Game Development · pricing
Photon Engine pricing
Photon Engine publishes 3 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 30 August 2026, Photon Engine pricing is free, then $9/month across 3 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free, then $9/month
- Model
- Per month by peak concurrent users
- Tiers
- 3
- Free tier
- Yes
Photon Engine plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
| Entry band | $9/month | 4 | +$9/month, 4 more features |
| Higher bands | On request | 3 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Free
FreeThe entry tier. It covers a small concurrent user allowance for development and early testing, all regions available, no time limit on the free tier, suitable for prototypes, not for launch.
Entry band
$9/monthOver Free, this tier adds:
- Around one hundred concurrent users
- Full SDK access
- Regional server selection
- Upgrade required the moment peak concurrency exceeds the band
Higher bands
On requestOver Entry band, this tier adds:
- Sold in steps up to tens of thousands of concurrent users
- Price rises with each band rather than with total players
- Enterprise and self-hosted arrangements handled directly by Exit Games
Where Photon Engine stops being free
Free, Free
- A small concurrent user allowance for development and early testing
- All regions available
- No time limit on the free tier
- Suitable for prototypes, not for launch
Entry band, $9/month
The first thing you pay for:
- Around one hundred concurrent users
- Full SDK access
- Regional server selection
- Upgrade required the moment peak concurrency exceeds the band
What the product covers
The full Photon Engine feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Concurrent user billing
- Photon Fusion
- Photon Quantum
- Photon Voice and Chat
- Global relay
- Matchmaking and rooms
People bring Photon Engine in for adding multiplayer to a unity game without hiring a network engineer, competitive titles needing deterministic rollback rather than state synchronisation, games with a large but thinly spread player base, where concurrency stays low and per player pricing would cost more, training and simulation projects that need shared real-time state outside games. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Photon Engine are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Game Development
Too few game development tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photon Engine (this page) | Free, then $9/month | Per month by peak concurrent users | - | |
| Perforce Helix Core | Free | quote | - | vs Photon Engine |
| Cocos Creator | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Photon Engine |
| GDevelop | Free | free | - | vs Photon Engine |
| GameMaker Studio 2 | Free | freemium | - | vs Photon Engine |
| Cocos2d-x | Free | free | - | vs Photon Engine |
| Bevy | Free | free | - | vs Photon Engine |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Photon Engine badges page.
Before you pay for Photon Engine
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 3 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Photon Engine runs on windows, macos, linux, ios, android, web, console, and is published by Exit Games GmbH of Hamburg, Germany. The full record is on the Photon Engine review, and the rest of the category is under best game development tools.
Photon Engine pricing questions
- How much does Photon Engine cost?
- Photon Engine publishes 3 tiers, from Free for Free up to On request for Higher bands. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Photon Engine have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free tier costs nothing and covers a small concurrent user allowance for development and early testing, all regions available, no time limit on the free tier. Paying starts at $9/month for Entry band.
- What is the difference between Free and Entry band on Photon Engine?
- Entry band costs $9/month against Free, and adds around one hundred concurrent users, full sdk access, regional server selection, upgrade required the moment peak concurrency exceeds the band.
- Is the Higher bands plan on Photon Engine worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is sold in steps up to tens of thousands of concurrent users, price rises with each band rather than with total players, enterprise and self-hosted arrangements handled directly by exit games. It costs On request against $9/month for Entry band. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which game development tools can I use without paying?
- 8 of the 8 game development tools listed alongside Photon Engine have a free tier: Perforce Helix Core, Cocos Creator, GDevelop, GameMaker Studio 2, Cocos2d-x.
- What am I actually paying for with Photon Engine?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for adding multiplayer to a unity game without hiring a network engineer, competitive titles needing deterministic rollback rather than state synchronisation, games with a large but thinly spread player base, where concurrency stays low and per player pricing would cost more.
- Does Photon Engine charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 3 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Photon Engine prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Photon Engine against before paying?
- The closest game development tools in this directory are Perforce Helix Core, Cocos Creator, GDevelop, GameMaker Studio 2. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Photon Engine covering price, platforms and features.