-time applications that perform reliably and securely, at global scale. Create an account to get started.
The first set of API keys generated for you when you create an account are called Demo keys. These are rate-limited. To help you get started learning and using the various PubNub features and APIs, your Demo keys have a number of PubNub services enabled by default.
When you're ready to push the PubNub Network a bit more, create a new set of keys, preferably in a new PubNub App, on the Admin Portal. Any new API keys that you create aren't rate limited, and have fewer PubNub services enabled by default. You'll enable services on your API keys as required.
Demo and placeholder keys
You may come across keys called myPublishKey and mySubscribeKey in the documentation. These are placeholders that you replace with your own publish and subscribe keys.
You may also come across keys with a value of demo. These are severely rate-limited (throttled) keys for demonstration purposes in code samples and blog posts, and not suitable for your own use.
Environment-Aligned Keys
You should create multiple PubNub API keys (pub/sub keys) for a given application, so that your developers can implement new features and fix bugs while your QA team verifies that the next version is ready for production, all while your customers remain unaffected. Use the Admin Portal to add API keys to an existing app and consistently configure their features (such as Presence, Storage, and Mobile Push) as required.
For example, in your Admin Portal, you might have two PubNub Apps, each with three sets of API keys:
| App | API Keys |
|---|---|
| DateNight App | - Development Keys - QA Keys - Production Keys |
| TheGuideUpdate App | - Development Keys - QA Keys - Production Keys |
Pricing Models
PubNub offers two pricing models:
- Monthly Active User (MAU) pricing is based on the number of unique users that connect to PubNub at least once in a calendar month.
- Per-transaction pricing is based on the number and type of API requests made to the PubNub network.
If your use case involves users connecting and using services multiple times per month, the MAU model is a suitable model. The MAU model also makes it easier to estimate costs, as it's based on the number of users or devices that connect in a month. And if you want a simple metric to forecast cost, MAU is a better model for you.
If your use case involves many clients that connect infrequently, or a mix of some heavy-traffic clients and some that connect for a short period of time, the Transaction model may be a better fit.
Refer to Pricing for complete details on the pricing models and free accounts, and to Transaction Classification for details on the different transaction types.
Next Steps
Learn about setting up your application to initialize and use PubNub correctly: visit Application Setup.