Prepared: 2026-08-02
Purpose: Supporting detail for Calvin Correli / Simplero’s goodwill refund request re: unintended development/test environment API charges and plan placement.
Public gist: for sharing with Spreedly Success.
- Legacy → API pricing (Oct 2020): Spreedly forced Simplero off legacy pricing. CSM Jenn Snider (24 Aug 2020) said usage fit Growing at ~$549/mo. Account was provisioned on Scaling @ $1,500/mo + per-API-call instead —
3× more expensive at the quoted volume. Internal team expected Growing ($500+). - Test/dev traffic billed the same as production on paid accounts. No customer-facing warning in the plan-change emails that development-environment or automated test-suite traffic would become a major cost center. Reporting made it hard to isolate for months.
- Est. metered API usage since Oct 2020:
$53.6k pretax org-wide; **$51k pretax (~$55k with tax)** attributable to non-production/dev/test after a modest production allowance. Spike May 2025–Jul 2026 is ~$44k of that. - Production-only today:
856 API calls / 30 days ($26 usage). Platform/support ~$1,500 still dominates.
From: Jenn Snider, CSM · 2020-08-24 · “Your Spreedly Account - Simplero”
To: calvin@simplero.com, joshua@simplero.com, maja@simplero.com
Verbatim (key passages):
The reason for today’s email is to inform you that we are adjusting your account’s pricing plan and will replace it with one of our current API plans. These newer API plans were introduced in 2018… we have decided to eliminate legacy pricing plans, including your plan which we retired in 2017… your plan change will go into effect for the month of October 2020.
Current Usage and Your New Plan
Average monthly API call volume - 2,458
Integrations used/enabled: 7 of 15
That would currently put you into the Growing Plan with an estimated monthly cost of $549.
How your new plan works - The plan has two components.
Subscription fee … billed monthly…
API fee - For each API call to Spreedly, you will be charged a fee, which is different depending on your plan…
Please note, you do have the option to buy up to a higher tier plan in the event you feel a cheaper API Call would make sense for your business.
(restated in her 2020-09-22 follow-up)
Public list structure at the time (Starting / Growing / Scaling):
| Plan | Platform | Per API call (list) | Est. at 2,458 calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growing (recommended) | $500 | $0.02 | $500 + $49 ≈ $549 |
| Scaling (provisioned) | $1,500 | $0.005 | $1,500 + $12 ≈ $1,512 |
Break-even: Scaling only cheaper above ~66,700 API calls/month.
At 2,458 calls, Scaling was ~$960/mo more expensive, not cheaper.
Joshua Paine → Calvin, 2020-09-24 (replying to Jenn’s follow-up, internal):
Spreedly is changing their pricing structure. (Or rather, requiring us to adopt the pricing structure they've had for new accounts for a couple years.)
It means we'll pay somewhat more than $500 every month starting in October…
We don't need to do anything except pay them more.
That is Growing-tier expectation, not Scaling.
From: eliot@spreedly.com · 2020-09-24 · “You have purchased a subscription from Spreedly!”
Monthly Subscription Scaling Plan
Your subscription renews every 1 month at $1,500.00 + applicable charges for endpoints and API calls
You purchased this subscription 2020-09-08…
Billing renewals from Oct 2020 onward all list Monthly Subscription Scaling Plan with Renewal fee for 1 month: $1,500.00.
There is no email in which Spreedly or Simplero documents a deliberate choice to “buy up” to Scaling for a lower per-call rate. At the volume Spreedly itself cited, buy-up was worse.
Full body (as retrieved from mailbox):
Dear Simplero Team,
During these unique times, we hope that you and yours are safe and healthy.
The reason for today’s email is to inform you that we are adjusting your
account’s pricing plan and will replace it with one of our current API
plans. These newer API plans were introduced in 2018, with all new
Spreedly customers and many existing customers have made the switch to our
current plans. After much consideration, we have decided to eliminate
legacy pricing plans, including your plan which we retired in 2017.
Spreedly is in the process of implementing a new billing system, triggering
the need to clean up all of our old legacy plans and start fresh with just
our current pricing plans in the new billing system. As part of this
process, your plan change will go into effect for the month of October 2020.
*Current Usage and Your New Plan*
The new plans are based on API call volume and the number of integrations
enabled. This is your usage from the past 3 months.
- Average monthly API call volume - *2,458*
- Integrations used/enabled: *7 of 15*
That would currently put you into the *Growing Plan* with an estimated
monthly cost of *$549*. The pricing plans are available here [spreedly.com/pricing].
