What is a Pricing Plan

Every product on api.market needs at least one pricing plan. A plan decides what customers pay, how much they can use, and which endpoints they can call.

📏 Billing units

Each plan has a billing unit: what one unit means. The plan's price and its included allowance are both counted in that unit.

Billing unit	What one unit means	Example
Default	Keeps the way the product is billed today. New products bill one unit per call.	1 call = 1 unit
Per call	One successful call, whatever it returns	1 call = 1 unit
Per image	Each image in the response, as a file URL or a base64 image	A call returning 4 images = 4 units
Per second of video	Each second of the output video, rounded up	A 30 second clip = 30 units
Per megapixel	Each megapixel of the output image, rounded up	One 1920x1080 image (2.1 MP) = 3 units
Per 1,000 characters	Each 1,000 characters of input text, rounded up	A 2,500 character prompt = 3 units

api.market counts these units for you. Images, seconds and megapixels are counted from the files your API returns to a POST call. Characters are counted from the request text before the call is made.

💡 Billing by something else, such as tokens? Your API can report the exact units for each call in a response header. See Custom Usage. The header always wins over the plan's unit.

💰 The three plan types

1. Free trial

• $0, for 7 days, up to a number of units.

• Each customer can take the free trial of a product only once.

• Calls stop when the units run out.

• Private free plan: set Access to Private to make a free plan for testers you invite. A private free plan renews every month for the people you invite.

✅ Best for: letting developers try your API without a credit card.

2. Monthly subscription

• A monthly price with included units, for example $9 a month for 500 images.

• When the included units run out, you choose what happens:

  • Stop the calls: nothing extra is charged; calls are refused until next month.

  • Charge for the extra: each extra unit is billed at the end of the month at the price you set.

• The monthly price can be $0 when you charge for the extra.

✅ Best for: customers who want a predictable monthly cost.

3. Pay as you go

• No monthly fee. Customers pay a price per unit from their wallet as they use it.

• Always public, and always shown as PAYG on the store.

• Customers need at least $1 in their wallet to subscribe.

✅ Best for: customers with irregular usage who only want to pay for what they use.

📍 Where to add plans

1. Open your product under Manage APIs → API Products.

2. Open the Manage Pricing Plans tab.

3. Click Add Pricing Plans.

Adding a plan opens a short wizard with six steps. You can go back to any step before you save.

1️⃣ Basics

Field	What to enter
Plan name	Shown on the store card, such as Free, Pro or Mega. Up to 20 characters.
API source	The API source you imported
Your API's base URL	Where api.market forwards each call. Filled in from the API source.

The Endpoint customers call box shows the URL your customers will use.

Open Advanced: custom headers and rate limit if you need them:

Field	What it does
Custom headers	A JSON object of headers added to every call forwarded to your API, for example {"x-api-key": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY"}. Header names can use letters, digits and symbols such as - and _, but no spaces. Values cannot contain line breaks.
Rate limit	Maximum requests per second for each subscriber, a whole number from 1 to 1,000. Leave it empty for 10.

2️⃣ Plan type

Choose Free trial, Monthly subscription or Pay as you go. See the plan types above.

3️⃣ Price and unit

First pick the billing unit. Each option shows an example of what a call costs.

Then fill in the fields for your plan type:

Plan type	Fields
Free trial	Units in the trial
Monthly subscription	Monthly price, included units per month, what happens when they run out, and the price per extra unit if you charge for the extra
Pay as you go	Price per unit

💡 Tip: prices per unit can be very small, up to 6 decimal places (for example $0.00001).

⚠️ Note: images, seconds and megapixels are counted after each call returns. A call that starts before the allowance runs out can go past it by what that call returns.

4️⃣ Endpoints

Choose which endpoints customers on this plan can call. Use Select all or pick individual endpoints.

💡 Tip: different plans can include different endpoints. For example, a free trial with one endpoint and a paid plan with all of them.

5️⃣ Access

Option	Behavior
Public	Listed on the store; anyone can subscribe
Private	Hidden from the store; only people you invite can subscribe

Pay as you go plans are always public. A private free plan renews every month for the people you invite.

6️⃣ Review

The Review step describes your plan in one plain sentence, for example "$9 a month for 500 images. Extra usage costs $0.02 per image.", followed by a summary of every setting. Click Create plan to save it.

Your plan now appears on the Manage Pricing Plans tab, and the publishing checklist moves forward.

✏️ Editing a plan

Click Edit Pricing Plan on a plan card to open the same wizard with the plan's current settings. The copy icon next to it duplicates the plan.

Customers who already subscribed keep being billed in the unit of the plan version they signed up for.

💡 Tip: start with a free trial so developers can try your API, then add paid plans for heavier usage.

Next → Submitting for Review