# Provenance stamped 2026-10-07 (roadmap#943): written by an API Evangelist sweep (undated — the file carries no date and git cannot supply one), not
# harvested from the provider. `method: generated` so the economics campaign may replace it with a
# dated, verbatim transcription; every figure below is unverified until it does.
# Coverage demoted 2026-10-07 (roadmap#942, PLAN.md Stage A): this file was written by an API Evangelist
# sweep and names no billing unit, meters or pricing category read from the provider — it restates the
# FinOps framework. It is `x-coverage: unmeasured`, and the FOCUS alignment it claimed has been removed.
x-coverage: unmeasured
method: generated
finops:
  provider: Airlabs (Data Products LTD)
  pricingUrl: https://airlabs.co/#Pricing
  pricingModel: subscription
  billingCycle: monthly
  currency: USD
  notes: Pricing is based on total monthly query volume across all API endpoints.
    Each API call (regardless of endpoint) counts as one query against the monthly
    allowance. No per-endpoint pricing distinctions are documented.

  plans:
    - name: Free
      monthlyCost: 0.00
      queryAllowance: null
      costPerQuery: null
      notes: Evaluation plan with limited results per request (50 max) and restricted
        response fields. No credit card required.

    - name: Starter
      monthlyCost: 19.00
      queryAllowance: 10000
      costPerQuery: 0.0019
      notes: Effective cost of $0.0019 per query. Suitable for low-volume prototypes
        and internal tools.

    - name: Growth
      monthlyCost: 99.00
      queryAllowance: 100000
      costPerQuery: 0.00099
      notes: Effective cost of ~$0.001 per query. Approximately 48% cheaper per
        query than Starter tier.

    - name: Scale
      monthlyCost: 499.00
      queryAllowance: 1000000
      costPerQuery: 0.000499
      notes: Effective cost of ~$0.0005 per query. Approximately 50% cheaper per
        query than Growth tier. Best value for high-volume production applications.

  costOptimizationTips:
    - Use the _fields parameter to request only needed response fields, reducing
      payload size without reducing query count.
    - Use pagination with limit and offset to retrieve data in manageable batches
      rather than fetching large datasets repeatedly.
    - Cache static database responses (airports, airlines, cities) locally to avoid
      repeated identical queries.
    - Use the temporary signature authentication method in production to secure
      the API key without additional cost.
    - Monitor minute and hour sub-limits to avoid throttling errors that waste
      query budget on retries.