DV360 Pricing: Platform Fees, Media Costs and Service Fees

There is no single price for DV360. It is bought under contract, Google does not publish a rate card, and what you pay depends on what you buy and who runs the account. Two quotes for the same ₹10 lakh plan can look alike on media and still differ a lot once data, verification and service fees are added.

What you can do is understand the parts. Once you know which fees exist and how each one is charged, you can read any quote, compare two providers fairly and set a budget with fewer surprises.

Does Google publish DV360 pricing?

No. Google sells DV360 through its sales team and sets the terms in each contract. There is no public price list, no free tier and no self-serve checkout. That is one of the biggest practical differences in our DV360 vs Google Ads comparison.

What Google does explain is how the bill is built. Its help page on DV360 fees and billable cost lists the parts: media cost, the platform fee, platform add-on fees, third-party fees, country surcharges where they apply, and taxes. The sections below take each one in turn from an Indian buyer's side.

What are the parts of a DV360 bill?

If the jargon is new: CPM is the cost per thousand impressions, and CPV is the cost per video view. If you are weighing DV360 against other ways of buying programmatic, what programmatic advertising costs in India gives the wider picture.

What is the DV360 platform fee?

The platform fee is what Google charges for using DV360 to buy and serve your ads. Google's help centre describes it as a percentage of media cost, with the rate set in the contract, and the fee can be tiered. It is not a figure Google publishes.

Two practical points matter for Indian buyers:

• You may never see Google's rate directly. If you use a provider's partner seat, the provider holds the contract with Google. Ask how the platform fee is handled in your price: inside the media line, inside the service fee or shown on its own. Any of these can be fair, as long as it is written down.
• The 2% India surcharge has gone. From July 2023 Google added a 2% Regulatory Operating Cost to ads served in India when the account was billed from outside India. Its help centre says ads served in India are no longer subject to it from 1 September 2024, so it should not appear in a current quote.

How much does media cost in DV360?

Media is normally the largest line by far. Its price is set by the channel, the deal type, your audience and the season, not by DV360 itself. These are indicative ranges from our rate card, before fees and GST:

These ranges move with your dates. Festive weeks and big cricket tournaments push prices up, and narrow targeting costs more than broad. Deal-based inventory also comes with publisher minimums. You can see indicative CPMs for the main apps and publishers on our premium inventory page.

Which other fees should you expect?

Three more lines can appear, depending on what the campaign uses.

Third-party audience data. Google's demographic, affinity and in-market audiences are free in DV360, and so are your own first-party lists. Segments from outside data providers carry a fee per thousand impressions on top of media. Google's help centre puts typical third-party data fees at roughly $0.50 to more than $2 CPM. On cheap inventory, that can raise your real cost sharply, as the worked example below shows.

Verification. Brand safety and viewability tools such as IAS and DoubleVerify charge per thousand impressions. Some are billed through DV360 and some directly by the vendor, so ask which applies.

Ad serving. If the advertiser serves ads through Campaign Manager 360, CM360 has its own contract with Google, with fees per thousand impressions or per click.

How do providers charge for DV360 services?

Most Indian buyers do not hold their own contract with Google. They work through a provider that charges for access, support or full campaign management. The usual fee models are:

• Percentage of media spend. Easy to understand, and it scales with the budget. The percentage often falls as spend rises, because fixed work is spread over more media.
• Fixed monthly fee. Suits steady, always-on spend where the workload is predictable.
• Campaign or project fee. Suits a single launch or a festive burst.

What really differs is the work included. A self-serve seat covers access, billing and support. A co-managed setup adds deals, setup and optimisation by the provider's team. A managed service covers everything from the media plan to the final report. Whichever setup you choose with us, we agree the fee model upfront and show media cost and our fee separately. If you are leaning towards full management, read what a managed DV360 fee should cover before you compare quotes.

Worked example: what does a ₹10 lakh DV360 campaign really cost?

Here is an illustrative plan for a financial services brand, using rates from inside the ranges above. The data fee and the service fee are assumptions for the example, not a quote.

The media CPM across the plan is about ₹182. Once the data and service fees are added, the effective CPM is about ₹227. That gap is why you should compare quotes on effective CPM:

Effective CPM = total cost ÷ total impressions × 1,000

Two lessons stand out. The data fee added 50% to the cost of the open auction line, because the inventory itself was cheap. And inventory choices move the total more than small fee differences: getting the news deal at ₹220 instead of ₹250 CPM would buy about 2.7 lakh more impressions for the same ₹5 lakh, which is worth more than a point off the service fee. In this example the platform fee is assumed to sit inside the service fee, so ask each provider where theirs sits.

What should you ask before you sign?

1. Is the quoted price media only, or media plus fees?
2. Where does Google's platform fee sit in your pricing?
3. Which data, verification and ad serving fees will apply, and who bills them?
4. Is your fee a percentage, fixed or per campaign, and what work does it cover?
5. Is there a minimum monthly spend or commitment?
6. Are invoices in rupees with GST, and is payment prepaid or on credit?
7. Will reports show actual delivery and cost for every line?

Minimums deserve their own conversation, because they come from both the provider and the publishers. Our guide to the minimum budget for DV360 explains how each one is set.

How can you keep DV360 costs under control?

• Use free audiences first. Google's segments and your own first-party lists carry no data fee. Add paid third-party segments only where they clearly earn their cost.
• Plan before you buy. A clear channel mix avoids small, expensive line items that never learn. The steps are in how to create a programmatic media plan.
• Book premium deals early. PG inventory for festive dates and big cricket matches sells out, and late buyers pay more or miss out.
• Match the setup to your team. Paying for a self-serve seat with no trained trader often costs more in wasted media than a managed fee would.

If you are weighing several providers, our guide to choosing a DV360 reseller in India lists the questions to put to each one.

Next step

To see what your own budget buys, ask for a free media plan. A DV360 specialist uses our current rate card to estimate impressions and reach by channel, and when you are ready we send a written proposal that shows media cost and our fee as separate lines.