Pricing & Credits

Overview

The Barcode API uses a credit-based billing model. Every successful barcode generation deducts 1 credit from your account balance. Credits never expire within your billing period, and you are never charged for failed requests — the API automatically refunds any credit reserved for a request that results in a 400 or 500 error.

Choose between monthly and annual billing. Annual plans save 20% compared to monthly.

Plans

Monthly Billing

Annual Billing (Save 20%)

The Free plan is monthly only and does not have an annual equivalent.

Plan Details

Free — $0 / month

No credit card required. Designed for exploration and prototyping.

Includes:

• 300 API calls / month
• All barcode formats (QR, Code128, EAN, PDF417, and more)
• SVG output only
• 1 API key
• Community support
• Hard stop at limit — no overage charges

Limitations:

• SVG is the only available output format. Requesting png, jpg, or webp returns a 402 error with an upgrade link.
• Rate limit: 10 requests / minute.
• Once the 300-call monthly quota is exhausted, all further requests are rejected until the next billing cycle. There are no automatic overage charges.

Starter — $19 / month · $15.20 / month billed annually

For indie developers and side projects.

Everything in Free, plus:

• 10,000 API calls / month included
• Overage at $1.50 per 1,000 extra calls
• PNG, JPG, and WebP output formats
• Custom size & colors
• 3 API keys
• Email support
• 99.9% uptime SLA

Annual savings: $45.60 / year vs monthly ($182.40 billed once per year).

Compared to competitors at $24.99 / month for the same quota — that's 24% less on the monthly plan.

Pro — $49 / month · $39.20 / month billed annually

For growing teams with real volume. Most Popular.

Everything in Starter, plus:

• 50,000 API calls / month included
• Overage at $0.90 per 1,000 extra calls
• Batch generation (up to 100 barcodes per request)
• Webhook callbacks
• 10 API keys
• Priority email support
• Usage analytics dashboard

Annual savings: $117.60 / year vs monthly ($470.40 billed once per year).

Compared to competitors at $68.99 / month for the same quota — that's 29% less on the monthly plan.

Business — $149 / month · $119.20 / month billed annually

For logistics, factories, and high-volume e-commerce.

Everything in Pro, plus:

• Unlimited API calls — no overage, ever
• Dedicated rate limit (500 req/s)
• Unlimited API keys
• Custom barcode templates
• Dedicated Slack support
• Custom SLA & invoicing

Annual savings: $357.60 / year vs monthly ($1,430.40 billed once per year).

Predictable cost at any volume — no surprise bills at the end of the month.

Output Format Availability

Output format access depends on your plan:

Requesting a paid-only format on the Free plan returns:

{
  "error": "Format \"png\" is available on paid plans only. Upgrade at https://barcodegen.net/#pricing",
  "upgrade_url": "https://barcodegen.net/#pricing"
}

with HTTP status 402 Payment Required.

Credit Deduction Model

Credits are deducted atomically before generation begins, using a Lua script executed on Redis to prevent race conditions under concurrent load. The full sequence per request is:

1. Parameter validation — malformed requests are rejected immediately, no credit is reserved.
2. Authentication — the API key is verified and resolved to your account.
3. Rate limit check — sliding-window rate limit is enforced per API key.
4. Atomic credit reservation — 1 credit is atomically deducted from your Redis balance, then written to the database. If the database write fails, the Redis deduction is automatically rolled back and a 500 is returned.
5. Barcode generation — the barcode SVG is rendered using JsBarcode (for standard 1D/2D formats) or BWIP-JS (for extended formats).
6. Format conversion — if png, jpg, or webp is requested, the SVG is converted using Sharp at 150 DPI.
7. Success response — the image is returned with X-Credits-Cost and X-Credits-Remaining headers.
8. Automatic refund on failure — if generation or conversion fails at steps 5 or 6, the reserved credit is refunded immediately. You only pay for barcodes that are successfully delivered.

Credit Cost Per Request

Every successful request costs exactly 1 credit, regardless of barcode format, output format, or data length.

Reading Your Balance from Response Headers

Every successful response includes:

X-Credits-Cost: 1
X-Credits-Remaining: 4999

Overage Billing

The Starter and Pro plans support automatic overage beyond the monthly included quota:

Overage is billed at the end of each billing cycle based on actual usage. There is no pre-purchase required.

The Free plan enforces a hard stop — once 300 calls are exhausted, all requests return 402 Insufficient credits until the next cycle. No charges are incurred.

Rate Limits

Requests are rate-limited per API key using a sliding window algorithm. Exceeding the limit returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests.

Implement exponential backoff before retrying after a 429 response.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do unused credits roll over? Monthly credits reset at the start of each billing cycle. They do not roll over. Annual plan credits are pooled across the 12-month period (e.g. Starter annual provides 120,000 total calls for the year).

Am I charged for failed requests? No. Credits reserved for requests that result in a 400 (bad barcode data) or 500 (server error) are automatically refunded. Authentication failures (401), insufficient balance (402), and rate limit rejections (429) never reserve a credit at all.

Can I switch between monthly and annual billing? Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade, or switch billing intervals from your dashboard. Prorated amounts are applied automatically.

What happens if I hit my Free plan limit mid-month? All further requests will be rejected with 402 Insufficient credits until your quota resets at the start of the next calendar month. Upgrade to a paid plan at any time to restore access immediately.

Is there a trial period for paid plans? The Free plan serves as an ongoing sandbox with 300 calls / month — no time limit, no credit card required. There is no separate trial period for paid plans.

Are API keys shared across plans? Each plan has a maximum number of API keys (1 for Free, 3 for Starter, 10 for Pro, unlimited for Business). All keys under an account share the same credit balance.

Upgrade & Billing

• Upgrade: Visit /pricing and select a plan.
• Manage keys: Go to /api-keys to generate or revoke API keys.
• View usage: Check your credit balance and request history in the Dashboard.

Next Steps

• Quick Start — Make your first API call in under a minute
• Supported Formats — Full list of barcode formats and encoding rules
• Rate Limits — Sliding window details and retry guidance
• Dashboard — Live usage, key management, and billing history