---
source_url: https://www.pubnub.com/docs/general/basics/set-up-your-account
title: Set up your account
updated_at: 2026-05-19T06:01:12.000Z
---

# Set up your account

## Documentation index

To discover more PubNub resources:

1. Fetch [PubNub's llms.txt](https://www.pubnub.com/llms.txt) for a list of available pages in Markdown format.
2. Identify relevant URLs from that index.
3. Fetch the target pages.

Do not assume a path exists, always check the index first.

The first step of working with PubNub is to create an account. To do that, [sign up](https://admin.pubnub.com/#/register) in the Admin Portal, PubNub's single entry point for account configuration.

:::tip Public Admin Portal demo
Want to browse through the Admin Portal without creating an account? Explore it through the [Public Demo](https://demo-admin.pubnub.com/) that shows examples of most PubNub features for transport and logistics use case.
:::

## Sign up

Don't feel like leaving this page to sign up?

When you [log in](https://admin.pubnub.com/) to the Admin Portal for the first time, you create an application and a keyset. Create keysets for testing and production as needed.

To get started with PubNub:

1. Create a new application for your project.
2. Generate a keyset within that application.

Each keyset contains a publish key and a subscribe key. Include both in your app. In the Admin Portal, you can also configure features such as Presence, App Context, and Message Persistence.

For production keysets, you need at least the Starter plan. Free tier keysets are suitable for development and testing only.

:::warning Limit of 3 keysets for Free tier accounts
Effective February 3, 2025, all [Free tier](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/) accounts are limited to a maximum of three keysets. If your account exceeds this limit, you must delete existing keysets to create new ones.
:::

See [PubNub Account Setup](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/general/setup/account-setup.md) to learn how to create keysets for different environments. Then, see the [Admin Portal documentation](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/portal/keysets.md) to create and configure your keyset.

### Pricing

We offer a **free plan with basic support** for testing and development. When you move to production or exceed 200 monthly active users (MAUs) and/or one million transactions/Functions executions, upgrade to a [paid account](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/). It doesn't matter if you use any of our SDKs or hit the REST API directly, the pricing is the same.

Monthly Active Users (MAU)
1k
5k
10k
15k
25k
50k
10M+
Platform Pro
(Estimated)
Free
0
Your estimated price for
1,000
MAU.
[Contact Sales](https://www.pubnub.com/company/contact-sales/)
The pricing shown is representative of most simple use cases.
[View full pricing details](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/)

MAUs are unique users (unique user IDs) who connect to PubNub at least once in a calendar month and send an API call. If you prefer to pay for [transactions](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/transaction-classification/), consider transaction-based pricing.

Now that you have a keyset, [get the SDK](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/general/basics/get-the-sdk.md).

## Terms in this document

* **PubNub** - PubNub is a real-time messaging platform that provides APIs and SDKs for building scalable applications. It handles the complex infrastructure of real-time communication, including: Message delivery and persistence, Presence detection, Access control, Push notifications, File sharing, Serverless processing with Functions and Events & Actions, Analytics and monitoring with BizOps Workspace, AI-powered insights with Illuminate.

Last updated at: 2026-05-19T06:01:12.000Z