Usage calculation of self-service experiences
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Summary of Usage calculation of self-service experiences
This guide explains how ServiceNow calculates usage for self-service experiences, including Service Portals, Engagement Messenger, Community, and Web Embeddables. Usage is measured in aggregated user sessions per month and is essential for billing and monitoring purposes. It distinguishes between authenticated external users, unauthenticated guest users, and excludes internal users.
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Service Portals, Engagement Messenger, and Community Usage Calculation
Usage is calculated based on the total monthly sessions generated by unauthenticated guests and authenticated external users (roles like snesmuser, sncustomerservice.requester, sncommunities.communityuser). Internal users with roles such as sncustomerservice.selfcontributor are excluded. Sessions generated by search engine bots are also deducted.
A user session represents a period of activity and includes:
- Guest sessions: User not logged in.
- Bot sessions: Detected bot or crawler activity (excluded).
- External sessions: Logged-in external users (customers or consumers).
Sessions time out after 30 minutes of inactivity by default (adjustable via system property). Multiple logins from different browsers/devices count as separate sessions. Each initial page call starts a new session, measured within a 24-hour window.
Usage dashboards can be accessed at All > Customer Service > Administration > Portal Usage.
Service Portal Session Calculation Examples
- If a user visits as guest, logs in, logs out, and logs in again, only guest visits and subsequent logins increment billable sessions.
- If a user session spans midnight, the session continues to count as a single billable session until logout.
Web Embeddables Usage Calculation
Web Embeddables usage is similarly calculated based on sessions by authenticated external users (roles snesmuser or sncustomerservice.requester) and unauthenticated guest or visitor users (roles Guest, sncvisitor). Sessions by internal users or non-CSM roles are excluded.
A Web Embeddables session starts with the first interaction on the embedded component on a third-party site and is tracked per session, per day, and per module, with a 30-minute default timeout (adjustable).
Multiple logins from different devices/browsers count as separate sessions. Usage data is viewable in the same Portal Usage dashboard.
Web Embeddables Session Calculation Examples
- For a user visiting anonymously, logging in, logging out, and logging in again, each guest visit and login increments the billable session count except logouts.
- If a session continues past midnight, it is counted as one billable session until the user logs out.
Calculates usage across self-service experiences, including Service Portals, Engagement Messenger, Community, and Web Embeddables. The dashboard displays the total of aggregated sessions across all self-service experiences.
Service portals, Engagement Messenger, and Community usage calculation
Service portals, Engagement Messenger, and Community are billed for the aggregate number of sessions in a month generated by unauthenticated-guest and authenticated-external users (internal users are excluded). Total sessions in a month is the sum of guest user sessions and external user sessions after deducting search engine bot sessions.
To view the Customer Portal Usage dashboard, navigate to .
- External roles: sn_esm_user, sn_customerservice.requester, sn_communities.community_user
- Internal roles: sn_customerservice.self_contributor
- Unauthenticated roles: Guest
- Guest session: Session where the user isn't logged in
- Bot session: Separate count of sessions generated due to bots and crawlers
- External session: Session where the user is an external user, typically a customer, or consumer who is logged in
A user session times out after a specific period of inactivity.
User access to the self-service experiences is tracked as follows: per session, per day, and per experience. If the same user logs in from multiple browsers or devices, each login is counted as a separate session. Each first call of a page in an experience starts a session and, the usage metrics are calculated for the 24 hours window.
The default session timeout is 30 minutes. This setting can be adjusted using a system property. For more information about modifying the session timeout setting, see Manage user sessions.
- Site session calculation examples
- A user logs in, logs out, and then logs in again.
Table 1. Example of a site session calculation for a user who logs in, logs out, and then logs in again Step User activity Billable count incremented 1 User visits the experience as an anonymous or guest user Yes 2 User logs in No 3 User logs out No 4 User logs in immediately after logging out Yes A user logs in and continues the session past midnight:Table 2. Example of a site session calculation for a user who logs in and continues the session past midnight Step User activity Billable count incremented 1 User visits the experience as an anonymous or guest user Yes 2 User logs in No 3 User session continues past midnight Yes 4 User logs out No
Web Embeddables sessions usage calculation
Web Embeddables sessions are also billed for the aggregate number of sessions in a month generated by external users (users with sn_esm_user role or sn_customerservice.requestor) and unauthenticated guest or visitor users (snc_visitor role).
To view the dashboard, navigate to .
- External roles: sn_esm_user, sn_customerservice.requester
- Unauthenticated roles: Guest and snc_visitor
- Web Embeddables authenticated external session: Session where the user is logged in and role is sn_esm_user role or sn_customerservice.requestor accessing through an embeddable component.
- Web Embeddables guest session: Session where the user is not logged in or is OTP verified to access the submitted requests.
User access to the Web Embeddables component is tracked as follows: per session, per day, and per module. If the same user logs in from multiple browsers or devices, each login is counted as a separate session. Each first call of a Web Embeddables component starts a session, and the usage metrics are calculated for the 24 hours window.
The default session timeout is 30 minutes. This setting can be adjusted using a system property. For more information about modifying the session timeout setting, see Manage user sessions.
- Site session calculation examples
- A user logs in, logs out, and then logs in again.
Table 3. Example of a site session calculation for a user who logs in, logs out, and then logs in again Step User activity Billable count incremented 1 User visits the Web Embeddables as an anonymous or guest user Yes 2 User logs in Yes 3 User logs out No 4 User logs in immediately after logging out Yes A user logs in and continues the session past midnight:Table 4. Example of a site session calculation for a user who logs in and continues the session past midnight Step User activity Billable count incremented 1 User visits the Web Embeddables as an anonymous or guest user Yes 2 User logs in Yes 3 User session continues past midnight Yes 4 User logs out No