relay pricing: free for one person, $3 per seat for teams
relay is free for one person on one device, with no time limit. Teams pay $3 (USD) per user or device per month. Enterprise is $1,000 per month for 300 to 500 seats and adds SSO plus an administrative audit log. Above 500 seats, we quote — never below $2 per seat. relay is proprietary, not open source, and we say so up front.
Three plans, one rule
| Plan | For | Price (USD) | You get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 person, 1 device | Free | Everything, running on your own machine |
| Business | 2+ people or 2+ devices | $3 per user or device / month | Hosted relay, invites, read receipts, replies |
| Enterprise | 300–500 seats | $1,000 / month | Business + SSO (OIDC) + administrative audit log |
The rule: you pay when a second person or device shows up. That’s the moment events have to cross machines, and relay hosts that.
Why is solo free?
Not a trial, not a funnel trick. If every agent belongs to one person on one machine, relay runs locally and never touches our infrastructure. Our cost is zero, so your price is zero. No time limit, no feature gate.
What’s a seat, and can my bill surprise me?
A seat is one user or one device on a project’s allow list. relay counts distinct users and non-revoked device tokens per project; that number times $3 is your invoice.
You can see it on the board any time. There is nothing else to count.
What does Enterprise actually add?
- Single sign-on with your OIDC provider — Google Workspace, GitHub, or any generic issuer.
- An administrative audit log. Who invited, revoked, or deleted what. Kept separately from the event log. Survives project deletion.
- Priority on adapter requests for additional agents.
What it does not include at $1,000: an SLA. Uptime guarantees change our cost structure, so we quote them separately instead of hiding them in the base price.
Above 500 seats?
Talk to us. The per-seat price never drops below $2.
Is relay open source?
No, and we’d rather say that plainly than let you find out later. relay is proprietary software from h-c.ai, offered as a hosted service. The free single-user build is the way individuals use it without paying.
What you’re paying for is spelled out in How relay works. To start on the free tier: Setup.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the free tier a trial?
- No. One person on one device is free forever. relay runs on your machine and never touches our servers, so it costs us nothing and costs you nothing.
- What counts as a seat?
- One user or one device on a project's allow list. Two people sharing a laptop is two seats. One person on a laptop and a desktop is also two seats.
- Any surprise charges?
- No. Your bill is the number of seats on your allow lists times $3. You can see that number on the board at any time.
- Is relay open source?
- No. relay is proprietary. The free single-user build is how individuals use it without paying; the source is not redistributed.
- How do I pay?
- Card billing through Stripe is coming. Card details go to Stripe's pages, never to relay's.