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While calculating the pricing for deploying a chatbot developed using QnA Maker, i am supposed to select the App Service Plan.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/calculator/

In the App Service section I am supposed to enter the following details Region, Tier, number of instances and hours.

What does the instances mean here and on what basis should i select the Tier.

Does deploying a basic QnA bot using QnA Maker API require an instance. (does the instance imply a VM instance).

Currently, the limit is a 20-MB knowledge base used by QnA Maker.

Thank you.

Nicolas R
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raki.dbit
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1 Answers1

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Back to definitions

There are 2 different things here:

  • Your bot
  • QnAMaker

In fact you are not "deploying a bot developed using QnAMaker", you are "deploying a bot developed with Microsoft Bot Framework and using QnAMaker".

Your bot is a web API, with a simple endpoint ("xxx/api/messages") accepting POST requests and which will be used by the bot connector. Then on some cases it's calling QnAMaker but this call is a bit hidden if you use QnAMakerDialog in C# for example.

Hosting / Costs

To host a Web API in Azure (called an App Service), you will need an App Service Plan. There are different levels of Azure App Service Plan, depending on your needs:

enter image description here

You just need to select the one corresponding to your needs, no other actions are necessary (what is behind (VMs...) is not your purpose).

For example if you just want to demonstrate the use of a bot with QnAMaker, a Free App Service Plan is enough.

For the QnAMaker part, it's only calls of your QnAMaker project in background. Your project is exposed through the web on an URL. The use of QnAMaker is free, at the time of writing this reply (it's still a preview)

Last (but not least), there can be an additional cost depending on the channels you will be using to expose your bot. See Azure calculator for bot service for that: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bot-service/

Martijn Pieters
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Nicolas R
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  • Hi Nicolas thank you for replying. I am clear about the pricing of the channels..i,e. I have to use Premium channel since I am going to use Web Chat. But i am still confused about the App Service Plan. Which one am i supposed to use...Does it depend on the size of the Knowledge Base i intend to maintain. As you can see in this link for calculating the pricing of App service planhttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/calculator/ i need to enter the details such as the Tier and number of instances. – raki.dbit Feb 28 '18 at 04:56
  • Does the Tier to be selected for App service plan depend on the on the size of the Knowledge Base i intend to maintain. – raki.dbit Feb 28 '18 at 05:09
  • As said QnAMaker is free and has no link with the App Service or App Service Plan. It's 2 totally different things, QnAMaker is only a service hosted by MS that you are consuming. By the way there are also some usage quotas, be careful (10,000 transactions per month, 10 per minute) – Nicolas R Feb 28 '18 at 07:59
  • Hi Nicholas thank you. when I read this article https://learn.microsoft.com/en-in/bot-framework/bot-service-quickstart it mentioned to choose a App Service Plan. Hence i was confused. Bots are new to me so trying to figure out things. – raki.dbit Mar 01 '18 at 06:55
  • Is your last comment a question? – Nicolas R Mar 05 '18 at 09:25
  • I have developed the bot on a similar basis as explained in these 2 website 1) http://www.garypretty.co.uk/2017/01/17/qna-maker-dialog-for-bot-framework/ 2) http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/building-intelligent-c-sharp-corner-faq-bot-using-qna-maker-and-azure-bot-service/ While trying to deploy when I read this article https://learn.microsoft.com/en-in/bot-framework/bot-service-quickstart it mentioned to choose a App Service Plan.Since there is C# code involved...is a App service plan needed? – raki.dbit Mar 05 '18 at 09:27
  • Yes Nicolas. I have reframed my question and posted in the latest comment. – raki.dbit Mar 05 '18 at 09:31
  • My answer is still valid. An App Service Plan is necessary to host a **Web App Bot**, it's not a consequency of using QnAMaker but of using a Web App Bot. If your bot (for QnA or anything else) uses Web App Bot template, then is you need an App Service Plan. If your bot uses Function App Bot template, it's different – Nicolas R Mar 05 '18 at 09:35
  • Thank you. I am using a Web App Bot. I have used Free tier in the App service Plan now. When I try to move it to Production then I might need to use Basic/ Standard. What does the Core signify in the Tiers..for example B1 Basic shows core as 1 and B3 Basic shows 4 as core.. – raki.dbit Mar 05 '18 at 10:44
  • See App Service plan definition here: https://learn.microsoft.com/gl-es/azure/app-service/azure-web-sites-web-hosting-plans-in-depth-overview – Nicolas R Mar 05 '18 at 10:45
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/166245/discussion-between-bharathy-and-nicolas-r). – raki.dbit Mar 05 '18 at 13:16
  • @NicolasR - It would be helpful if you could share an update based on the current pricing model of QnA Maker. In our use case, The bot would be developed using bot builder java SDK and deployed "on-premise". It calls the QnAMaker service through REST API's. What microsoft services should be considered in estimating the cost of using the QnA Maker? Do we need to account for App service and cognitive search services? If so, why? – Andy Dufresne Jan 17 '20 at 06:19
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    @AndyDufresne as described in the pricing page https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/qna-maker/ , QnA Maker runs using a Cognitive Search instance and an app service. So you need those resources – Nicolas R Jan 17 '20 at 18:35
  • @here May be this is old thread - but just wanted to add my comments on how many different services we woudl need from azure to roll out an azure QnA chatbot. App Service for chatbot, Azure chatbot, LUIS, QnA Service + App service (can use the same app service plan that's used for chatbot), Search Service, Application Insights as Needed. – Sujith Jun 02 '20 at 10:53