# Pricing and Limits

**Last updated:** 2026-08-25

All Cafecito APIs are in free tier during current launch preview phase.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Price** | $0 |
| **Rate limit** | 100 requests per minute |
| **Monthly quota** | 50,000 requests per month |

Limits apply **per authenticated user**, not per API key. Every key you create shares the same 100/min and 50,000/month budget. REST and MCP calls use **the same meter**.

## What is included

- Beans publisher-content REST and MCP
- Espresso market and business intelligence REST and MCP
- Keyword and semantic search on documented collection routes
- Source, discovery, and related-resource routes documented for each product
- API key management in the developer portal

## How metering works

- Each successful API or MCP call counts as one request, regardless of payload size or `num_results`.
- Empty successful collections (`200` with `data: []`) count.
- REST and MCP share the user meter.
- **Not metered:** public `/health` checks, authenticated `Discovery` routes and API-key creation in the portal.
- **Not metered:** HTTP `4xx` and `5xx` responses.

When the per-minute limit is exceeded, the gateway returns HTTP `429`. When the monthly quota is exhausted, further authenticated calls return `429` until the next monthly window. There is no soft overage.

Paid plans may be announced later. Until then, the free-tier numbers on this page apply.

## If you hit a limit

Back off on `429` as described in [API conventions](/guides/api-conventions). For operational recovery, see [Troubleshooting](/guides/troubleshooting).