specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
provider: Arduino
providerId: arduino
name: Arduino IoT Cloud FinOps
description: >
  FinOps framework alignment for Arduino IoT Cloud API consumption. Arduino Cloud
  uses a subscription-based billing model with tiered plans. Costs are driven by
  the number of Things (device abstractions), data record throughput, and data
  retention duration. Enterprise customers receive custom metered billing.
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'
url: https://cloud.arduino.cc/plans
billingModel: subscription
billingCycle: monthly_and_annual
currency: USD
focusColumns:
  - BilledCost
  - EffectiveCost
  - ResourceType
  - ServiceName
  - SKUPriceId
  - UsageQuantity
  - UsageUnit
  - ChargeType
serviceDetails:
  serviceName: Arduino Cloud IoT API
  serviceCategory: Internet of Things
  providerName: Arduino
  invoiceIssuer: Arduino SA
meters:
  - name: Things Allocation
    description: >
      Number of active Thing instances (IoT device abstractions) provisioned under
      the account. Determines plan eligibility threshold.
    unit: things
    billingDimension: plan_tier
    plans:
      - plan: Free
        limit: 2
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
      - plan: Maker
        limit: 25
        pricePerUnit: 0.24
        note: Amortized per Thing per month at $6/month for 25 Things
      - plan: Team
        limit: 100
        pricePerUnit: 0.83
        note: Amortized per Thing per month at $83.33/month for 100 Things
      - plan: Enterprise
        limit: -1
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Custom — negotiated
  - name: Daily Data Records
    description: >
      Number of IoT property update records written to the time-series store
      per day. Drives storage throughput and retention costs.
    unit: records_per_day
    billingDimension: plan_tier
    plans:
      - plan: Free
        limit: 100000
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
      - plan: Maker
        limit: 1000000
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Included in plan subscription
      - plan: Team
        limit: 10000000
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Included in plan subscription
      - plan: Enterprise
        limit: -1
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Custom
  - name: Data Storage
    description: Monthly cloud data storage for IoT time-series records.
    unit: MB_per_month
    billingDimension: plan_tier
    plans:
      - plan: Free
        limit: 10
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
      - plan: Maker
        limit: 100
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Included in plan subscription
      - plan: Team
        limit: 1024
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Included in plan subscription (1 GB)
      - plan: Enterprise
        limit: -1
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Custom
  - name: API Requests
    description: >
      REST API calls to api2.arduino.cc for device management, dashboard control,
      property reads/writes, and series queries.
    unit: requests_per_second
    billingDimension: rate_limit
    plans:
      - plan: Free
        limit: 10
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
        note: Hard limit; 429 on breach
      - plan: Maker
        limit: 10
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
        note: Hard limit; 429 on breach
      - plan: Team
        limit: 10
        pricePerUnit: 0.00
        note: Hard limit; 429 on breach
      - plan: Enterprise
        limit: -1
        pricePerUnit: null
        note: Fair usage policy
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: >
      Track Thing count, daily record usage, and monthly data storage against
      plan thresholds in the Arduino Cloud dashboard. Monitor API 429 error rates
      to surface rate-limit pressure before it disrupts production workloads.
    actions:
      - Monitor Arduino Cloud usage dashboard for Things and data record consumption
      - Set up alerts when daily record usage exceeds 80% of plan limit
      - Track HTTP 429 responses in API monitoring to detect rate-limit saturation
  - name: Optimization
    description: >
      Right-size plan selection based on measured Thing count and data throughput.
      Batch property writes where possible to reduce record count. Use data
      retention periods strategically — fetch historical series data before
      retention expiry rather than storing externally at higher cost.
    actions:
      - Audit active Things and retire unused devices to stay within plan tier
      - Batch time-series writes to reduce daily record consumption
      - Evaluate annual billing (Maker $72/yr vs $72 monthly equivalent) for cost savings
      - Review data retention needs before choosing between Maker (3 months) and Team (1 year) plans
  - name: Accountability
    description: >
      Assign Arduino Cloud plan costs to engineering teams or projects by
      maintaining separate Team workspace accounts per cost center. Use
      Enterprise plan custom billing for multi-team chargebacks.
    actions:
      - Use separate Arduino Cloud team accounts per cost center or project
      - Map monthly subscription invoices to project budgets in FinOps tooling
      - For Enterprise, negotiate usage-based metering aligned with FOCUS billing columns