Price Tiers
How are your API plans priced?
Price Tiers define how a given plan is priced.
Each plan contains one or many price tiers which define pricing for a given range of usage for that plan. The tier's price type defines how that tier's effective price is calculated based on usage.
Price Types
Each price tier is configured with one of the following price types.
| Price Type | Definition and Calculation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Unit | Total price for the tier equals the tier price multiplied by the usage total quantity. | "$0.10 per request up to 1000" |
| Package | Total price for the tier equals the tier price multiplied by the usage package quantity, where packages are defined as X units of usage each. | "$1.00 per thousand requests" |
| Flat | Total price for the tier equals the tier price regardless of the usage within the tier. | "$200 for up to 1000 requests" |
| Percentage | Total price for the tier equals the tier percentage multiplied by the total usage quantity. Percentage pricing can only be used in conjunction with currency-based Dimensions. Note that only a single price tier is allowed when using Percentage tiers. | "2.9% of transaction volume" |
| Minimum | Total price is equal to the tier price, but only takes effect if other price tiers do not exceed the minimum price. | "$500 minimum commitment" |
| Maximum | Total price is equal to the tier price, but only takes effect if other price tiers exceeds the maximum price. | "$4000 is the most you will pay" |
| Subscription | Total price is equal to the tier price. Note that only a single price tier is allowed when using Subscription tiers. | "$99 per month" |
Price Tiers
Each plan consists of one or more price tiers. We must calculate the effective price for each tier to calculate the total price of the plan.
Tiers within a plan can be configured with different price types. Most price types can be combined within a single plan, and in fact, this is common. Let's look at a couple example scenarios in which price tiers are combined within a single plan to create popular scenarios.
- Committed Volume with Overages:
- "$500 per month for up to 10,000 API requests, with $0.10 per request for every additional request"
- This example could be modeled as a plan consisting of two price tiers:
- Flat $500 from 0 to 10,000 requests
- Unit $0.10 from 10,001 to infinity requests
- Unit Pricing with Minimum Commitments:
- "$0.50 per monthly active user, with a minimum commitment of $400 per month"
- This example could be modeled as a plan consisting of two price tiers:
- Unit $0.50 from 0 to infinity monthly active users
- Minimum $400
Graduated vs Volume Pricing
Depending on the usage type of the plan, effective prices may be calculated differently:
- With Graduated usage-based pricing, usage within each price tier is considered individually, and the effective price of each tier is added together.
- With Volume usage-based pricing, only one effective price tier is considered, and all usage for the plan is calculated in accordance with that tier.
Continue reading about usage types in the next section.
Updated 11 months ago