How do I estimate my monthly render volume and choose a plan?

TL;DR

Your monthly render volume depends on three things: how many URLs you have, how often you want them recached, and whether mobile rendering is enabled (it is by default). Use the formula (URLs / cache expiration in days) × 2 × 30 to estimate. If your renders exceed your plan's reserved computation, the excess is billed as on-demand computation at an additional cost. 

Why this matters

Choosing the right Prerender.io plan means matching your render volume to your plan's included quota. Underestimating leads to unexpected on-demand charges. Overestimating means paying for renders you do not use. A quick calculation before signing up, or when reviewing your current plan, helps you avoid both.

Reserved vs. on-demand computation

Prerender.io plans include two types of render capacity:

• Reserved computation. The number of renders included in your monthly plan. These are pre-paid and available every billing cycle.
• On-demand computation. Renders that exceed your monthly reserved quota. These are billed at an additional per-render cost.

Factors that influence render volume

Several factors affect how many renders your site uses each month:

• Number of URLs. More pages means more renders. Use your sitemap or a tool like Google Search Console (Indexing > Pages) to find your total URL count.
• Cache expiration interval. Shorter intervals mean more frequent recaching and higher render counts.
• Mobile optimized rendering. Prerender.io renders both a desktop and a mobile version of each page by default. This doubles your render count.
• Uncontrolled crawling and indexing. Bots visiting URLs that are not in your sitemap can trigger unexpected renders.
• Dead links or internal URLs forwarded to Prerender.io. Broken links and internal redirects can inflate your cache with pages that should not be rendered.
• Manual recaching via API. API-triggered recaches count toward your monthly render total.
• Bot requests to error pages. Bots requesting pages that return 404, 503, or other errors can trigger renders if your server returns 200 instead of the correct error code.

Step 1: Count your URLs.

Use your sitemap or Google Search Console to determine how many unique URLs Prerender.io needs to cache. This is your base URL count.

Step 2: Multiply by 2 for mobile and desktop rendering.

Prerender.io renders both a desktop and a mobile version of each page by default. Multiply your URL count by 2.

Step 3: Choose your cache expiration interval.

Decide how often you want each page recached. Common intervals:

• Every day for frequently updated content (news, pricing, inventory).
• Every 5 days for moderately updated content (blogs, product pages).
• Every 14 days for mostly static content (about pages, documentation).

Step 4: Calculate your monthly render estimate.

Use this formula:

(NUM_CACHED_URLS / CACHE_EXPIRATION_DAYS) × 2 × 30

Where:

• NUM_CACHED_URLS = your total number of URLs to cache
• CACHE_EXPIRATION_DAYS = how often each page is recached (in days)
• × 2 = desktop + mobile rendering
• × 30 = days per month

Example calculations

All examples assume 1,000 URLs with mobile rendering enabled:

 

Step 5: Choose a plan that fits your estimate.

Compare your estimated monthly render volume to the reserved computation included in each Prerender.io plan. Choose a plan where your estimate falls within or slightly below the reserved quota.

See changing your Prerender.io plan for instructions on upgrading or downgrading.

Tips to keep render volume under control

• Extend your cache expiration for pages that do not change frequently. A longer interval reduces monthly renders significantly.
• Remove dead links and unnecessary URLs from your cache. See how to reduce the number of renders.
• Monitor bot traffic for spikes caused by crawlers hitting error pages or URL variations. See how to control crawling and indexing.
• Upgrade your plan if you consistently exceed your reserved computation to avoid higher on-demand rates.

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Related articles

• How the Cache Manager works
• How do I clear my Prerender.io cache?
• How to Reduce the Number of Renders?
• How to change your Prerender.io Plan?

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