Gateway as a Service
Free & Premium Plans and Quotas
Detailed breakdown of Gateway service tiers, concurrent player capacity, and track play rate limiting.
To protect underlying server infrastructure and maintain pristine audio quality across all tenants, the Lavalink Gateway applies tier-based resource boundaries.
Plan Structure
Each subscription tier controls five core operational dimensions:
Subscription Plan
├── Price ($ / Month)
├── Maximum Concurrent Players (e.g., 50 vs. 500)
├── Track Play Quota (Plays / Billing Cycle)
├── Access Level (Standard vs. Priority High-Bandwidth Nodes)
└── Service Availability (SLA & Direct Support)Tier Comparison
The table below outlines the default service tiers configured inside the Gateway:
| Tier | Target Audience | Concurrent Players | Track Plays / Month | Audio Quality | Failover Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / Community | Hobby bots, small private guilds | Up to 10 players | 5,000 tracks | Standard (128kbps) | Shared / Best Effort |
| Developer Tier | Growing verified bots (100–1,000 servers) | Up to 100 players | 50,000 tracks | High (320kbps MP3) | Automated Failover |
| Pro Enterprise | Large public bots (1,000+ servers) | 500+ players | Unlimited / Custom | Lossless FLAC + High | Dedicated Node Pool + SLA |
Specific quotas, limits, and pricing are fully configurable by system administrators via the Gateway Admin Console.
Quota Enforcement & Fair Use
- Concurrent Player Ceiling: If a bot attempts to create more voice sessions than its plan permits, the Gateway returns an HTTP 429 response on subsequent
PLAYER_CREATEcalls, keeping existing players undisturbed. - Monthly Play Counters: Each successful track resolution increments the tenant's play counter. Usage is tracked in real-time and resets automatically at the start of each billing cycle.
- Bandwidth Throttling: Non-premium tenants share standard network queues, while Pro and Enterprise tenants are routed through dedicated high-speed BBR-accelerated transit nodes.