Amazon Chime SDK FAQs

Q: How are WebRTC media sessions priced?

You are charged for each minute that each attendee is joined to your WebRTC media session from a client using Amazon Chime SDK, with audio, video, or content share. When you create a high definition session, you must specify the maximum number of attendees that can join the session. Session capacity is charged based on the maximum number of attendees and billed for the duration of the session. If you replicate media to additional WebRTC media sessions, you are also changed per replication. 

For more information, refer to the Amazon Chime SDK pricing.

Q: How is live transcription priced?

Live transcription uses one stream to Amazon Transcribe for the duration of the transcription. Standard Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Transcribe Medical costs apply. 

Q: Can speaker search be used for authentication or identity verification use cases?

Speaker search is designed to use a short sample of speech from a call to find close matches in a database of previously enrolled talkers. Speaker search is intended to address a number of analytics use cases such as (1) labeling transcripts and recordings with the names of the likely talkers (2) real-time speaker labeling on trading turrets or in multi-party meetings; (3) expediting customer lookup on calls. Speaker search is not designed to be used for authentication or identity verification use cases such as verifying the identity of a speaker with extremely high accuracy (> 99%) - for example, for verifying high-value banking transactions.

Q: What can voice tone analysis be used for?

The voice tone analysis capability is intended to help with use cases such as predicting customer sentiment towards products, services and experiences, and estimating aggregated measures of customer satisfaction.

Q: Are there any specific requirements I should be aware of when using speaker search?
Please see the service terms related to the Amazon Chime SDK speaker search feature.

Q: How accurate or reliable are the results from speaker search and voice tone analysis?

Speaker search and voice tone analysis use machine learning models that generate predictions based on statistical models. The outputs generated by these features are probabilistic in nature and should be evaluated for accuracy as appropriate for your use case.

Q: What information is stored by Amazon Chime SDK call analytics speaker search?

Amazon Chime SDK call analytics stores an enrollment audio sample and a voice embedding for each enrolled talker. Enrollment audio is stored encrypted using the customer KMS key (Customer Managed Key), and the corresponding voice embedding is stored encrypted using an AWS managed key.

Q: How can I delete data stored by Amazon Chime SDK call analytics speaker search?

Amazon Chime SDK call analytics provides you with APIs to delete an end user’s associated voice embedding, as documented in the API reference guide and the Amazon Chime SDK administration guide.

Q: Which countries can I make calls to when using PSTN Audio in the Amazon Chime SDK?

To connect attendees to a meeting session using a telephone, you can make calls from your meeting application to over 100 countries. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date list of countries.

Q: Which countries does the Amazon Chime SDK PSTN Audio have telephone numbers for?

Please see our pricing page for the list of countries where Amazon Chime SDK PSTN Audio is currently available.

Q: Can I keep my existing Direct Inward Dial (DID/DDI) and toll-free phone numbers?

Yes. You can port most DID/DDI and toll-free numbers to the service for those countries where Amazon Chime SDK PSTN Audio is available.

Q: If I have an on-premises phone system or contact center, can I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector with PSTN audio applications?

Yes, you can configure a Voice Connector to your on-premises voice infrastructure that supports the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). You can choose to route calls to and from the Voice Connector using the CallAndBridge action in the PSTN audio application you build. For example, to route incoming calls from the PSTN to your Voice Connector, specify the Voice Connector or Voice Connector Group ARN in the CallAndBridge action that you return in your AWS Lambda function. To route incoming calls from your Voice Connector, first provision a SIP rule in the Amazon Chime SDK console to invoke your PSTN audio Lambda function. Next, specify an E.164 phone number, Voice Connector/Voice Connector Group ARN in the CallAndBridge action that your return. The call will route to the PSTN if you specify a E.164 phone number. If you specify a Voice Connector/Voice Connector Group ARN, the call will route to a Voice Connector.

Q. How can I connect a PSTN audio call to a call center agent or an enterprise PBX user?

The Call&Bridge action connects a PSTN audio call to an external call center or a PBX. If your target telephony environment supports SIP, you can provision a Voice Connector and build a SIP trunk between your call center, PBX, SBC and Amazon Chime SDK; then you can specify your Voice Connector and the SIP extension as a CallAndBridge target. Alternatively, you can specify a E.164 phone number as a bridged end-point; in this case, the call will be connected over PSTN. In case of SIP bridging, you also can pass the attached data in the SIP header.

