specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Pokémon TCG API
providerId: pokemon-tcg
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Pokemon
- Trading Cards
- TCG
- Gaming
- FinOps
- Cost Management
- FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps view of Pokémon TCG API consumption. There is no vendor invoice at
  any usage level - the API is a free, community-run service funded by
  voluntary Patreon and Ko-fi donations. The only unit that matters for cost
  governance is the request quota: 1,000 requests/day anonymously (max
  30/minute) or 20,000 requests/day with a free API key, with higher limits
  negotiable with the maintainer. For consumers, the FinOps concern is quota
  stewardship (staying inside daily limits so integrations do not break) and
  any optional recurring donation a team chooses to make to support the
  service they depend on.
notes: >-
  Because there is no billing, no FOCUS-format billing export exists or will
  exist. Treat the daily request quota as the budget: meter requests per
  application, cache card and set data locally (card data changes rarely;
  prices update daily), and consider a modest recurring donation as a line
  item if the API is in a production dependency path.
sources:
- https://pokemontcg.io
- https://docs.pokemontcg.io/getting-started/rate-limits
- https://docs.pokemontcg.io/getting-started/authentication
- https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
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/
publisherName: Pokémon TCG API
serviceCategory: Gaming and Entertainment Data
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Free
  billingFrequency: None
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Usage
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Pokémon TCG API
  ServiceCategory: Gaming and Entertainment Data
  ProviderName: Pokémon TCG API
  PublisherName: Pokémon TCG API
  InvoiceIssuerName: None (free community service)
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
  PricingCategory: Free
meters:
- name: api_requests
  description: HTTP requests against api.pokemontcg.io/v2, counted against the daily quota (1,000/day anonymous, 20,000/day keyed).
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - api-key
  - application
  - endpoint
- name: anonymous_burst
  description: Per-minute request rate for keyless clients, capped at 30/minute.
  unit: requests
  aggregation: max
  dimensions:
  - client
- name: donations
  description: Optional Patreon or Ko-fi contributions supporting the service (the only money that changes hands).
  unit: USD
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: Meter requests per application and per API key against the daily quota; alert well before the 1,000 or 20,000/day ceiling.
- name: Allocation
  description: Issue a separate free API key per application or team so quota consumption maps to its consumer.
- name: Optimization
  description: Cache aggressively - card and set data is nearly static and prices refresh only daily; use select to trim payloads, precise q queries to cut result pages, and pageSize=250 when bulk paging. Bulk data is also available in the open PokemonTCG/pokemon-tcg-data GitHub repo, which costs zero quota.
- name: Accountability
  description: Assign an owner for the shared quota; if the API sits in a production path, budget a recurring donation and a relationship with the maintainer for elevated limits.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com