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

# Pricing

> What each API operation costs, and how billing is calculated

Your account balance is held in **US dollars**. Every billable result deducts a small dollar amount from that balance. Throughout the docs you may see the word *credit* — read it as **one billable result**, priced in USD as shown below.

## Standard prices

These are the per-result prices every account starts on (see [Spend & Save tiers](/billing/managing-billing) for the volume discounts). Your effective price never goes **up**; your current rate is always shown in your [billing settings](https://beta.generect.com/settings/billing).

| Operation                         | Endpoints                                            | Price (USD) | Billed                                                                                                   |
| --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Real-time search & enrich         | `POST /search/realtime/*`, `POST /enrich/realtime/*` | **\$0.04**  | per returned result                                                                                      |
| Database (cached) search & enrich | `POST /search/database/*`, `POST /enrich/database/*` | **\$0.02**  | per returned result                                                                                      |
| Email Finder                      | `POST /email/find/` (+ `/bulk/`)                     | **\$0.02**  | per **valid** email found                                                                                |
| Email Validation                  | `POST /email/validate/`                              | **\$0.005** | per email checked                                                                                        |
| Preview                           | `POST /preview/leads/`                               | **\$0.002** | per returned (masked) result — free for the rest of the month once your spend that month reaches \$2,000 |
| Phone Finder                      | `POST /phone/find/` (+ `/bulk/`)                     | **\$0.40**  | per **found** phone                                                                                      |

<Info>Prices above are the Tier 0 (standard) rate, and they are what **every API account pays until its lifetime spend reaches \$20,000**. API discounts begin at that threshold and then deepen with each tier; the platform (UI) operations start discounting much earlier, at \$500. Your current rate is always the one in your [billing settings](https://beta.generect.com/settings/billing) — and in `meta.amount_charged` on every response. See [Spend & Save tiers](/billing/managing-billing).</Info>

<Note>**Preview** is the one API price that never moves with your tier — it stays at \$0.002 per returned result on every tier. What does move is the monthly free tier: once your account's total spend within the current calendar month reaches \$2,000, `POST /preview/leads/` is free for the rest of that month, and the counter restarts on the 1st (UTC). The `preview_tier` flag on [`GET /accounts/me/`](/api-reference/endpoint/accounts/get-account-me) reports the current state. Preview inside the Generect web app is always free — \$0.002 is the API price.</Note>

## How a charge is calculated

```
amount charged (USD) = billable results × operation price × your tier multiplier
```

Every API response reports exactly what it cost in `meta.amount_charged` (USD), so you never have to guess after the fact.

```json theme={null}
{
  "data": [ ... ],
  "meta": { "amount_charged": 0.0400 }
}
```

## What's free

* **Database (cached) count** endpoints (`POST /search/database/*/count/`) — a cached count, no charge.
* **Preview count** (`POST /preview/leads/count/`) — sizing a Preview audience is free, always.
* **Preview in the Generect web app** — the \$0.002 Preview price applies to API calls only.
* **Account, status, and webhook** endpoints.
* **Not-found results** on enrich, phone, and email find (see below).

<Warning>**Real-time count** endpoints (`POST /search/realtime/*/count/`) are **not** free — each costs \$0.04, the real-time rate, because they hit live sources. Use the free database count to size an audience before paying.</Warning>

## No Data, No Charge — exactly where it applies

You are not billed for results we don't return:

| Operation                      | If nothing is found                                                                                     |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Enrich lead / company          | **Not charged** — the reserved amount is refunded automatically                                         |
| Search (database or real-time) | Billed **per returned row** — zero rows costs \$0                                                       |
| Email Finder                   | Charged **only for valid emails found**                                                                 |
| Phone Finder                   | Charged **only for phones found**                                                                       |
| Email Validation               | Charged **per email checked** — a verdict (valid, risky, catch-all, invalid) is the result you paid for |
| Preview                        | Billed **per returned row** — zero rows costs \$0                                                       |
| Real-time count                | Flat \$0.04 per request (even if the count is 0)                                                        |

<Note>Email Validation is the one case where every submitted address is billed: validation *is* the deliverable, so each checked email costs \$0.005 regardless of its verdict.</Note>

## Worked example

You enrich 100 leads in real time; 92 are found, 8 are not.

* 92 × \$0.04 = **\$3.68** charged
* 8 not-found → **\$0.00** (refunded)
* `meta.amount_charged` returns `3.68`

## When your balance hits \$0

The exact sequence, so production behavior is predictable:

1. Credits are **reserved up front** when a request or bulk job is accepted — anything already accepted **runs to completion** and is never interrupted mid-flight.
2. A submitted bulk job keeps processing even if your balance reaches \$0 afterwards — its cost was reserved at submit time.
3. **New** billable requests are rejected with `402` and `"Insufficient funds in the account."` (standard [error envelope](/api-reference/errors)) until you top up.
4. Free endpoints (database counts, `POST /preview/leads/count/`, account, status polling, webhooks) keep working at \$0.

Enable [Auto Top-Up](/billing/managing-billing) to make this state unreachable in production.

## Testing without spending

There is no separate sandbox environment — the live API is safe to evaluate for free:

* **Database count** endpoints are free — size any audience at \$0.
* **Preview** returns real (masked) leads at \$0.002 per result — and is free for the rest of the calendar month once your spend that month reaches \$2,000.
* New accounts start with a **free starter credit**, and not-found results are never billed — a failed experiment costs nothing.
* Every response tells you what it actually cost (`meta.amount_charged`), so a \$1 test budget goes a long way.

## Keeping a positive balance

API usage requires a positive balance. If it reaches \$0, requests stop until you top up. Enable [Auto Top-Up](/billing/managing-billing) so production traffic never halts. New accounts start with free credit to try the API — your current balance is shown in your [billing settings](https://beta.generect.com/settings/billing).