The plan that you are on did not charge based on API usage, so there is a
chance you can pay less than this estimate by optimizing your API calls.
Information on how to optimize your API calls can be found here
[support article: Optimizing your Spreedly account for API-based pricing].
- *How your new plan works* - The plan has two components.
- *Subscription fee* - This fee gives you access to the Spreedly
platform and a number of integrations. This is billed monthly and covers
your next month of service.
- *API fee* - For each API call to Spreedly, you will be charged a
fee, which is different depending on your plan. This is charged
monthly in arrears to cover the previous month’s usage with Spreedly.
- *Benefits* - …
- *Unlimited card storage* …
- *Optimizing your API calls* …
- *Upgrades and downgrades* …
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
…
Best,
Jenn Snider
Spreedly | Customer Success Manager
Not mentioned: that development-environment traffic, test gateways on a paid account, or CI/integration-test suites would be a primary driver of “API fee,” or that test and production environments are billed the same.
Hello Simplero Team,
… upcoming change to the API Pricing Model to take effect in October 2020.
This means your current pricing plan will be deprecated and your October
invoice will reflect the following…
- Platform Fee
- A Charge per API Call
- Account Updater Fees (Only if you have Account Updater enabled)
It has been some time since I have sent details of what API Pricing plan
you will be using; and an estimate of what your average monthly invoice
will look like.
If you would like to discuss this further, please let me know. Please note,
you do have the option to buy up to a higher tier plan in the event you
feel a cheaper API Call would make sense for your business.
…
Jenn Snider
B3. 2020-09-14 — success@spreedly.com — New Billing System (Chargify)
Chargify migration; sales tax in certain US states including NY. No Growing/Scaling placement detail.
From Spreedly Help: “Under API pricing, a paid Spreedly subscriber will pay for all API calls used for test transactions as well as production transactions.”
Customers on legacy plans had not lived under that model; Simplero’s plan-change emails did not surface this as a gotcha for multi-environment accounts.
Expense account: Website Maintenance & Hosting (and Other Websites – COGS).
Total paid Jan 2020 – Jul 2026: $171,143 (79 months).
From API pricing live (Oct 2020 – Jul 2026): ~$167,988.
| Line | Detail |
|---|---|
| Connect – Pay as You Go | 169,956 units × $0.03 = $5,098.68 (period Jun 7 – Jul 6, 2026) |
| Business Support | $1,500.00 |
| Platform Fee (Evergreen) | $0.00 |
| Tax (NY ~8.875%) | ~$585.64 |
| Total | $7,184.32 |
Full series available; key eras:
| Era | Typical monthly total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Oct–Dec 2020 | $250 | Scaling on paper ($1,500 list); transition/credits |
| Jan 2021 – early 2024 | ~$1,520–$1,750 | ~$1,500 platform + small usage |
| Late 2024 – Apr 2025 | ~$1,900–$2,350 | Usage climbing |
| May 2025 – Jul 2026 | ~$3,500–$8,500 | Usage spike (dev/test suite) |
2020-10-08 $250.00
2020-11-08 $250.00
2020-12-08 $250.00
2021-01-08 $1,519.14
2021-02-08 $1,519.62
2021-03-08 $1,518.10
2021-04-08 $1,512.64
2021-05-09 $1,517.13
2021-06-08 $1,650.31
2021-07-08 $1,646.24
2021-08-08 $1,652.29
2021-09-08 $1,648.21
2021-10-08 $1,654.43
2021-11-08 $1,657.73
2021-12-08 $1,659.44
2022-01-07 $1,655.36
2022-02-10 $1,664.65
2022-03-07 $1,669.64
2022-04-07 $1,669.81
2022-05-07 $1,686.46
2022-06-07 $1,697.82
2022-07-07 $1,705.50
2022-08-07 $1,697.24
2022-09-07 $1,713.90
2022-10-07 $1,711.71
2022-11-07 $1,711.33
2022-12-07 $1,750.96
2023-01-07 $1,675.41
2023-02-07 $1,683.93
2023-03-07 $1,683.49
2023-04-07 $1,687.53
2023-05-07 $1,676.21
