Applies To
- Vonage Video API
- Session Inspector
- Meeting Statistics
Question
Why does the Total Streamed Minutes value in Session Inspector appear significantly higher than the Total Duration of the meeting — sometimes exceeding 2× or more the actual session length, even for a simple 1:1 call?
Answer
This is expected behaviour. Total Streamed Minutes and Total Duration measure two different things and are not directly comparable.
Total Duration is the wall-clock length of the meeting — how long the session ran from start to finish.
Total Streamed Minutes is the combined sum of all published minutes and subscribed minutes across all users in the session.
Formula: Total Streamed Minutes = Total Published Minutes (all users) + Total Subscribed Minutes (all users)
In a typical session, every participant both publishes their own stream and subscribes to other participants' streams simultaneously. This means the minutes accumulate for each stream activity independently — not just once per session.
Example — 1:1 Session (2 users, ~13 minutes):
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Duration | ~13 minutes |
| Published Minutes (User 1 + User 2) | 26.33 minutes |
| Subscribed Minutes (both users) | 25.49 minutes |
| Total Streamed Minutes | 51.83 minutes |
In this case, Total Streamed Minutes is ~4× the session duration because both users are publishing and subscribing at the same time throughout the call.
Additional Information
- Total Streamed Minutes are not used for billing under the PPM (Participant Minute) model. Billing in PPM is based on participant minutes only. Refer to: How to estimate my Video API Monthly charges in Participant Pricing Model (PPM)?
- Under the SSM (Subscribed Stream Minutes) model, customers are charged only for subscribed minutes, not published minutes. Refer to: How do I estimate my monthly Video API charges in the SSM pricing model?
- To view the breakdown of published and subscribed minutes per user, expand the User Data section in Inspector and review individual connection details.