Q. Do I have to always record the entire call?

With call recording, you have a choice to record the entire call or only specific parts of the call, or not to record anything at all. Depending on your use case, you can choose to record inbound and/or outbound audio tracks of one or several call parties, commonly referred to as “call legs”. You can also start, stop, pause, and resume the recording of each call leg at the specified times during the call.

Q. Can I control when to start, stop, pause, and resume the recording for just a portion of the call?

You can start and, subsequently, stop call recording at any point in time during the call; upon hanging up, the recording is stopped automatically. Please note that for each call leg you can start and stop the recording only once within the duration of the call. If you need to interrupt the recording of a call leg for some period of time and then continue the recording again, you must use pause and resume actions. The PauseCallRecording action pauses recording of a call leg. Pausing does not stop the call recording process or change the length of the call; instead, a brief tone is played when the pause is started and silence is recorded for the duration of the pause. You can pause and resume the recording multiple times for the duration of the same call leg.

Q: What is captured in the call recording file if the recording was paused?

Each time you pause call recording, a brief tone is played when the pause is started and silence is recorded for the duration of the pause.

Q: What type of call recordings audio files do I get?

The calls are recorded in the open WAV format. If you choose to record both incoming and outgoing tracks of a call leg, it will result in a stereo recording; if you record only the incoming or the outgoing track then you will get a mono recording.

Q: How many recording files do I get per call?

You will have one WAV file per recorded call leg. Here are a few examples. (a) For an IVR call, where there is only one leg to record, you will get 1 media recording WAV file. (b) For a contact center call with one agent-to-agent transfer with agent call leg recording, there will be two agent-side call legs and you will get 2 media recording WAV files. (c) For a contact center call with only the caller’s leg recorded you will get 1 media recording file regardless of the number of transfers on the call center side.

Q: How can I find my recordings?

The call recording destination is recorded in the CDR (Call Detail Record). For all recording files written to your Amazon S3 bucket, the file name and the S3 object metadata will contain identifiers such as call id and transaction id, which you can use to identify the recordings for further processing.

Q: Can the callers turn voice focus on and off?

With the PSTN audio application’s VoiceFocus action, you can turn the noise reduction on and off for each individual call participant (per call leg). For example, you can allow call participants to turn the noise reduction on and off for themselves by using touch-tone commands, just like “mute/unmute” operation.

Q: Do the PSTN audio resources support tagging?

Yes. The SIP Media Application resource supports user defined tagging. See the Administration Guide for details.

Q: How will I be billed when I use the PSTN audio feature?

When you use the PSTN audio feature, you will be billed for the following (as applicable):

• Incoming or outgoing PSTN calling usage – Please see our pricing page for the most up to date rates.
  

• PSTN Audio Application usage (see Amazon Chime SDK pricing)

• AWS Lambda invocations (see AWS Lambda pricing)

• Amazon Chime SDK usage (see Amazon Chime SDK pricing) if you connect to an Amazon Chime SDK meeting session.

• Monthly phone number rental – Please see our pricing page for the most up to date rates.

Q: Are the dial in, dial out, and phone number prices the same in the US-East (N. Virginia) and US-West (Oregon) regions?

Yes. Pricing is the same across both regions, however taxes vary by AWS region for US customers. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date information.

Q: If I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector to dial in to a meeting from your on-premises phone system, how much will it cost?

You only pay the PSTN Audio Application usage fee (plus the cost to connect to the Amazon Chime SDK meeting) of $0.002/minute, AWS Lambda invocation fees, and monthly phone number fees. There is no Amazon Chime Voice Connector per minute fee for these types of calls (see Amazon Chime SDK pricing).

Q: Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector provide SIP trunking?

Amazon Chime Voice Connector delivers a pay-as-you-go SIP trunking service that enables companies to make and/or receive secure and inexpensive phone calls with their phone systems. Amazon Chime Voice Connector provides a low-cost alternative to service provider SIP trunks or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Primary Rate Interfaces (PRIs). Customers have the option to enable inbound calling, outbound calling, or both. Amazon Chime Voice Connector leverages the AWS network to deliver a highly available calling experience across multiple AWS Regions. The service supports United States phone numbers (including toll free) with low-cost calling to over 100 countries. Customers pay a monthly charge for phone numbers and by the minute for calls. There are no upfront fees, no concurrent call path charges, no commitments, and no contracts required. Amazon Chime Voice Connector uses your company’s internet connection or Amazon Direct Connect without requiring dedicated fixed-bandwidth data circuits.

