specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
provider: Zenodo
providerId: zenodo
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'

description: >
  Zenodo is a free, open service funded by CERN and the European OpenAIRE
  program. There are no direct costs to end users for depositing, accessing,
  or using the API. FinOps considerations are limited to infrastructure
  cost awareness and quota planning for large data depositors.

billingModel: free
currency: USD

focusColumns:
  - BilledCost
  - EffectiveCost
  - UsageQuantity
  - UsageUnit
  - ResourceId
  - ServiceName
  - ChargeType

meters:

  - name: Storage Used
    unit: GB
    description: >
      Volume of data stored across all records in a Zenodo account.
      Free up to 50 GB per record with 150 GB additional allowance.
    pricePerUnit: 0.00
    chargeType: Usage
    focus:
      ServiceName: Zenodo Storage
      UsageUnit: GB

  - name: API Requests (Authenticated)
    unit: requests
    description: >
      REST API calls made with a valid Bearer token. Metered at the rate-limit
      layer but not billed. Useful for tracking integration load.
    pricePerUnit: 0.00
    chargeType: Usage
    focus:
      ServiceName: Zenodo REST API
      UsageUnit: requests

  - name: API Requests (Guest)
    unit: requests
    description: >
      Unauthenticated REST API calls. Metered at the rate-limit layer.
    pricePerUnit: 0.00
    chargeType: Usage
    focus:
      ServiceName: Zenodo REST API (Guest)
      UsageUnit: requests

  - name: OAI-PMH Harvest Requests
    unit: requests
    description: >
      Metadata harvesting requests via the OAI-PMH endpoint. Rate limited
      but not billed.
    pricePerUnit: 0.00
    chargeType: Usage
    focus:
      ServiceName: Zenodo OAI-PMH
      UsageUnit: requests

  - name: DOI Minting
    unit: DOIs
    description: >
      Each published record receives a DataCite DOI. No charge to the depositor.
    pricePerUnit: 0.00
    chargeType: Usage
    focus:
      ServiceName: Zenodo DOI
      UsageUnit: DOIs

principles:

  - name: Visibility
    description: >
      Although Zenodo itself is free, organizations using the API at scale
      should track storage consumption per project and API request volume
      to plan for quota increase requests and ensure fair-use compliance.
    actions:
      - Monitor storage usage per record via the /api/deposit/depositions endpoint
      - Track X-RateLimit-Remaining headers to detect throttling before hitting limits
      - Audit file counts per record to stay within the 100-file maximum

  - name: Optimization
    description: >
      Use authenticated tokens to access higher rate limits (100 req/min vs 60 for guests).
      Compress multi-file datasets into ZIP archives to stay within per-record file limits.
      Use the sandbox environment to develop and test before consuming production quotas.
    actions:
      - Always authenticate API requests to maximize rate-limit allowance
      - Aggregate files into archives to reduce record count and file count
      - Schedule bulk harvesting via OAI-PMH during off-peak hours to avoid 429 errors
      - Request quota increases proactively for large dataset deposits

  - name: Accountability
    description: >
      Zenodo asks depositors to abide by fair-use principles. Abusing the
      free service — e.g., fragmenting a single dataset across many records
      to circumvent the 50 GB per-record limit — violates platform policies.
    actions:
      - Review Zenodo policies at https://about.zenodo.org/policies/ before bulk uploads
      - Use one record per logical dataset rather than splitting to game quotas