---
title: Usage calculation of self-service experiences
description: 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.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/customer-service-management/csm-portal-user-sessions-timeouts\_2.html
release: australia
topic_type: reference
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 4
breadcrumb: [Portal reference, Reference, Customer Service Management]
---

# Usage calculation of self-service experiences

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 **All** > **Customer Service** > **Administration** > **Portal Usage**.

**Note:** This definition tracks usage of self-service experiences based on the user roles and ignores usage of non CSM portals or roles. Sessions are tracked for the following roles:

-   External roles: sn\_esm\_user, sn\_customerservice.requester, sn\_communities.community\_user
-   Internal roles: sn\_customerservice.self\_contributor
-   Unauthenticated roles: Guest

A user session is a period of activity on the self-service experiences by any of the following session types:

-   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

The aggregate session count is based on the following calculations:\[Omitted image "aggregate-session-count-csp.png"\] Alt text: The infographic displays the calculation for aggregate session count by subtracting guest sessions and bot sessions, and then adding external sessions.

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](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/platform-administration/c_ManageUserSessions.md).

-   **Site session calculation examples**

    A user 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:

    |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 **All** > **Customer Service** > **Administration** > **Portal Usage**.

**Note:** This definition tracks usage of Web Embeddables based on the user roles and ignores usage of non CSM portals or roles. Sessions are tracked for the following roles:

-   External roles: sn\_esm\_user, sn\_customerservice.requester
-   Unauthenticated roles: Guest and snc\_visitor

A user session is a period of activity on Web Embeddables component on the third-party website by any Web Embeddables component. The following session types:

-   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.

The aggregate session count is based on the following calculations:\[Omitted image "we\_session\_count\_formula.png"\] Alt text: The infographic displays the calculation for aggregate session count by adding guest sessions and external sessions.

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](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/platform-administration/c_ManageUserSessions.md).

-   **Site session calculation examples**

    A user 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:

    |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|