Q: How do I start using Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

First, your administrator creates a new Amazon Chime Voice Connector in the Calling tab of the Amazon Chime Console. Then in the Amazon Chime Voice Connector’s details view they configure the termination and origination SIP parameters. Your administrator can also create an Amazon Chime Voice Connector Group to support routing and fail-over across AWS regions. For inbound calling you can purchase new Direct-inward-dial (DID/DDI) telephone numbers or port numbers from an existing carrier. Phone numbers are provisioned in the Phone Number Management tab of the Amazon Chime Console. Visit our Amazon Chime Voice Connector documentation for more information.

Q: Do I have to have Amazon Chime Basic or Pro to use Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

No. Amazon Chime Voice Connector does not require you to use the Amazon Chime Basic or Pro service.

Q: When I enable Amazon Chime Voice Connector, are all features enabled?

No. You have the flexibility to choose which features meet your business needs. You can choose from either inbound calling only, outbound only, or both. You need to purchase phone numbers to receive calls from Amazon Chime Voice Connector to your phone system.

Q. How does Amazon Chime Voice Connector simplify my Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) calling?

With Amazon Chime Voice Connector, you can shift from managing multiple telco providers in a complex and manual fashion to managing a global calling network from one cloud-based control center. A telecom administrator uses the AWS Management Console to create the Amazon Chime Voice Connector and your organization can begin sending and/or receiving voice calls in minutes. The service can scale to handle your busiest traffic spikes, even when unanticipated. You no longer have to purchase bursting capacity or over-provision concurrent call paths.

Q: Which countries can I make calls to when using Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

You can make calls from your phone system to over 100 countries using Amazon Chime Voice Connector. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date list of countries.

Q: Which countries does Amazon Chime Voice Connector have telephone numbers for?

For incoming calls to your phone systems, we currently support United States (US) phone numbers. We will support additional countries in the future.

Q: Can I keep my existing DID/DDI and toll-free phone numbers?

Yes. You can port most DID/DDI and toll-free numbers to Amazon Chime Voice Connector. Please contact your Chime Sales or Support person for more information.

Q: Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector support toll free numbers to receive incoming calls on my phone system?

Yes. Amazon Chime Voice Connector supports US toll free numbers.

Q. Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector support the T.38 fax standard?

Yes. Amazon Chime Voice Connector supports T.38 versions 0, 1, 2, and 3. With a T.38 version 3 fax terminal, you can send high-speed faxes at up to three seconds per page when using the Super G3 standard. You can use standard fax machines and fax servers connected to your phone system, or directly connect an Amazon Chime Voice Connector to a SIP-based fax server.

Q. Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector support Caller ID Name (CNAM)?

Yes. You can establish and update calling names for each phone number purchased (including those ported-in) to present a caller’s preferred name to the called party. Learn more about Caller ID Name here.

Q: Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector provide Call Detail Records (CDRs)?

Yes. Administrators can choose to store their Call Detail Records in a Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket for call and usage analysis. You can also import the records from S3 into Telecom Expense Management solutions or use services such as Amazon Athena to run queries for further analysis.

Q: How do I set up and access Call Detail Records for Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

Before you can receive CDRs you must first set up an S3 bucket. Once configured you can retrieve your CDRs through your configured S3 bucket. Learn more about how to configure your S3 bucket and enabling your Call Detail Records here.

Q: Can I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector real-time audio streaming to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams for phone call recording, storage, and transcription?

Yes. However, please remember to always consult with your compliance or legal resource to understand any applicable laws or regulations in your state or country, including those regarding the recording of telephone calls and other electronic communications.

Q: How can I build transcription and call analytics solutions?

You can stream audio from SIP trunking telephone calls or forwarded SIP-based media recording (SIPREC) feeds to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams to gain insights from business calls in real-time. You can quickly build applications for audio analytics through integration with Amazon Transcribe and other common Machine Learning libraries. Find an example transcription solution here.

