How Do Subscriptions, Committed Plans, Usage Credits, Auto-Recharge, and Overages Work Together?

API pricing can get confusing quickly.

You have a subscription. Then there are Usage Credits. Some customers use committed plans. Others buy credits as needed. Auto-recharge can add more credits automatically, while overage protection can keep services running after the prepaid balance is exhausted.

These are not competing billing methods. They are different parts of the same API Bricks billing model.

The easiest way to understand it is to separate access, usage, payment, and protection.

A subscription defines what your organization has access to and what is included. Usage Credits (UC) provide a common billing unit for metered consumption. A committed plan covers predictable usage with credits committed in advance. Auto-recharge helps maintain a prepaid balance, while overage protection can provide a controlled post-paid buffer.

Spend management sits across the model as a safety layer.

In general, usage is measured according to the product’s pricing rules, then applied against applicable subscription quotas or committed credits where available. Additional eligible usage may consume the organization’s available credit balance.

If configured, auto-recharge may replenish prepaid credits, and overage protection may allow eligible usage to continue beyond the prepaid balance.

What Is an API Bricks Subscription?

A subscription defines what your organization has purchased and the conditions under which you can use it.

Depending on the service and order, that can include product access, features, usage quotas, data sources, other measurable limits, subscription term, and price.

The important distinction is that a subscription is not the same as a credit balance.

Think of the subscription as the framework around your account. It determines what is included and what you can access. Usage Credits handle metered consumption where the credit model applies.

Usage during the subscription term is first applied against the applicable subscription quota. Additional eligible usage can then be handled through the organization's available Usage Credits and usage-management settings.

What Are Usage Credits?

Usage Credits, or UC, are the common billing unit used for metered API consumption across API Bricks products.

They provide a common billing model while allowing individual products to maintain their own pricing rules.

One Usage Credit does not necessarily correspond to one API request, one gigabyte of data, or another fixed technical unit across every product.

Depending on the product, consumption can instead be based on API requests, data volume, endpoint, usage type, or daily volume tiers.

So there are two parts to the calculation:

Product pricing determines the cost of the activity. Usage Credits determine how eligible consumption is funded.

Customers can obtain credits through manual purchases, promotions or trials, committed plans, auto-recharge, or sales orders.

Qualified organizations may also receive $25 in promotional credits, subject to the applicable qualification requirements.

Most Usage Credits are generally flexible across eligible API Bricks products, but credits purchased through special commercial agreements or sales orders may have product-specific restrictions.

What Is a Committed Plan?

Pay As You Go works well when usage is uncertain. A committed plan is designed for customers with a more predictable baseline.

Instead of relying entirely on on-demand usage, the customer commits to a plan and receives Usage Credits that can be applied to eligible consumption.

Committed credits can be used across eligible API Bricks product lines, including CoinAPI and FinFeedAPI. Applicable included quotas and/or committed credits are applied before overage is billed.

The underlying product pricing rules still apply. Where daily pricing tiers exist, usage paid with committed credits still contributes to those tiers.

In simple terms:

Pay As You Go is built around usage as it happens. A committed plan is built around committing to a baseline amount of usage in advance.

How Is API Usage Calculated?

Usage Credits provide the billing layer, but they do not mean every API Bricks product costs the same amount to use.

API Bricks first calculates consumption according to the pricing rules of the product being used. Depending on the service, this can include per-request pricing, data-volume pricing, endpoint-specific pricing, or daily tiers.

In general, product-specific pricing rules determine how usage is measured and charged. Applicable subscription quotas and/or committed credits are then applied where available. Additional eligible usage may consume the organization's prepaid or granted Usage Credit balance.

This allows API Bricks to use a common credit system across products with very different usage patterns.

What Is Auto-Recharge?

Auto-recharge is designed to reduce the risk of service interruption when prepaid credits run low.

When enabled, it automatically adds service credits using the account's payment method when the credit balance falls below a configured threshold.

Two values control the basic behavior:

• Balance goes below — the threshold that triggers auto-recharge.
• Balance back up to — the target balance after recharge.

For example, an organization could configure auto-recharge to trigger below 1,000 UC and set a target balance of 10,000 UC. If the balance drops to 900 UC, auto-recharge is configured to attempt to top the account back up using the saved payment method.

The important distinction is that auto-recharge is prepaid usage. It adds more credits rather than allowing the account to run on a negative balance.

What Is Overage Protection?

Overage protection works differently.

It provides an allowance that can let eligible usage continue after the prepaid credit balance has been exhausted.

Instead of immediately stopping at zero, an eligible organization can continue consuming within its available overage protection allowance. That consumption can create a negative balance, with the post-paid usage billed on the next invoice.

Think of it as a controlled credit line for API usage.

Overage protection does not mean unlimited usage. Available allowances, spend-management settings, subscription limits, and other applicable restrictions can still apply.

Auto-Recharge vs. Overage Protection

The distinction is simple:

Auto-recharge is designed to maintain the prepaid balance. Overage protection provides an additional buffer if prepaid funds are exhausted.

Where Does Spend Management Fit In?

Having enough credits to continue using an API does not necessarily mean you want unlimited consumption.

That is the job of Spend Management.

It gives organizations controls such as daily budgets, usage visibility, notification thresholds, email or webhook alerts, and hard limits.

For example, an organization might have credits and overage protection available but configure a daily hard limit of 5,000 UC. Once consumption reaches that limit, new API calls or connections can be rejected until the next day.

This creates an important separation:

Credits fund usage. Auto-recharge can replenish credits. Overage protection can extend eligible usage beyond the prepaid balance. Spend management controls how much usage is allowed.

How Everything Works Together

The general API Bricks billing flow works like this:

1. A subscription establishes access, quotas, limits, and commercial terms.
2. Usage is generated through API calls, downloads, data transfer, or other product-specific activity.
3. Product-specific pricing rules determine how that usage is measured and charged.
4. Applicable subscription quotas and/or committed credits are applied where available.
5. Additional eligible usage may consume the organization's prepaid or granted Usage Credit balance.
6. If auto-recharge is enabled, the system can top up credits when the balance falls below the configured threshold.
7. If prepaid credits are exhausted and overage protection is available, eligible usage may continue into a negative balance and be billed later.
8. Spend management can apply budgets, alerts, and hard limits throughout the process.

The exact combination depends on the organization's subscription, product, credit balance, and billing configuration.

Choosing the Right Setup

There is no single configuration that fits every API workload.

For occasional or unpredictable usage, purchasing credits as needed may be enough. For stable consumption, a committed plan can provide a predictable baseline.

For production workloads, auto-recharge can reduce the risk of running out of prepaid credits. Where available, overage protection can provide an additional continuity buffer.

Spend management is useful across these setups because it lets teams monitor consumption, receive alerts, and establish hard limits.

The key is to treat these features as layers rather than alternatives.

A subscription defines the relationship. Product pricing determines the cost of usage. Usage Credits fund eligible consumption. Committed plans cover predictable usage. Auto-recharge maintains prepaid funds. Overage protection provides a post-paid buffer. Spend management keeps usage within the boundaries you choose.

Manage Your API Bricks Usage

Review your subscription, Usage Credit balance, auto-recharge configuration, overage protection, and spend-management settings in the API Bricks Customer Portal.

For cost estimates, check the pricing rules for the individual CoinAPI or FinFeedAPI product you plan to use before calculating the credit balance or committed plan required for your workload.

→ Explore your Customer Portal and check available settings.

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