specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Pollfish
providerId: pollfish
created: '2026-07-04'
modified: '2026-07-04'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Surveys
- Market Research
- Monetization
- FinOps
- Cost Management
- FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps view of Pollfish spend and earnings. Pollfish is two-sided. On the
  researcher (demand) side it is a cost center: pay-as-you-go, billed per
  completed survey response (from ~$0.95/response, 100-response minimum) with
  surcharges per demographic targeting filter, survey length, and audience
  difficulty - so cost scales with responses collected and targeting complexity,
  not with API calls. On the publisher (supply) side it is a revenue center:
  integrating the SDK / survey-serving API is free and the publisher earns a
  revenue share (CPA in US dollar cents) per completed survey, which the Dashboard
  API surfaces through the revenue and revenuePerCountry endpoints for
  reconciliation against Pollfish payouts. Pollfish is owned by Prodege LLC.
notes: >-
  Per-response researcher rates are indicative and set live in the survey builder;
  publisher revenue share is set by Pollfish and mediation partners. The APIs
  themselves are not separately metered - model spend on responses purchased and
  model income on completed-survey CPA. Verify current rates on pollfish.com/pricing.
sources:
- https://www.pollfish.com/pricing/
- https://www.pollfish.com/docs/dashboard-api
- https://www.pollfish.com/docs/api-documentation
- 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: Prodege
serviceCategory: Market Research and Survey Monetization
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Usage-Based
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Usage
  - Purchase
  - Adjustment
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Pollfish
  ServiceCategory: Market Research and Survey Monetization
  ProviderName: Pollfish
  PublisherName: Prodege
  InvoiceIssuerName: Prodege
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
  PricingCategory: Usage-Based
meters:
- name: completed_responses
  description: Completed survey responses purchased by a researcher, billed per response.
  unit: responses
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - survey
  - country
- name: targeting_filters
  description: Demographic targeting filters applied to a survey, each adding a per-response surcharge.
  unit: filters
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - survey
- name: publisher_revenue_cpa
  description: Revenue earned by a publisher per completed survey (CPA in US dollar cents), reported via the Dashboard API.
  unit: usd_cents
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - app
  - provider
  - country
- name: survey_completions
  description: Count of surveys completed through a publisher app, driving both revenue and s2s postback volume.
  unit: completions
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - app
  - provider
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: For researchers, track responses purchased and targeting surcharges per survey; for publishers, track CPA revenue per app, provider, and country via the revenue and revenuePerCountry endpoints.
- name: Allocation
  description: Name surveys and publisher apps per project/team so response spend and CPA revenue map to internal cost and revenue centers.
- name: Optimization
  description: Researchers reduce cost by minimizing unnecessary targeting filters, keeping surveys short, and right-sizing response counts; publishers optimize fill and revenue by enabling third-party mediation surveys and tuning placement behavior.
- name: Accountability
  description: Reconcile Dashboard API revenue reports against Pollfish payouts monthly, and review researcher response spend against research budgets.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com