When you blow past your plan quota — and whether the next tier is cheaper.
Overage is priced to push you up a tier, so compare plan-plus-overage against the next plan. Cut the request count first on the rate limit calculator and forecast growth on the free-tier runway calculator.
Free API overage calculator — plan quota, actual usage and overage rate to your real monthly bill and whether to upgrade.
Usually upgrade, once overage is consistent. Overage rates are deliberately higher per unit than in-plan pricing to nudge you up a tier. If your total (plan + overage) regularly beats the flat price of the next tier, switch — but keep the cheaper plan if overage is rare and small.
Set usage alerts at 70–90% of quota, cache and dedupe requests to stay under, batch where the API allows, and review the tier fit quarterly. Predictable overage means you are on the wrong tier; spiky overage means you need caching or rate limiting.
Cost at different volumes:
| Volume | Monthly | Yearly |
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