Q: Can I stream audio from calls that are not using Amazon Chime Voice Connector for SIP trunking?

Yes. You can use Amazon Chime Voice Connector to stream SIP-based Media Recording (SIPREC) audio to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams without sending the calls to Amazon Chime Voice Connector for SIP trunking.

Q: How do I stream audio from SIPREC-compatible voice infrastructure?

Streaming SIPREC audio requires a SIPREC-compatible device such as an IP Private Branch Exchange (PBX), Session Border Controller (SBC), or other voice infrastructure that can send signaling and media to AWS public IP addresses. Configure your infrastructure to send SIPREC audio to the Outbound host name of your Amazon Chime Voice Connector. Learn more about using the Amazon Chime Voice Connector SIPREC streaming feature here.

Q: Can I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector for dial-in calling to applications that I build using the Amazon Chime SDK?

Yes. You can use Amazon Chime Voice Connector for toll and toll-free dial-in to audio conferences, video conferences, and collaboration sessions in applications that you build with the Amazon Chime SDK. Learn more about using Amazon Chime Voice Connector with the Amazon Chime SDK here.

Q: Can I use Amazon CloudWatch with Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

Yes. You can use CloudWatch’s familiar operational health dashboards for voice calling that includes call completion rates and voice quality metrics. This enables you to quickly pinpoint problems with your PBX, your session border controller (SBC), your AWS Direct Connect link, the AWS network, or the PSTN. Learn more about using CloudWatch for a unified operational health view of Amazon Chime Voice Connector calls here.

Q: Can I deploy Amazon Chime Voice Connectors in multiple AWS regions?

Yes. Amazon Chime Voice Connector delivers customers a fault tolerant and highly available SIP trunking service using three availability zones (AZs) in the US-East (N. Virginia) region and 3 AZs in the US-West (Oregon) region. There is no charge for grouping Amazon Chime Voice Connectors across two regions, charges incur for the actual call minutes in each region. Learn more about how to configure Amazon Chime Voice Connector Groups across multiple regions here.

Q: Does Amazon Chime Voice Connector support emergency calling?

Amazon Chime Voice Connector supports calling emergency services in the United States only; please see the AWS Service Terms for more information. You can also purchase emergency services separately from a third-party provider.

Q: Which countries does Amazon Chime SIP media applications have telephone numbers for?

For incoming calls to your SIP media application, we currently support purchasing and/or see porting of phone numbers in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America. For country-specific requirements for ordering and porting phone numbers, see Country requirements for phone numbers.

Q: What are Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions let you provide two users with a shared phone number to communicate via voice or text for up to 12 hours without revealing personal phone numbers. When users call or message the provided phone number, they are connected to the other party and their private phone numbers are replaced with the shared number in Caller ID. Personal phone numbers are not displayed, a method often called number masking. Numbers are provided based on criteria the developer chooses, including geolocation and whether they want a phone number that has never been used for the same users before, or one that has. Proxy phone sessions help protect user privacy and keep transactions on your service. Numbers are available on-demand, so developers don't have to calculate how many numbers they will need for different locations, or pay for extra numbers they do not use.

Q: What are the use cases for Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

Proxy phone sessions are commonly used in the on-demand economy. For example, a developer for a food delivery service can provide delivery drivers an option to call or message customers through a proxy phone number provided by Amazon Chime SDK to get information like a gate code. This same number can be used by the customer, so the private phone numbers of the driver and the customer are protected.

Other use cases include telemedicine, dating services, and outbound call centers.

Q: Can I use the same Amazon Chime Voice Connector for SIP trunking as I do for Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

No, you need to create a new Amazon Chime Voice Connector to enable proxy phone sessions.

Q: Which countries does Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions have phone numbers for?

Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions currently support US phone numbers.

Q: How do I start using Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

To get started with proxy phone sessions, use the Amazon Chime API to create a new Amazon Chime Voice Connector, then enable the feature on the Amazon Chime Voice Connector. Once enabled, you can use the Amazon Chime SDK API create sessions. Calls to the proxy phone number are typically made from a mobile application that can delegate calling or sending of SMS to the phone's native dialer. You can also call or message the proxy number directly from one of the two phone numbers assigned to the session. Read our documentation for details.

Q: How long are Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

Proxy phone sessions default to four hours, but you can extend them up to 12 hours, or to make them shorter. If you require longer sessions, please contact us.