2023-06-07 $1,676.75
2023-07-07 $1,674.83
2023-08-07 $1,693.13
2023-09-07 $1,691.87
2023-10-07 $1,752.40
2023-11-07 $1,983.28
2023-12-07 $1,941.59
2024-01-07 $1,923.47
2024-02-07 $1,977.96
2024-03-07 $1,939.10
2024-04-07 $1,975.34
2024-05-07 $1,996.81
2024-06-07 $1,881.08
2024-07-07 $1,995.60
2024-08-07 $2,140.66
2024-09-07 $2,097.45
2024-10-07 $2,107.75
2024-11-07 $2,051.38
2024-12-07 $2,125.80
2025-01-07 $2,103.72
2025-02-07 $2,315.08
2025-03-07 $2,357.90
2025-04-07 $2,345.73
2025-05-07 $4,019.56
2025-06-07 $5,995.60
2025-07-07 $4,259.46
2025-08-07 $4,382.79
2025-09-07 $3,923.42
2025-10-07 $3,594.05
2025-11-07 $4,371.59
2025-12-07 $3,552.51
2026-01-07 $3,715.14
2026-02-07 $3,994.53
2026-03-07 $4,265.85
2026-04-07 $5,865.30
2026-05-07 $5,987.82
2026-06-07 $8,481.54
2026-07-07 $7,184.32 ← 169,956 Connect units @ $0.03 documented
pretax = bill / 1.08875 # ~NY tax when present
usage = max(0, pretax − $1,500) # platform / Business Support line
dev ≈ max(0, usage − $50) # production allowance (recent prod ~$26/mo)
Oct–Dec 2020 ($250 charges): treated as transition; usage ~$0 in this model.
| Period | Paid | Usage pretax (all env) | Dev est. pretax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2020 – Jul 2026 | $167,988 | ~$53,638 | ~$50,897 |
| … of which May 2025 – Jul 2026 | $73,593 | ~$45,094 | ~$44,344 |
| 2021 | $19,155 | ~$126 | ~$0 |
| 2022 | $20,334 | ~$677 | ~$161 |
| 2023 | $20,820 | ~$1,123 | ~$574 |
| 2024 | $24,212 | ~$4,239 | ~$3,639 |
| 2025 | $43,221 | ~$21,698 | ~$21,098 |
| 2026 Jan–Jul | $39,495 | ~$25,775 | ~$25,425 |
Implied call volume at $0.03 (recent Connect PAYG rate):
~$51k / $0.03 ≈ ~1.7M billable units of “extra” over the production allowance.
(Rate was lower under Scaling list early on; dollars are the reliable unit.)
| Environment | Total API calls (~30d) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simplero development | 51,228 | Test gateway; bulk of volume |
| Simplero production | 856 | Real PSPs; ~$26 usage at $0.03 |
Retained PMs (approx.): development 195,882 · production 51,810.
Integration tests hit paid development env; stopped mid-July 2026 once discovered.
Current period (Jul 7–Aug 7 in-progress): 20,891 billable units / $626.73 so far — cliff vs prior month’s 169,956 units.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| ~2012 | Simplero on Spreedly (long-standing customer) |
| May 2018 | Public site shows API-call pricing (new customers) |
| Through ~2019–early 2020 | Simplero still on Freedom / legacy renewals |
| May–Sep 2020 | Traction plan (~$150–260/mo range in practice) |
| 2020-08-24 | Jenn: forced to API plans; Growing ~$549 |
| 2020-09-22 | Jenn follow-up: Oct 2020 API Pricing Model |
| 2020-09-08/24 | Scaling $1,500 purchased/provisioned |
| Oct 2020 | API pricing effective; $250 transitional charges |
| Jan 2021 | Full ~$1,519 bills ($1,500 + small usage) |
| May 2025–Jul 2026 | Large usage spike (dev/test automation) |
| Mid-Jul 2026 | Engineering stops live Spreedly hits from test suite |
Goodwill refund of unintended development/test environment API charges, estimated ~$50–55k (usage dollars beyond normal production), and acknowledgment of:
- Placement on Scaling ($1,500) vs written Growing (~$549) estimate without a documented customer election that Scaling was cheaper.
- Lack of clear notice that dev/test/CI traffic on a paid multi-environment account would drive the bulk of API fees.
- Reporting friction that delayed root-cause identification for months while bills rose.
Customer accepts operational ownership for eventually stopping the traffic; seeks partnership given 14+ years of loyalty and the materiality of the surprise.
Sources: Fastmail archive of Spreedly CSM/billing mail; QuickBooks GL (Windsor); Spreedly app overview/billing; invoice FVUBZF-00005 PDF.