name: pdflayer FinOps
description: Financial operations guidance for managing costs when using the pdflayer HTML to PDF API.
url: https://pdflayer.com/pricing

cost_model:
  type: subscription_with_overage
  billing_cycles:
    - monthly
    - annual
  currency: USD
  notes: >
    pdflayer charges a flat monthly (or annual) subscription fee that includes a set number of API
    requests. When the included quota is exceeded on paid plans, per-request overage fees apply
    automatically to prevent service interruption. Annual billing provides discounts of 10-15%
    depending on the plan tier.

plans_summary:
  - plan: Free
    monthly_cost: 0.00
    included_requests: 100
    cost_per_request_included: 0.00
    cost_per_overage_request: null

  - plan: Basic
    monthly_cost: 9.99
    annual_cost: 107.99
    included_requests: 1000
    cost_per_request_included: 0.00999
    cost_per_overage_request: 0.03996

  - plan: Professional
    monthly_cost: 39.99
    annual_cost: 419.99
    included_requests: 10000
    cost_per_request_included: 0.003999
    cost_per_overage_request: 0.015996

  - plan: Enterprise
    monthly_cost: 119.99
    annual_cost: 1223.99
    included_requests: 100000
    cost_per_request_included: 0.0011999
    cost_per_overage_request: 0.0047996

optimization_strategies:
  - name: Choose Annual Billing
    description: >
      Switching from monthly to annual billing saves 10% (Basic), 12.5% (Professional),
      or 15% (Enterprise) on subscription costs.

  - name: Monitor Usage Dashboard
    description: >
      Use the real-time dashboard to track consumption. Email alerts fire at 75%, 90%,
      and 100% of quota so you can upgrade before accumulating significant overage charges.

  - name: Right-Size Plan Before Overage Accumulates
    description: >
      Overage rates on the Basic plan ($0.03996/request) are more expensive per-request
      than upgrading to Professional ($0.003999 included cost per request). If consistently
      exceeding quota, upgrading tiers is more cost-effective.

  - name: Batch PDF Generation
    description: >
      Where possible, batch or queue PDF generation requests during off-peak periods rather
      than generating on-demand to better predict and control monthly request consumption.

  - name: Cache Generated PDFs
    description: >
      Store generated PDFs on a CDN or object storage layer and reuse them for identical
      requests rather than re-invoking the API, reducing total request volume.

  - name: Use POST for Large Payloads
    description: >
      Use HTTP POST for large HTML payloads to avoid URL length limits and ensure reliable
      request handling, which reduces failed/retry requests that count against quota.

break_even_analysis:
  - description: >
      A Basic plan user generating more than ~1,251 requests/month pays less upgrading
      to Professional ($39.99) than paying overage on Basic ($9.99 + $0.03996 * 751 overage = $39.98).
  - description: >
      A Professional plan user generating more than ~12,503 requests/month pays less upgrading
      to Enterprise ($119.99) than paying overage on Professional ($39.99 + $0.015996 * 2,503 = $80.03).