Introducing Credit-Based Pricing for Brand APIs

The Pricing Problem in APIs

API pricing is hard. Too complex and developers avoid you. Too simple and your costs become unpredictable. Seat-based pricing punishes growth. Flat-rate pricing subsidizes heavy users at the expense of light ones.

When designing pricing for Fetching Company, we studied what works and what frustrates developers.

What We Learned

Developers Hate Surprises

Usage-based pricing without caps creates anxiety. A runaway script could generate a massive bill. Developers need to know their maximum exposure before committing.

Seat-Based Pricing Makes No Sense for APIs

API keys do not sit in chairs. A single developer might make 10,000 requests, while a team of 20 might make 100. Charging per seat does not reflect actual usage.

Free Tiers Must Be Genuinely Useful

A free tier that only allows 5 requests per month is not a free tier; it is a demo. Developers need enough free usage to build, test, and validate their integration before committing to a paid plan.

Overage Handling Matters

When you hit your limit, what happens? Hard cutoffs disrupt production applications. Automatic overages create surprise bills. Neither is great.

Our Credit System

We settled on credit-based pricing because it balances predictability with flexibility.

How Credits Work

• Each API call costs 1 credit (standard analysis)
• AI Enhancement costs 2 credits per call
• Credits refresh monthly on your billing date
• Unused credits do not roll over (keeping plans simple)

The Plans

Why This Works

Predictable costs: You know your maximum monthly spend before you start. No surprises, no runaway bills.

Aligned incentives: You pay for what you use. Light users pay less. Heavy users get volume discounts.

Generous free tier: 50 credits per month is enough to analyze 50 brands. That is meaningful for testing, prototyping, and small personal projects.

Graceful limits: When you hit your credit limit, subsequent requests return a 429 status code with a clear message. No automatic overages. You can upgrade instantly if you need more.

Compared to Alternatives

vs. Pay-Per-Request

Some APIs charge per request with no monthly commitment. This can work, but it makes budgeting harder and often results in higher per-unit costs.

vs. Flat Monthly Rate

Flat pricing (unlimited requests for $X/month) sounds appealing but leads to abuse. Heavy users subsidize the service while light users overpay. The API provider has no way to scale costs with usage, leading to eventual price hikes or service degradation.

vs. Seat-Based Pricing

Seat-based models charge per user or API key. This penalizes teams and makes no sense for machine-to-machine API usage. A backend service needs one API key regardless of team size.

Credits and AI Enhancement

We deliberately made AI Enhancement cost 2 credits instead of creating a separate pricing dimension. This keeps the mental model simple: everything is credits.

If you only use standard analysis, your plan's credit count is your request count. If you use AI Enhancement for every request, your effective request count is half your credits. Most users mix both, landing somewhere in between.

Add-On Credits

If you occasionally need more than your plan allows, you can purchase one-time credit packs:

• 100 credits: $5
• 500 credits: $20
• 1,000 credits: $35

These add-on credits never expire and are consumed after your monthly credits are depleted.

Choosing the Right Plan

Here are some guidelines:

• Hobby project or testing: Free (50 credits)
• Small SaaS or agency: Starter (500 credits)
• Growing product with regular enrichment: Pro (2,500 credits)
• Large-scale enrichment pipeline: Business (10,000 credits)

If you need more than 10,000 credits per month, contact us for a custom plan with dedicated support and priority processing.

Get Started

Every account starts on the free plan. Create your account and start analyzing brands today. Upgrade when you are ready, downgrade if you need to. No contracts, no commitments.