The Streamforge External API uses a weight-based credit system. Understanding how credit works helps you plan your API consumption.
Credit Costs
| Request Type | Credit Cost |
|---|
| Single item request | 1 credit |
| Bulk request (N items) | N credits (1 per item) |
| List request | 1 credit per item returned |
| Analysis endpoint | 100 credits |
| Audience endpoint | 100 credits |
| Email endpoint | 10 credits |
| Socials endpoint | 10 credits |
Optimizing Credit Usage
Use Bulk Operations
Instead of making multiple individual requests, use bulk endpoints.
Choose Appropriate Limits
List endpoints consume credit equal to items returned. If you only need 10 items, don’t request 50.
Cache Expensive Operations
The /analysis and /audience endpoints cost 100 credits each. This data is regenerated infrequently (typically monthly), so cache results aggressively.
When you exceed a credit limit
The API returns 403 Forbidden
Credit Budget Planning
| Use Case | Typical Credits/Day |
|---|
| Basic profile lookups | 1,000-10,000 |
| Content analysis | 5,000-50,000 |
| Creator discovery with advanced insights | 10,000-100,000 |
Monitor your credit usage via the headers on each response. Set up alerts when approaching 80% of your limits.
Best Practices
- Use bulk endpoints: Always prefer bulk operations for multiple items
- Cache expensive requests: Cache
/analysis and /audience responses for extended periods
- Request only what you need: Use appropriate
limit values on list endpoints
- Monitor headers: Use headers to understand usage
- Distribute load: Stagger requests to avoid credit spikes