Q: Do Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions support SMS?

Yes, proxy phone sessions support the sending and receiving of SMS messages.

Q: Do Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions provide Call Detail Records (CDRs)?

Yes. Administrators can choose to store their Call Detail Records in an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket for call and usage analysis. You can also import the records from Amazon S3 into Telecom Expense Management solutions or use services such as Amazon Athena to run queries for further analysis.

Q: Can I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector real-time audio streaming to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams with proxy phone sessions?

Yes, you can use real-time audio streaming to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams with proxy phone sessions to record calls. These recordings are frequently used for compliance, customer service, or quality reasons. 

Q: Do the SIP trunking resources support tagging?

Yes. The Amazon Chime SDK Voice Connector resource supports user defined tagging. See the Administration Guide for detail.

Q: How much does it cost to make and receive calls using Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

Per-minute rates to make calls to 100 countries and receive calls in the United States are published on our pricing page.

Q: Are the inbound calling, outbound calling, and phone number prices the same for Amazon

Chime Voice Connectors in the US-East (N. Virginia) and US-West (Oregon) regions?
Yes. Pricing is the same across both regions, however taxes vary by AWS region for US customers. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date information.

Q: Are there any fixed costs for Amazon Chime Voice Connector?

No. There are no upfront fees, commitments, or contracts. Amazon Chime Voice Connector is pay-as-you-go for calling minutes with a monthly charge for phone numbers. Additional pay-per-use charges apply for optional services such as audio capture to Kinesis Video Streams. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date information.

Q: Will charges incur for phone numbers or DID/DDI for Amazon Chime Voice Connector if I have not assigned them to a user?

Yes. Charges incur for phone numbers or DID/DDI from the time you order them until the time you delete them from an account.

Q. When I use Amazon Chime Voice Connector to call into Chime meetings or other Amazon Chime Voice Connector numbers do I pay the per-minute usage fees for these calls?

When you use Amazon Chime Voice Connector to dial into Amazon Chime meetings or call Amazon Chime Voice Connector numbers, these calls do not incur per-minute charges. Please see our pricing page.

Q: Will charges incur separately for Amazon S3 usage associated with Call Detail Record storage?

Yes. S3 usage charges apply when using S3 for storing Amazon Chime Voice Connector Call Detail Records.

Q: Do usage charges incur when using Amazon Chime Voice Connector to stream audio to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams?

Yes. There is a separate pay-by-the-minute charge when using Amazon Chime Voice Connector to stream SIP trunking calls or SIPREC audio to Amazon Kinesis Video Streams. This is in addition to Kinesis usage fees. Please see our pricing page for the most up to date information.

Q: How much does it cost to use Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

When you use Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions, you are charged $0.03 for every session you create. In addition, you will be billed for incoming and outgoing minutes for any phone calls made between the phone numbers included in the session, as well as any outgoing messages sent.

Q: Are there any fixed costs associated with Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone sessions?

No, there are no fixed costs associated with Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone numbers. With Amazon Chime SDK proxy phone numbers, we manage everything for you, including phone numbers, so there is no need to buy phone numbers to manage in a pool. 

Q: Which Amazon Chime SDKs support messaging?

The Amazon Chime SDK uses React UI components to accelerate the development of your user experience.

Q: In which regions can I use messaging in the Amazon Chime SDK?

The Amazon Chime SDK messaging API endpoints and storage are hosted in the United States (Northern Virginia) region and Europe (Frankfurt) region.

Q: What are scaling limitations?

We have limits in place for new customers as shown in our quotas page. If you need these limits increased, please submit a support ticket.

Q: How is the Amazon Chime SDK for messaging priced?

Messaging is pay-per-use with rates for sending messages, message delivery, and message storage, allowing you to scale as needed. More details are available on our pricing page.

Q: How is storage cost calculated for the Amazon Chime SDK for messaging?

The volume of storage billed in a month is based on the average storage used throughout the month. We measure your storage usage in "TimedStorage-ByteHrs," which are added up at the end of the month to generate your monthly charges. Storage size is measured based on the number of objects stored. Each standard channel message is counted as 4KB. Each control message is 30 bytes. All other objects, including channels, AppInstances, channel memberships, user bans, and read timestamps, are 1KB each.