specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: The Movie Database
providerId: tmdb
created: '2026-05-30'
modified: '2026-05-30'
reconciled: false
tags:
- FinOps
- FOCUS
- Catalog
- Entertainment
- Movies
- TV
- Video
description: >-
  FOCUS-aligned FinOps shape for TMDB. The public API has no metered billing — non-commercial use is
  free, commercial use is governed by a negotiated written agreement with no published price sheet. The
  FinOps meters below are internal-cost meters: they reflect what a TMDB consumer should track to model
  their own consumption (request volume, image bandwidth, cache age) for accountability and to inform
  commercial negotiations with TMDB. There is no TMDB-issued invoice to reconcile against.
sources:
- https://www.themoviedb.org/api-terms-of-use
- https://developer.themoviedb.org/docs/rate-limiting
- https://developer.themoviedb.org/docs/getting-started
- 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: The Movie Database, LLC
serviceCategory: Media + Entertainment Catalog
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Custom (Non-Commercial Free + Negotiated Commercial)
  billingFrequency: On-Demand (when commercial agreement is in place)
  billingCurrency: USD (negotiated)
  chargeCategories:
  - Usage
  - Purchase
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: The Movie Database API
  ServiceCategory: Media + Entertainment Catalog
  ServiceSubcategory: Movie / TV / People Metadata
  ProviderName: The Movie Database, LLC
  PublisherName: The Movie Database, LLC
  InvoiceIssuerName: The Movie Database, LLC
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
meters:
- name: api_requests
  unit: request
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - resource_family
  - http_method
  - status_code
  - region
- name: image_bytes_egress
  unit: GB
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - image_size
  - region
- name: cache_age_seconds
  unit: second
  aggregation: max
  dimensions:
  - resource_family
- name: daily_id_export_downloads
  unit: download
  aggregation: count
  dimensions:
  - entity_type
- name: append_to_response_calls
  unit: request
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - parent_resource
  - sub_resource_count
- name: rate_limit_429_count
  unit: response
  aggregation: count
  dimensions:
  - api_key
  - resource_family
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: >-
    TMDB does not expose a usage/billing API. Instrument your own client (per-API-key request counters,
    429-response counters, image CDN bandwidth from your egress provider) and emit FOCUS-shaped rows to
    your warehouse. Use the /3/configuration response for image base URLs so you can attribute egress to
    TMDB content.
- name: Allocation
  description: >-
    Tag each TMDB API key with the team/product/feature consuming it. Allocate request and 429-response
    counts back to the owning workflow (e.g. recommendations, browse, watch-provider lookup). Image CDN
    bytes attributable to TMDB posters/backdrops should be tagged with the originating page or feature.
- name: Optimization
  description: >-
    Three big levers in order of impact — (1) cache responses up to the 6-month TTL ceiling allowed by
    the Terms of Use; (2) use ?append_to_response to fold sub-resource lookups (credits, images, videos)
    into the parent detail call so 4-6 round trips become one; (3) use the nightly daily-ID exports for
    bulk discovery instead of paginating /discover. For images, cache aggressively at your CDN edge and
    pick the smallest size variant that satisfies the layout.
- name: Accountability
  description: >-
    Assign one owner per TMDB API key. Alert on 429 rate as a leading indicator of cost (you can't pay
    TMDB more to raise the limit — only redesign). For commercial integrations, the API Owner is also
    the contract owner for the written commercial agreement with TMDB and is responsible for any
    negotiated pricing entries showing up as `Purchase` charges in FOCUS.