> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.daily.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Scaling Daily applications

> Guides and best practices for building large-scale call experiences with Daily.

Daily supports three approaches to large-scale experiences, each differing in latency and scale:

| Approach | Max participants | Latency |
| - | - | - |
| Large real-time calls | 1,000 (all active) | \< 200ms |
| Interactive live streaming | 100,000 (25 active) | \< 400ms |
| RTMP live streaming | Unlimited passive viewers | 8–20s |

<Note>
  **Active** participants have a "presence" in a call — they can turn on their devices and appear in [`participants()`](/reference/daily-js/instance-methods/participants). **Hidden** (passive) participants can view the call in real time but cannot turn on devices and do not appear in `participants()`.

  Active and hidden counts are available via [`participantCounts()`](/reference/daily-js/instance-methods/participant-counts) and the [`"participant-counts-updated"`](/reference/daily-js/events/participant-events#participant-counts-updated) event.
</Note>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Large real-time calls" icon="users-rays" href="/docs/guides/scaling-calls/large-real-time-calls">
    Room configurations and settings to support up to 1,000 active participants.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Interactive live streaming and RTMP output" icon="broadcast-tower" href="/docs/guides/scaling-calls/interactive-live-streaming-rtmp-output">
    Scale to 100,000 participants with interactive live streaming, or broadcast to external platforms via RTMP.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Best practices for large experiences" icon="clipboard-check" href="/docs/guides/scaling-calls/best-practices-to-scale-large-experiences">
    Pagination, track subscriptions, and simulcast layer control to optimize performance at scale.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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