specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
provider: Figshare
providerId: figshare
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'
description: >-
  Figshare uses a freemium + one-time publishing charge billing model. Free
  individual accounts have no recurring cost. Figshare+ tiers charge a one-time
  Data Publishing Charge (DPC) based on storage volume in 250GB increments.
  Institutional plans are subscription-based with custom pricing. There are no
  API usage fees — all API access is included in the account tier.
billingModel: freemium-plus-one-time-charge
focusColumns:
  - BilledCost
  - EffectiveCost
  - ChargeCategory
  - ChargeDescription
  - ResourceId
  - ServiceName
  - ServiceCategory
  - UsageQuantity
  - UsageUnit
  - PricingUnit
  - PricingQuantity
meters:
  - name: StorageDeposit
    description: >-
      One-time charge per data deposit based on total storage volume in 250GB
      tiers. Applies to Figshare+ plans.
    unit: 250GB
    ratePerUnit: 1225
    currency: USD
    chargeType: one-time
    focusChargeCategory: Purchase
  - name: PrivateStorage
    description: >-
      Free private storage included with all figshare.com accounts up to 20GB.
      No charge for usage within the free quota.
    unit: GB
    ratePerUnit: 0
    currency: USD
    chargeType: included
    limit: 20
    focusChargeCategory: Usage
  - name: CurationReview
    description: >-
      Expert metadata review and curation service included in Figshare+ deposits.
      Previously separately priced at $160/deposit; now bundled into DPC pricing.
    unit: deposit
    chargeType: bundled
    focusChargeCategory: Purchase
  - name: InstitutionalSubscription
    description: >-
      Annual subscription fee for Institutional Figshare repositories. Custom
      pricing based on institution size and storage requirements.
    unit: institution/year
    chargeType: subscription
    focusChargeCategory: Recurring
    notes: Custom pricing — contact Figshare/Springer Nature
principles:
  Visibility:
    description: >-
      Figshare+ charges are transparent and shown upfront as one-time DPC costs
      before deposit. Free tier usage is clearly bounded at 20GB. Institutional
      costs are negotiated but should be tracked as annual commitments.
    recommendations:
      - Track Figshare+ deposit charges as one-time capital expenditure per project
      - Monitor free tier storage consumption to plan for Figshare+ upgrades
      - Document institutional contract terms and renewal dates
  Optimization:
    description: >-
      Optimize costs by depositing related datasets together to reduce per-deposit
      overhead, using the free 20GB tier for smaller supplementary materials, and
      leveraging institutional access when available for large-scale archiving.
    recommendations:
      - Batch related datasets into single deposits to minimize per-deposit fixed costs
      - Use free figshare.com tier for datasets under 20GB to avoid DPC entirely
      - Investigate institutional Figshare access through your organization before
        paying individual Figshare+ charges
      - For commercial entities, note the 1TB maximum for Figshare+ plans
costAllocation:
  dimensions:
    - project
    - department
    - grant
    - publication
  notes: >-
    Figshare does not natively provide cost allocation tags across API calls.
    Institutional admin APIs allow per-group and per-account management which
    can be used for departmental chargeback purposes.