name: Sprout Social FinOps
description: Financial operations guidance for managing Sprout Social API costs. API access is included as part of the Advanced and Enterprise subscription plans rather than being billed per-call.
url: https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/

billing_model:
  type: subscription
  description: Sprout Social uses a per-seat subscription model. API access is included starting with the Advanced plan at $399/seat/month (billed annually). There are no separate per-API-call fees.

cost_factors:
  - name: Seat Count
    description: Cost scales linearly with the number of seats (users) on the account. Each seat on the Advanced plan is $399/month billed annually.
    impact: high

  - name: Plan Tier
    description: API access requires the Advanced plan or Enterprise plan. Downgrading to a lower tier removes API access.
    impact: high

  - name: Monthly Request Volume
    description: API usage is capped at 250,000 requests/month per customer account. Exceeding this limit may result in throttling. No overage fees are documented publicly; contact your account rep for Enterprise overages.
    impact: medium

optimization_guidance:
  - Cache API responses where possible to reduce request volume against the 250,000/month limit.
  - Use the POST-based analytics endpoints efficiently by batching metric requests rather than making individual calls per profile.
  - Monitor X-RateLimit-Remaining headers to avoid hitting the 60 requests/minute limit and triggering unnecessary retries.
  - Evaluate seat count carefully — API access is per-account, not per-seat, so consolidating seats while retaining Advanced plan status can reduce costs.
  - For high-volume analytics workloads, negotiate Enterprise plan terms with a dedicated account representative.

free_trial:
  available: true
  duration: 30 days
  credit_card_required: false
  api_access_during_trial: false
  notes: The 30-day free trial does not include API access. API access requires upgrading to the Advanced or Enterprise plan.