Getting paid for your API - how to monetize your API

If you’re using the Bundled Access model, customers will likely pay for API access the same way they pay for your other products. But if you’re using the Pay Per Call or Pay Per Month models, you must provide an easy, online payment method that also integrates with your API management service. That way, customers can easily track their usage and pay their bill from one place.

As an example, Azure API Management provides a detailed walkthrough of how to integrate their platform with a third-party payment service provider, like Stripe. Most worthwhile API management platforms provide this sort of easy integration, so it should be a breeze to connect your management platform with a payment service provider, if that’s the route you choose.

If you’ve chosen to not use an API management platform, you can still use an online payment service provider to bill your customers. However, depending on how open your usage measurements are, you might lose out on the ability for customers to directly compare their API usage to their bill. This transparency goes a long way toward building confidence in your API and your company, so integrating payment with an API management platform might be worth the extra investment.

Conclusion

The right monetization strategy makes entering the API economy easy. If you select the right pricing model, adjust your strategy to account for your customers’ usage, and make it simple for customers to pay you, you’ll soon see API calls turn into real revenue. Hopefully, we’ve given you the tools you need to make that statement true for your company.

Mertech Additional Resources:

• Pricing API access
• Measuring API usage
• Getting paid for your API

Updated by the Mertech on 8/19/2020