Alexa monthly usage allowance
I don't know how to put this in a nice way so I'll be blunt...all this shit costs money and to avoid going bankrupt I have to put some limits on the usage, specifically communication with lady Alexa!
Amazon kindly provides a number of free requests a month but a good chunk of that gets used for ChipChop testing and development so what's left gets evenly distributed between all your accounts. Once your little devices have used up the free juice every request you initiate with Alexa gets charged and at the end of the month Amazon sends the bill to me!
The current monthly Alexa allowance that you get with your Developer Account is based on my personal home use. This should be more than enough for a normal day-to-day use and the table below will give you some important guidelines.
All figures are based on my usage experience and monthly stats received from AWS. They represent the maximum chargeable requests and may be slightly less but not more than listed below.
Amazon kindly provides a number of free requests a month but a good chunk of that gets used for ChipChop testing and development so what's left gets evenly distributed between all your accounts. Once your little devices have used up the free juice every request you initiate with Alexa gets charged and at the end of the month Amazon sends the bill to me!
The current monthly Alexa allowance that you get with your Developer Account is based on my personal home use. This should be more than enough for a normal day-to-day use and the table below will give you some important guidelines.
Alexa interaction explained
All figures are based on my usage experience and monthly stats received from AWS. They represent the maximum chargeable requests and may be slightly less but not more than listed below.
Issue a voice command to Alexa
You say "Alexa switch Gizmo Light on"
1 x Alexa directive to ChipChop
1 x ChipChop State Change Report to Alexa
Total: 2 requests used
Total: 2 requests used
Interact with the device through the Alexa App
For example, you click the ON/OFF button for your device in the Alexa app
1 x Alexa directive to ChipChop
1 x ChipChop State Change Report to Alexa
Total: 2 requests used
Total: 2 requests used
Yes, I literaly mean you are staring at your device in the Alexa app. For example you are looking at the temperature reading of your device, Alexa will be sending every second a status requests to ChipChop so you can see stuff in real-time!
This goes for ANY screen where your device is showing.
This goes for ANY screen where your device is showing.
Warning, this is where you can piss into the wind your allowance very quickly
1 x minimum every 2 seconds Alexa requests a device Status Report
1 x immediate response ChipChop sends device Status Report to Alexa
Total: 2 requests used every 2 seconds!!!
(thats 60 a minute - 3,600 an hour - 86,400 a day - 2,592,000 a month)
So, avoid looking at your device through the Alexa app for too long and use the ChipChop Web App instead
Total: 2 requests used every 2 seconds!!!
(thats 60 a minute - 3,600 an hour - 86,400 a day - 2,592,000 a month)
Interact with the device through the ChipChop Web App
This is only relevant if your device is linked with Alexa and you want to notify Alexa of some event on your device
This is only relevant if your device is linked with Alexa and you want to notify Alexa of some event on your device
For example, you click the ON/OFF button for your device or a Virtual Trigger
1 x ChipChop State Change Report to Alexa
Total: 1 requests used
Total: 1 requests used
An event is triggered on the device through an Action
For example, temperature gone high on Device A that sets a Virtual Trigger that is linked with Alexa
1 x ChipChop State Change Report to Alexa for any device included in the chain of events in your Action
Total: 1 requests for each device involved
Total: 1 requests for each device involved
An event is triggered directly on your device
For example, you've pushed a button on your little Arduino and you want to inform Alexa so she can trigger a routine
1 x ChipChop State Change Report to Alexa
Total: 1 requests
Total: 1 requests
- If you have a project where you may need a bit more than the allocated Alexa allowance, get in touch, explain what it is and I will see what I can do
- At the moment you can't buy more usage but you can get extra allowance if you are genuinely helping others
- be active in the forum and provide quality advice
- send an instructable of something interesting that you have made
- submit an article or video that gets published on ChipChop
- improve some ChipChop code or find a bug
- If you run out of your allowance completely and you can't wait until the end of the month for it to renew, get in touch I may be able to help but don't make it a habit!