Plans are all about being explicit and transparent with all of the access for an API, breaking down the tiers, rate limits, features, and pricing that is available for API consumers, standardizing the business of APIs.
Plans
Rules
APIs.json Apis Properties Plans Info
This property provides a link to the dedicated plans page that applies to an API, giving information about access tiers, rate limits, and features available for an API as part of a wider API busine...
Strategies
Onboarding is Always as Easy as Possible
I have been onboarding with APIs for over fifteen years and the best ones always get you from zero to first call in just a couple of steps. Documentation, authentication, SDKs--these need to be eas...
APIs Have Clear Service Level Commitments
Consumers need to know what they can depend on, and that means defined SLAs for uptime, latency, and throughput at each plan tier. Without clear service level commitments, you are asking people to ...
APIs Have Clear Business Models
An API without a clear business model is just a hobby. Pricing tiers, plan features, rate limits, usage metrics--you need to articulate the value exchange between producer and consumer. I have watc...
Experiences
Alignment
I see product and engineering teams talking past each other constantly when it comes to APIs. Without alignment on the why behind each API, you end up with technically sound resources that nobody a...
Communication
I struggle with how little communication happens between the teams producing APIs and the people consuming them. Blogs, changelogs, roadmaps -- these are building blocks that most teams just skip, ...
Onboarding
I see teams dealing with massive friction during onboarding. If a consumer can't get from zero to their first successful API call in minutes, you've already lost them. Getting started guides, sandb...
Access
I keep seeing teams struggle with getting consumers proper access to their APIs. The sign-up, authentication, and authorization process is where you lose people before they ever make their first AP...
Simplicity
I am a big believer that the best APIs are the simple ones. When I see overly complex API designs, I know someone was thinking about their internal architecture instead of the consumer. Keep the su...
Consistency
When I look across the API landscape, consistency is one of the biggest challenges I see. Every team does things differently, and the surface area of inconsistency just grows until governance becom...