specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
provider: Lemmy
providerId: lemmy
publisherName: LemmyNet (community-maintained)
serviceCategory: Social Network Data
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Communities
  - Federated
  - Fediverse
  - FinOps
  - FOCUS
  - Open-Source
description: >-
  FOCUS-aligned FinOps profile for Lemmy API consumption. Because Lemmy is free open-source
  software with no per-call API charges, the primary cost surface for FinOps purposes is
  infrastructure: self-hosted instance compute and storage, or managed hosting subscription fees
  from a third-party provider. There is no Lemmy vendor invoice for API calls; costs are entirely
  infrastructure-driven.
sources:
  - https://join-lemmy.org/
  - https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy
  - https://elest.io/open-source/lemmy/resources/plans-and-pricing
notes: >-
  Lemmy's AGPL-3.0 license means the software itself is free. FinOps practitioners should focus
  on infrastructure spend (compute, storage, egress bandwidth) for self-hosted deployments, or on
  the managed hosting subscription for operator deployments via providers like Elestio. Consumers
  hitting a public instance have no direct API cost.
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Infrastructure
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
    - Usage
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Lemmy
  ServiceCategory: Social Network Data
  ProviderName: LemmyNet
  PublisherName: LemmyNet (community-maintained)
  InvoiceIssuerName: Infrastructure Provider or Managed Hosting Provider
  BillingCurrency: USD
meters:
  - name: api_requests_public
    description: Requests to a public Lemmy instance API — no direct cost to consumer; counted
      against instance rate limits only.
    unit: request
    aggregation: count
    dimensions:
      - instance_host
      - endpoint
  - name: self_hosted_compute
    description: Monthly compute cost for a self-hosted Lemmy instance (paid to cloud/VPS provider).
    unit: instance-hour
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - cloud_provider
      - instance_type
      - region
  - name: self_hosted_storage
    description: Monthly storage cost for PostgreSQL database and Pictrs image data on a self-hosted
      instance. Elestio reference rate is ~$0.15/GB/month.
    unit: GB-month
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - cloud_provider
      - storage_type
  - name: managed_hosting_subscription
    description: Monthly subscription fee to a managed Lemmy hosting provider (e.g., Elestio).
    unit: subscription-month
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - managed_provider
      - plan_tier
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: >-
      For self-hosted deployments, instrument your cloud billing dashboard to tag Lemmy instance
      resources separately from other workloads. Enable Prometheus metrics (Lemmy ships with a
      built-in Prometheus endpoint on port 10002) to correlate API request volume with compute
      consumption.
  - name: Allocation
    description: >-
      Allocate infrastructure costs to the team or product using the Lemmy instance. If multiple
      communities share one instance, use community-level activity metrics (posts, comments, active
      users) to proportionally allocate storage and compute spend.
  - name: Optimization
    description: >-
      Lemmy is written in Rust and is highly resource-efficient; a single instance can serve tens
      of thousands of users on modest hardware. Optimize storage by configuring Pictrs with a
      retention policy or proxying images rather than storing them. Tune PostgreSQL connection pool
      size (default 30) to avoid over-provisioning memory. Use federation allow/block lists to
      limit egress traffic to well-known instances.
  - name: Accountability
    description: >-
      The instance operator owns infrastructure spend. Application teams consuming the public API
      on someone else's instance have no direct cost but should respect rate limits to avoid being
      blocked — instance bans are an operational, not financial, risk.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com