name: ValueSERP FinOps
description: >-
  FinOps framework alignment for ValueSERP API consumption. ValueSERP charges
  per successful search request with tiered pricing that rewards volume — costs
  drop from $2.50/1K on pay-as-you-go to $0.50/1K at the 20M/month tier.
  Annual billing provides an additional 10% discount over monthly rates.
  Only successful Search API calls are billable; utility API calls (Locations,
  Account, Error Logs) are free.
specificationVersion: "1.0"
url: https://trajectdata.com/serp/value-serp-api/pricing/

allocation:
  - name: Search API Usage
    description: >-
      Primary cost driver. Each successful call to /search, /places, /shopping,
      /news, /product, or /place_reviews endpoint counts as one billable search.
    unit: per search
    trackingDimension: api_key
    notes: >-
      Tag API keys per team, project, or application to enable cost allocation
      across organizational units.

  - name: Overage Charges
    description: >-
      Searches beyond the monthly plan quota are billed at the plan's overage
      rate. Monitor monthly consumption to avoid unexpected overage charges.
    unit: per 1,000 searches
    notes: >-
      Set up usage alerts in the ValueSERP dashboard to trigger notifications
      before reaching plan limits.

  - name: Batch Processing
    description: >-
      Batch requests use the same per-search billing as synchronous requests
      but allow up to 10,000 requests per batch, enabling bulk data collection
      at lower operational overhead.
    unit: per search (same rate as synchronous)

optimization:
  - name: Volume Tier Selection
    description: >-
      Select the subscription tier that matches or slightly exceeds expected
      monthly volume to minimize per-search cost. Upgrading one tier to avoid
      overage charges often reduces total monthly spend.
    recommendation: >-
      Calculate break-even between subscription + no overage vs. lower tier +
      overage cost before each billing cycle.

  - name: Annual vs Monthly Billing
    description: >-
      Annual billing reduces effective monthly cost by approximately 10% across
      all subscription tiers.
    recommendation: >-
      Commit to annual billing once monthly volume stabilizes above 25,000
      searches to capture the discount.

  - name: Batch vs Real-Time
    description: >-
      Use batch processing for non-time-sensitive data collection to reduce
      operational complexity and infrastructure overhead. Batch searches are
      billed at the same rate but allow offline processing.
    recommendation: >-
      Route reporting, SEO monitoring, and bulk keyword tracking workloads
      through the Batches API.

  - name: Free Utility APIs
    description: >-
      The Locations API, Account API, and Error Logs API do not incur charges.
      Use these freely for integration, monitoring, and location validation
      without budget impact.
    recommendation: >-
      Integrate Error Logs API for automated failure detection to avoid paying
      for retry logic on failed searches.

  - name: Pay-As-You-Go for Spikes
    description: >-
      For unpredictable or seasonal workloads, pay-as-you-go avoids committing
      to a monthly subscription. At $2.50/1K, break-even vs. Starter plan is
      approximately 20,000 searches/month.
    recommendation: >-
      Switch to pay-as-you-go during low-volume periods and upgrade to a
      subscription when monthly volume consistently exceeds 20,000 searches.

forecasting:
  - name: Search Volume Forecasting
    description: >-
      Project monthly search volumes by endpoint type (organic, shopping, news,
      places) to select the appropriate subscription tier and budget for overage.
    inputs:
      - Monthly active keywords tracked
      - Search refresh frequency (daily, weekly, on-demand)
      - Number of supported geographic locations
      - Number of supported devices (desktop, mobile, tablet)

  - name: Cost Per Insight
    description: >-
      Track cost per actionable business output (keyword ranking, competitor
      price point, local pack position) to evaluate ROI on SERP API spend.
    formula: >-
      (monthly_searches * cost_per_search) / actionable_insights_produced

reporting:
  - name: Monthly Spend Tracking
    description: >-
      Monitor spend against subscription quota weekly to catch approaching
      overage limits before billing cycle closes.
    url: https://app.valueserp.com/

  - name: Cost Allocation by Use Case
    description: >-
      Separate API keys by use case (SEO monitoring, competitive intelligence,
      lead generation, application features) to attribute costs to business units.
    notes: >-
      ValueSERP account dashboard provides per-API-key usage reporting.