BOSS Usage Fees

BOSS is currently offered to developers free of charge. In the future, we will implement a fee structure for API use above a set threshold.

BOSS will continue to offer free use of the API below a set daily threshold - up to 10,000 search queries per day depending on the type of API call. In addition, we plan to implement a service level agreement (SLA) in parallel with fees. We will announce firm timing and further details when we get closer to launch.

When we implement fees, we also plan to offer developers the ability to make non-time sensitive API requests at a significantly reduced price. This "off-peak" option can be used for research and analysis efforts to support building search experiences and would allow developers to request queries to be fulfilled by BOSS when capacity permits.

How Will Fees Work?

We currently plan to implement a fee system with the following structure:

• Fees will be determined based on the number and type of API requests made per day
• We are no longer restricting developers from monetizing their products using third-party platforms
• Fees will be determined using a unit system
• Units for Web, News, and Image BOSS API calls will be incurred based on the last result requested. For example, an API call requesting results 91-100 is the same cost as one requesting results 1-100
• Developers may request up to 1000 results in a single API call
• Units will cost $.10
• Developers will receive 30 units per day for free of charge

Note that while we refer to prices in terms of thousands of API calls in order to use round numbers, customers will be charged for individual API calls, not in increments of 1000.

While this pricing structure is subject to change, our goal is to provide as much advance notice as possible and elicit feedback from the developer community. If you have questions or comments, please share them on the BOSS Developer Forum.

Pricing Examples

Here are a few examples of how BOSS fees will work:

• Developer A submits 7000 API requests in a given day. Each API call requests search results 1-10. Since 1000 requests of this type cost 3 units (for a total of 21 units) and each developer gets 30 units per day for free, Developer A is not charged anything.
• Developer B also submits 7000 API requests. Each API call requests results 1-100. Since 1000 requests of this type cost 10 units (for a total of 70 units) and each developer gets 30 units per day for free, Developer B will be charged for 40 units (70 - 30 = 40). The price of 40 units is $4.00 (40 x $0.10 = $4.00).