Your cost plus 20%
You are worth more than that!
Not always.
Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
21–30 of 63 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#22If you have low to mid volume and usage in general, just charge a flat fee if you do want to charge for API. I would probably add a higher plan that includes API access and make it simple.
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#23[flagged]
It was a reasonable question. No reason to be harsh like this. Let’s keep a culture where it’s ok to ask questions.
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#24[flagged]
The features help customers. Charging people is how people pay for the features. No one is helped by being charged, beyond a general "obviously money motivates the vendor to maintain the product".
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#25[flagged]
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#26[flagged]
It's not a sickness to put a value on a product or service.
A public API is going to incur additional testing, documentation, and support. Charge accordingly.
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#27You should not charge people just to access their own data. That's abusive.
Charge only for extreme usage, like poorly written sync programs, maybe, maybe for realtime synchronization.
Let them access their data so they are comfortable using your product more, and charge them for the value your product gives them.
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#28So there's two factors:
- What does it cost you to provide?
- What is it worth to your customers?
You need to understand both, before setting a price or even opening up the API.
This feels like systems engineering 101.
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#29You should not charge people just to access their own data. That's abusive. Charge only for extreme usage, like poorly written sync programs, maybe, maybe for realtime synchronization. Let them access their data so they are comfortable using your product more, and charge them for the value your product gives them.
You absolutely should charge people for access to their data. What do you think paying for s3 retrievals or db queries are?
Re: Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?
#30$1 per call.