name: Dotdigital FinOps
description: FinOps Framework FOCUS-aligned cost and usage guidance for Dotdigital marketing automation API consumption. Dotdigital uses custom quote-based pricing, so cost visibility requires direct vendor engagement and internal tracking.
specificationVersion: '1.0'
url: https://dotdigital.com/pricing/
pricingModel:
  type: custom-quote
  description: Dotdigital does not publish public pricing tiers. All pricing is negotiated directly with the sales team based on contact volume, send volume, channels enabled, and contractual terms.
  billingCycles:
    - annual
  currencies:
    - USD
    - GBP
    - EUR
costDrivers:
  - name: Contact Database Size
    description: The primary cost driver; pricing scales with the total number of addressable contacts stored in the platform.
    unit: contacts
    category: volume
  - name: Email Send Volume
    description: Monthly or annual email send volume is a significant factor in custom pricing negotiations.
    unit: emails-sent
    category: volume
  - name: SMS / MMS Sends
    description: Outbound SMS and MMS messages are typically metered separately from email sends.
    unit: messages-sent
    category: usage
  - name: WhatsApp Messages
    description: WhatsApp Business API messages are charged per session or per message as defined by Meta's pricing model, passed through Dotdigital.
    unit: messages-sent
    category: usage
  - name: Push Notifications
    description: Mobile push notification volume may contribute to per-message or per-device costs depending on the account agreement.
    unit: notifications-sent
    category: usage
  - name: API Call Volume
    description: API call volume is subject to tiered rate limits per account package; exceeding agreed limits may result in throttling. Overage charges, if any, are account-specific.
    unit: api-calls
    category: usage
  - name: Data Firehose
    description: Real-time data streaming (Data Firehose) may carry additional enablement or volume-based fees depending on the contract.
    unit: events-streamed
    category: usage
  - name: Add-on Channels
    description: Each channel (WhatsApp, SMS, App Messaging, Facebook Messenger) may be individually licensed or bundled into the contract.
    unit: channels-enabled
    category: feature
costOptimization:
  - name: Right-size Contact Database
    description: Regularly prune inactive or unsubscribed contacts to minimize the contact count that drives pricing at renewal.
    category: waste-reduction
  - name: Monitor API Tier Usage
    description: Use X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset response headers to track per-tier consumption and avoid throttling without upgrading unnecessarily.
    category: efficiency
  - name: Use Unlimited-Tier Calls for Sends
    description: Message-sending calls (email, SMS, push) fall in the Unlimited tier and do not count against bounded rate limits; batch sends via the API are cost-neutral from a rate-limit perspective.
    category: efficiency
  - name: Leverage Demo / Trial Account
    description: Use the Dotdigital demo account ([email protected]/demo) or a free trial account for development and testing to avoid consuming production quota and live send credits.
    category: waste-reduction
  - name: Regional Endpoint Alignment
    description: Ensure integrations point to the correct regional endpoint (r1/r2/r3) to prevent failed requests that still count against quotas or require costly retries.
    category: efficiency
  - name: Negotiate Volume Discounts at Renewal
    description: Annual send volume and contact growth forecasts should be shared with the Dotdigital sales team to lock in favorable per-unit rates before contract renewal.
    category: procurement
visibility:
  - name: Rate Limit Headers
    description: X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset, and X-RateLimit-Scope headers provide real-time usage visibility at the API tier level.
  - name: Account Dashboard
    description: In-platform reporting covers campaign send volumes, engagement metrics, and contact counts that proxy cost drivers.
  - name: Status Page
    description: https://dotdigitalstatus.com provides uptime and incident data relevant to SLA cost management.
notes:
  - Dotdigital's pricing is fully opaque publicly; all cost modeling requires direct vendor engagement
  - WhatsApp message costs are partially pass-through from Meta infrastructure pricing
  - Legacy flat-rate API limiting (HTTP 400 throttle) does not provide header-based usage visibility; tiered limiting is preferred for FinOps observability