What Is “Parallels” and How It Works

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What is “Parallels”

GeeLark uses a flexible pay-per-minute plan. It makes your costs clear and easy to control. To better fit different use cases, GeeLark also offers another option — “Parallels”.

In short, Parallels are like “no-minute-charge slots”.

It lets you run a certain number of cloud phones at the same time without paying per minute.

Here’s a quick example.

  • Scenario:
    • Sam owns 100 cloud phones. Every day, he needs to open all 100 cloud phones to complete his daily tasks.
  • Pricing:
    • Standard rate: $0.007/minute/device, capped at $1.00/day
    • Parallels: $39.90/month/profile (slot)

Scenario 1: Pay-per-Minute Only

Let’s say each cloud phone runs for 10 minutes a day:

  • Cost per device per day: 10 minutes × $0.007 = $0.07 /day/device
  • Daily total for 100 devices: 100 × $0.07 = $7.00 /day
  • Monthly total (30 days): $7.00 × 30 = $210 /month

Now, if each cloud phone runs for 100 minutes a day:

  • Cost per device per day: 100 minutes × $0.007 = $0.70 /day/device
  • Daily total for 100 devices: 100 × $0.70 = $70 /day
  • Monthly total (30 days): $70 × 30 = $2,100 /month

In short: When Sam only uses each cloud phone for about 10 minutes, the pay-per-minute plan is very affordable.

Scenario 2: Using Parallels

Sam still needs to run 100 cloud phones every day. This time, his plan includes Parallels with 10 profiles.

He opens only 10 devices at a time, finishes that batch, closes them, and then opens the next 10. In other words, he runs #1–10 first, then #11–20, then #21–30, and so on until all 100 are done.

The best part is that while using these 10 cloud phones, he no longer needs to worry about per-minute charges — he can use them freely without time limits.

  • Fixed monthly fee for “Parallels”: 10 × $39.90 = $399 /month
  • Because he never runs more than 10 devices at once (within his 10 Parallels), all those devices run without any per-minute charge.

In short: For longer sessions or more devices running at once, Parallels can help lower costs — about $399 vs. $2,100 per month in the previous example.

Scenario 3: Parallels + Pay-per-Minute Billing

Sam sets his “Parallels” to 5 profiles (slots), but he usually keeps 8 cloud phones running at the same time.

Here’s how GeeLark handles this:

  • 5 devices are covered by the Parallels profiles and won’t be charged per minute.
  • The other 3 devices continue to follow the standard pay-per-minute rate.

Conclusion

Parallels don’t limit how many cloud phones you can open. It simply defines how many of them can runwithout per-minute charges. If you set your Parallels to 5 profiles, you can still run 100 cloud phones at the same time — 5 will run without per-minute charges, and the remaining 95 will follow standard minute billing.

Note: If you run automation tasks on GeeLark, those cloud phones are still charged by the minute, even with Parallels enabled.

How to Buy Parallels

Free User

Go to “Billing”, click “Upgrade”. Select “Parallels” and enter the quantity you want to purchase.

Subscriber

Go to “Billing”, click “Change plan”

Frequently Asked Questions about Parallels

Profiles mean how many cloud phone profiles you own. Parallels mean how many of those cloud phones can run without per-minute billing at the same time.

Example: You have 100 cloud phone environments and set your Parallels to 10 profiles. You can open any 10 out of those 100 at once, and those 10 won’t be charged by the minute.

No. Parallels don’t limit how many devices you can open. Without Parallels, you can still start as many cloud phones as you like — they’ll just be billed per minute (or monthly rental). Parallels simply let a certain number of devices run time-free while they’re active.

No. You can open more than 10. It just means 10 of them won’t count per-minute time, and any phones beyond that number will keep using the standard per-minute rate. Parallels define how many devices run without minute charges, not how many you can run.

No. Parallels are dynamic and not tied to any single cloud phone. As long as you stay within your Parallels limit, your open devices run without per-minute billing. For example, if your Parallels are set to 5 profiles:

you might open environments #1–5 first, close them later, then open #6–10 — all time-free during operation.

Automation sessions are still billed per minute. Parallels mainly apply to manually opened cloud phones.

GeeLark automatically detects extra running devices and bills them at the regular per-minute rate ($0.007/min/device).

Example: If your Parallels are set to 5 profiles but you run 8 devices at once, the first 5 won’t count per-minute time, and the remaining 3 will be billed normally.

You can check it on the cloud phone startup screen.