What are credits and how are they used?

1. What credits are

Credits are the unit Topolab uses to meter API activity. Each plan includes a monthly credit allocation, and you can purchase more credits if you need additional headroom. Credits are consumed by API calls against your data.

2. What consumes credits

Only data-bearing calls draw down credits. Listing, metadata, and free samples cost nothing.

Full dataset download  (/files/:format)          10 credits
Coordinates            (/coordinates)              15 credits
Archive month          (/archives/:month/:format)  20 credits
Listing, metadata, free samples                     0 credits

Credits are per organization

Your credit allowance belongs to the organization, not to an individual user, so all keys in the organization draw from the same monthly balance.

3. Tracking your usage

You can report on credits consumed and credits remaining for a date range, and break the same totals down per API key to attribute spend to a specific workload. A per-call log is also available so you can see exactly which endpoints and datasets drew credits.

Attribute spend by key

Give each workload its own API key. The per-key usage breakdown then shows which pipeline or app is consuming the most credits.

4. Buying more credits

If your workload needs more than your plan's monthly allocation, you can purchase additional credits. If you consistently exceed your allowance, contact us about a higher allowance.