Prepared: 2026-08-01
Sources: Spreedly dashboard + invoice FVUBZF-00005; QuickBooks general ledger via Windsor.ai (vendor Spreedly); Wayback Machine archives of spreedly.com/pricing.
Sensitivity: Internal finance. Link is public-by-URL; treat as share-with-intent.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When did per-API-call pricing start (public)? | By May 2018 (switched between Apr–May 2018). Test traffic on paid accounts bills. |
| All Spreedly bills in QB (Jan 2020 – Jul 2026) | 79 payments · $171,143 total |
| Est. cost of development/test API calls | ~$50k–$57k all-in (mostly May 2025 – Jul 2026) |
| Fixed support/platform (not “API waste”) | ~$100k+ of the total |
| Production-only steady state (if dev stays off) | ~$1,500–$1,700/mo (almost all Business Support) |
| When | Model |
|---|---|
| Through Apr 2018 | Still per successful transaction (e.g. ~$0.03/txn on non-partner gateways). Test gateway free. |
| By May 2018 | Per API call on the public pricing page: $200/mo + 5¢/call, $500 + 2¢, $1,500 + 0.5¢. Test API calls on paid accounts are metered and billed. |
Public switch window: April → May 2018.
- API-call pricing was public by mid-2018 — not a recent invention.
- Individual customer contracts may have moved later (some customers describe a later shift).
- Simplero’s QuickBooks only shows continuous Spreedly charges from Jan 2020 (no Spreedly GL lines 2018–2019 in this extract).
- Jan 2021 plan step-change for Simplero: ~$250/mo → ~$1,500+/mo (looks like Business Support / platform at ~$1,500).
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Connect – Pay as You Go | 169,956 units × $0.03 = $5,098.68 |
| Business Support | $1,500.00 |
| Platform Fee (Evergreen) | $0.00 |
| Subtotal | $6,598.68 |
| NY tax (~8.875%) | ~$585.64 |
| Total paid | $7,184.32 |
Period for usage line: Jun 7 – Jul 6, 2026. Support period on that invoice: Jul 7 – Aug 6, 2026.
Vendor: Spreedly. Expense account: Website Maintenance & Hosting (and Other Websites – COGS). Charged to Chase credit cards. 79 monthly payments, Jan 2020 – Jul 2026.
| Year | Bills | Total paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 12 | $3,905 |
| 2021 | 12 | $19,155 |
| 2022 | 12 | $20,334 |
| 2023 | 12 | $20,820 |
| 2024 | 12 | $24,212 |
| 2025 | 12 | $43,221 |
| 2026 (Jan–Jul) | 7 | $39,495 |
| Total | 79 | $171,143 |
| Date | Paid | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-01-14 | $468.92 | Low-plan era |
| 2020-02-14 | $463.24 | |
| 2020-03-15 | $495.24 | |
| 2020-04-14 | $546.68 | |
| 2020-05-10 | $160.33 | |
| 2020-06-08 | $259.56 | |
| 2020-07-08 | $256.11 | |
| 2020-08-09 | $252.90 | |
| 2020-09-08 | $252.00 | |
| 2020-10-08 | $250.00 | Flat ~$250 |
| 2020-11-08 | $250.00 | |
| 2020-12-08 | $250.00 | |
| 2021-01-08 | $1,519.14 | Plan jump (~$1.5k support era) |
| 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 | Small usage |
| 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 | Usage climbing |
| 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 | Spike starts |
| 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 | Peak bill |
| 2026-07-07 | $7,184.32 | Invoice FVUBZF-00005: 169,956 × $0.03 + $1,500 support + tax |
H1 2026 average: ~$5,368/mo (matches finance notes ~$5,385).
Spreedly does not split invoices by environment. Attribution is estimated.
From the opened invoice (Jul 2026):
- $1,500 = Business Support (fixed; not “API waste”)
- $0.03 × units = Connect usage
- Remainder ≈ tax (~8.875% NY)
Recent dashboard (≈30 days ending ~Aug 1, 2026):
| Environment | Total API calls | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simplero development | 51,228 | Test gateway; bulk of volume |
| Simplero production | 856 | Real gateways; ~$26 usage at $0.03 |
Estimate:
pretax = bill / 1.08875
usage = max(0, pretax − $1,500) # from 2021 onward
dev ≈ max(0, usage − ~$50/mo production allowance)
| Slice | Estimate |
|---|---|
| All API usage (pre-tax), all bills in QB | ~$54,600 |
| Dev-attributable usage (pre-tax) | ~$51,700 |
| Dev-attributable + tax on that usage | ~$56,000–$57,000 |
| Excess over “healthy” baseline (~$1,663/mo) since 2021 | ~$56,700 |
| Spike only (May 2025 – Jul 2026) excess over baseline | ~$48,700 |
Rough call volume: at $0.03, ~$52k of dev usage ≈ ~1.7 million billable API calls.
- 2021 – early 2025: mostly support (~$1,500) + light usage. Dev waste small.
- May 2025 – Jul 2026: the real damage — ~$49k extra vs a normal ~$1.6–1.7k bill. Nearly all Connect usage from test/dev traffic on a paid account.
- Total paid since 2020: ~$171k. Roughly ~$103k platform/support, ~$55k metered API, of which ~$52k is likely non-production/dev.
Integration tests hitting Spreedly’s live API (even in “test mode”) still bill per call on a paid account — Spreedly docs: “Test API calls in production accounts are metered and billed.”
Using production’s last ~30 days (856 API calls):
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Connect usage (856 × $0.03) | ~$26 |
| Business Support | $1,500 |
| Platform fee | $0 |
| Subtotal | ~$1,526 |
| Tax (~8.875% if still NY-taxed) | ~$135 |
| Est. total / month | ~$1,660 |
Almost all remaining cost is the $1,500 support fee. Usage at this volume is noise.
Current in-progress billing period (Jul 7 – Aug 7, 2026 as of ~Aug 1): 20,891 billable units · $626.73 usage so far — already way down from last month’s 169,956 units, consistent with stopping heavy dev traffic around mid-July.
Billing address on file was still NY (tax). Company is CA-based now — address should be updated in Spreedly.
| Environment | Key (public env key) | Created |
|---|---|---|
| Simplero development | WckY81MZ7fy0U00GyvpYdAIfAMm |
Jul 18, 2013 |
| Simplero production | MIIpl7MYsqcEm67lvYDcnfU6TsM |
Mar 2, 2013 |
Retained payment methods (approx.): development 195,882 · production 51,810. Advanced Vault: disabled both.
- Environment split is estimated. Only Spreedly can provide historical usage by environment/day if they still retain it.
- Tax rate assumed ~8.875% NY for reverse-engineering usage from total; older periods may differ.
- Support amount assumed $1,500 from 2021 based on bill shape + latest invoice; 2020 plan structure was different (~$250 floor).
- Production allowance (~$50/mo) is a conservative placeholder for “real” traffic; recent prod is closer to ~$26.
- Daily time series was not available in the UI without a deeper export; org billing shows period totals, not a clean daily table in what we could pull.
- Confirm next invoice after Jul 17 cut — usage should stay near production-only.
- Update billing address to California (tax).
- Ask Spreedly success for historical usage export by environment (and daily if possible) to pin exact dev cost vs estimate.
- Decide whether $1,500 Business Support is still worth it if Connect usage stays ~$25–50/mo — or exit Spreedly entirely after vault migration.
Generated from live Spreedly account review + QuickBooks GL extract, 2026-08-01.