> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.0xarchive.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits

> Understand 0xArchive API credits, Data Catalog credits, route cost, and capacity planning before widening a workflow.

Credits connect plan economics to actual API and export work: routes, depth, replay, concurrency, and file delivery can carry different cost profiles.

Credits are a capacity and planning concept. They help teams size API workloads, Data Catalog exports, and heavier historical jobs before production code starts running broad loops. For current account terms, pricing, and checkout details, use the live pricing page and your dashboard. For client design, use this page with [Rate limits](/rate-limits).

## How REST Credits Are Billed

REST API requests are billed by the number of rows a request returns, not a flat fee per call:

```
charged = max(1, ceil(rows_returned / rows_per_credit))
```

Every billable REST request costs at least 1 credit (the floor). `rows_per_credit` depends on the endpoint family:

| Endpoint family                                                                                                                              | Rows per credit     | Approximate cost               |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| Trades, fills, L2 order book history, funding, open interest, liquidations, Lighter L3 order book                                            | 1,000               | about 1 credit per 1,000 rows  |
| Candles                                                                                                                                      | 10,000              | about 1 credit per 10,000 rows |
| L4 (diffs, orders, flow, TP/SL, reconstruction)                                                                                              | 5,000               | about 1 credit per 5,000 rows  |
| Single-value (current order book, current funding, current open interest, summary, prices, freshness, instruments, symbols, pairs, outcomes) | not metered by rows | 1 credit                       |

Because billing follows the response size, a narrow time range or a smaller `depth` returns fewer rows and costs fewer credits. A request that returns no rows still costs the 1 credit minimum.

JSON and Apache Arrow output are billed identically. The opt-in `?format=arrow` response (available for the trades family) is never cheaper or more expensive than JSON.

WebSocket and historical replay billing is unchanged: 1 credit per message. Monthly allowances are unchanged.

## Credit Surfaces

| Surface              | What credits help plan                                               | Design implication                                                      |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| REST API             | Request volume, heavy route usage, and historical pulls              | Start with one route, then batch by symbol and window                   |
| WebSocket replay     | Replay speed, channel count, and historical event volume             | Bound windows and store replay configuration                            |
| Data Catalog         | File-style exports and subscriber credit offsets                     | Use export credits for purchase-style workflows, not infinite API loops |
| L3/L4 depth          | Larger payloads and reconstruction-heavy workflows                   | Separate high-depth jobs from simple freshness checks                   |
| Automation workflows | Scripts and agent-assisted jobs that can accidentally widen too fast | Require route, symbol, limit, and concurrency before execution          |

## How To Think About Credits

Credits should make the workflow more explicit. A job should know the route family, symbol set, data family, time window, page size, concurrency, retry budget, and output destination before it starts. If the job cannot state those values, it is not ready to spend broadly.

Do not use credits as a substitute for correctness. A job can be under budget and still use the wrong route family. A job can have enough credits and still produce bad research if it ignores freshness or incidents. Treat credits, rate limits, and data quality as separate gates.

## Workflow Rules

<Steps>
  <Step title="Probe before spend">
    Run one bounded request, inspect the response envelope, and preserve `meta.request_id`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Estimate by route family">
    Separate Hyperliquid core, Hyperliquid Spot, HIP-3, HIP-4, and Lighter work instead of summing them into one vague market-data job.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Split heavy jobs">
    Batch historical pulls and replay windows so work can pause, resume, and retry without duplicating output.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Attach usage context">
    Store route, window, concurrency, and data-quality decisions with the output so cost can be reviewed later.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## API Credits Versus Data Catalog Credits

API credits fit recurring application, research, dashboard, agent, and backtesting workflows. Data Catalog credits fit file-style export purchases. If the user wants to deliver raw data to customers, resell a feed, or package a public dataset, use [Data rights](/data-rights) and [Contact](https://0xarchive.io/contact?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=referral\&utm_campaign=docs_referral\&utm_content=credits_contact) to review the terms instead of treating credits as permission.

## Credit Planning Checklist

Before widening a usage-heavy job, capture route family, symbol set, data family, window size, page size, concurrency, retry budget, output destination, and data-quality decision. That checklist separates budget planning from route support and data-rights decisions.

Use one checklist for API workloads and a separate checklist for Data Catalog exports. API credits do not make a browser checkout route public, and export credits do not turn file delivery into an unbounded API loop.

## Next Step

Use [Rate limits](/rate-limits) for current public plan envelopes and [Limits and throughput](/guides/limits-and-throughput) for queue design.