How does Prerender.io count renders?

Understand what counts as a render, what does not, and how to keep your usage efficient.

TL;DR

Prerender.io counts a render every time it fires up its headless browser to process a page. This happens when a new page is cached, an existing page is recached, or a bot requests an uncached page. Error pages (3xx, 4xx, 5xx) also count as renders. You are not charged for cache hits (serving an already-cached page), storage, or processing power.

What triggers a render

A render is counted every time Prerender.io's rendering service starts up to process a page. The process works like a browser:

Prerender.io fires up a headless browser.
It requests the page from your server.
It waits for the page's resources to load.
It captures the fully rendered HTML.
It caches the result.

Each time this process runs, one render is counted. This includes:

New pages being cached for the first time.
Existing pages being recached, either on a schedule or on demand.
Bot requests for uncached pages. If an AI crawler or search engine bot requests a page that is not yet in the cache, Prerender.io renders it on the fly.
Error pages. If a bot requests a page that returns a 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx status code, Prerender.io still renders it. This counts as a render.

⚠️ If a bot requests a page within your domain, Prerender.io renders it regardless of the status code it returns. This means broken links, redirects, and server errors all consume renders. Prerender.io does not follow redirects: a 301 or 302 counts as one render (the redirect response itself), not two.

What does not count as a render

You are not charged for:

Cache hits. When a bot requests a page that is already cached, Prerender.io serves the cached version instantly. No render is triggered.
Storage. Prerender.io does not charge for storing your cached pages.
Processing power. Computation costs for serving cached content are included.

What affects your total render count

The two main factors are the number of pages you have and how often they are recached. For example, if you have 1,000 URLs recached daily, you will use approximately 60,000 renders per billing cycle (1,000 pages × 30 days × 2 for the default desktop and mobile versions).

Other factors that increase your render count:

Mobile optimized rendering. By default, Prerender.io renders both a desktop and a mobile version of each page, counting two renders per page. Mobile rendering can be disabled if needed. See mobile optimized rendering.
Adding new URLs to the cache manually. See how to cache specific URLs.
Uncontrolled crawling. Bots crawling pages you did not intend to cache. See how to control crawling and indexing.
Dead links and forwarded URLs. Internal links pointing to broken or redirected pages still trigger renders. See how to reduce the number of rendered pages.
Manual recaching via the API. Each API-triggered recache counts as a render. See the Prerender.io API.
Bot requests for error pages. Bots requesting URLs that return errors still trigger renders.

How to control your render usage

You do not need to worry about scaling. All current plans include unlimited domains under one Prerender.io account (see plan options for details). Prerender.io provides tools to help you render only the pages that matter:

Clean up dead links and error pages. Use the 404 checker to identify soft 404 pages (pages that return a 200 status code but display an error, so they keep getting cached unnecessarily), then remove or reduce unnecessary pages to stop paying for renders you do not need.
Set your recache schedule. Choose a recache interval that balances freshness with render usage. Pages that change frequently need shorter intervals. Pages that rarely change can use longer ones.
Use on-demand recaching for pages that update unpredictably (e.g., product pages with price changes) instead of recaching everything on a fixed schedule.
Control which bots trigger renders. See how to control crawling and indexing to prevent unwanted bots from consuming your renders.

💬 Still need help? If you have questions about your render count or billing, our support team can help you understand your usage and optimize it. → Contact us at support@prerender.io

How does Prerender.io count renders?

Understand what counts as a render, what does not, and how to keep your usage efficient.