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

# Credit Management

> Optimize your API usage and manage credit efficiently

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      |

<Tip>
  Monitor your credit usage via the headers on each response. Set up alerts when approaching 80% of your limits.
</Tip>

## 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