Pricing and access
Priced per operation, metered per service.
Metered work draws down credit, and every draw traces back to the operation that caused it. A price always carries the unit it is charged in. Contract shape is agreed for your organisation rather than published here.
- Currency
- Pounds sterling
- Billing
- Credit, drawn down by metered work
- Rates
- Indicative, confirmed per organisation
Four things to know about the bill.
Metering is part of the platform rather than a layer bolted on top of it, which is why every figure below can be traced to an operation that produced it.
Credits, in pounds
A new organisation starts prepaid: you hold a balance and metered work draws it down. Postpaid and unmetered accounts exist for organisations that need them.
Priced per operation
A price always carries its billing unit, because 2.3p on its own is ambiguous and 2.3p per lookup is not. Cost traces back to the operation that caused it.
Metered per service
Each service meters independently, so "what did Processor cost this month" is a query rather than an allocation exercise. Nothing is metered until you enable a service.
Free operations still recorded
An operation priced at nothing is written to the usage ledger in full. The count answers questions the cost cannot.
Indicative rates.
These come from the platform's example catalogue, which describes itself as a set of illustrations. They are the right order of magnitude and they are not a signed rate card. Where the platform holds no price at all, the table says so.
Rates in pence per billing unit. Free means the operation is recorded in full and charged nothing. On request means the price is a commercial decision that has not been set, and it is settled before the service is switched on.
| Operation | Service | Rate | Unit | What it counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| storage.standard.gb_month | Storage | By class | GB month | Volume held over time, across six storage classes. |
| storage.upload | Storage | Free | upload | Counted, not charged. The bytes are charged by volume held over time. |
| storage.download | Storage | Free | download | Counted, not charged. |
| ocr.page | Processor | 4p | page | One page processed. |
| ocr.document | Processor | 15p | document | A whole document, however many pages. |
| esign.envelope | Sign | 35p | envelope | One envelope sent for signature. |
| esign.signature | Sign | 12p | signature | One signature captured. |
| esign.signature_validated | Sign | Free | validation | One submitted signature validated server-side. |
| esign.form_completed | Sign | Free | submission | Recorded in full, charged nothing. |
| documents.generated | Documents | On request | document | No price is set. Agreed before the service is enabled. |
| calendar.booking_created | Calendar | On request | booking | No price is set. Agreed before the service is enabled. |
| communications.email_sent | Communications | On request | message | No price is set. Agreed before the service is enabled. |
| communications.sms_segment_sent | Communications | On request | segment | Per 160-character segment, as carriers charge. |
| identity.check | Identity | 65p | check | One identity check. |
| address.lookup | Address Lookup | 2.3p | lookup | One postcode or address search. |
Credit is held in pounds and prices are set in pence, so a sub-penny operation can be priced exactly. Internal units are never shown to anybody: a number like 1,000,000 in a table is unreadable, and the same number in a form is a mis-keyed price waiting to happen.
Crossing your low-balance threshold raises one notification rather than one per charge. When the balance reaches zero, chargeable operations stop and free ones continue, so an integration degrades rather than failing silently.
From asking to live.
Four things happen, in this order, and none of them starts a cost until you turn a service on.
Request access
Tell us what the work is
An organisation is created for you and you become its owner. Nothing is metered yet, and no service is enabled by the act of signing up.
Build against test
Test keys, from the first minute
Every credential is issued for test or live and the prefix says which. Test traffic is separate, so nothing you do while building reaches a real customer.
Enable a service
One at a time, on purpose
Most services are enabled on request rather than automatically, because switching one on starts a cost and, for Sign, puts a document in front of somebody over your name.
Go live
Rotate to live keys and top up
Rotation overlaps: the new secret works before the old one stops. Set a balance, a low-balance threshold and automatic top-up if you want one.
Questions people ask before they ask for access.
If yours is not here, it is a fair thing to put in the box below.
Can we start with one service?
Yes, and most customers do. Each service has its own API, its own scopes and its own meter. Adding a second one later needs no change to the first.
How is it structured commercially?
Metered work draws down credit, priced per operation. Contract shape, minimums and any standing fee are agreed for your organisation rather than published here, so ask and we will put the actual terms in writing.
What happens when the balance runs out?
Chargeable operations stop and free ones continue. Crossing your low-balance threshold raises a notification once rather than on every charge.
Can we get our own rates?
Custom pricing per organisation is part of the platform rather than an exception to it. The indicative rates apply until yours are set.
Who can see usage?
Anyone in your organisation with permission to read it, and any integration you have granted usage:read. Reading a bill is never itself charged.
Where does the data live?
In the region agreed for your organisation. Region is set at the account level rather than per request, so it cannot drift as integrations are added.
Request access.
Tell us what the work is. We will reply with the services that cover it, the operations you would be billed for, and anything on your list Proxy does not do. A person reads this, so a sentence is more useful than a form filled in perfectly.
- What happens
- We reply by email, usually within two working days.
- What we do with it
- We use it to answer you. It is not added to a marketing list.
- Already a customer
- Ask for a service from the Services screen inside your organisation.