Billing overview

This article covers: Usage Fees, Minimum Usage Fees, Transactions Billing, Managing Subscription Fees,  Item Removal, Timezone, Plaid Integration Partner Billing, Update Billing Contact, Update Payment Method

Plaid offers two types of pricing plans for customers using our Production environment, Pay as you go and Scale. We do not charge for usage in our Sandbox or Development environments. 

These are general billing guidelines. Please refer to your Services Agreement for specific billing terms.

Usage fees

Plaid bills for events that occur in our Production environment only. Plaid bills based on Items that were successfully created in our Production environment. A successful creation is indicated by Plaid returning an access_token in response to requests made to the /item/public_token/exchange endpoint. 

The specific billing event for each Item is based on the Products it has accessed. These Products fall into one of four pricing models. For your specific pricing on Products please refer to your Services Agreement. 

1. One-time fee endpoints: Using an access_token to access these types of endpoints incurs a one-time fee, charged either when an Item is created according to the products for which Link is initialized or when an access_token is first used to access one of those Products’ endpoints. Subsequent requests to these Product’s endpoints do not incur further fees.
2. Per-request volume based fee endpoint: Each successful request to these endpoints incurs a fee based on a percentage of the transaction or the asset.
3. Per-request flat fee endpoint: Each successful request to these endpoints incurs a fee based on a flat rate. 
4. Subscription fee endpoint: These endpoints once requested for an Item incur a subscription fee, charged monthly, until those Items are removed.

Minimum Usage Fees

If you are a customer with scale pricing plan, you will be responsible for an ongoing minimum usage fee per month detailed in your Services Agreement, beginning on the Schedule Effective Date. 

Customers with minimums pay the greater of the monthly minimum fee or usage fees. Minimums can apply across the entire Plaid account or by product. Minimum fees can ramp for some customers.  

• Examples:
• Under Minimum: If a customer has a $500 monthly minimum and only $490 in monthly usage in a given month, they would be charged $500 ($10 true up to minimum usage fee  + $490 in usage fees).
• Over Minimum: If a customer has a $500 monthly minimum and $650 in monthly usage in a given month, they would be charged $650 ($650 in usage fees).
• Product Minimum: If a customer has a $400 product level minimum on Auth and usage fees on those Auth of $350 and all other usage of $300, then the customer's usage fees for that month would be $700 ($50 true up to product level minimum for Auth + $350 usage fees for Auth + $300 usage fee on all other products).

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How am I billed for Transactions? Transactions use the subscription pricing model.  If you have Items that have requested a Transaction endpoint, you are billed until the Items  are removed. This applies even if Items have since entered a state where data cannot be retrieved.
2. How can I manage subscription fee based products through my Items? Plaid bills based on Items that were successfully created in our Production environment. A successful creation is indicated by Plaid returning an access_token in response to requests made to the /item/public_token/exchange endpoint. The specific billing event for each Item is based on the Products it has accessed.  To remove an Item, you have to remove the associated access_token.To learn more, check out this documentation.    
3. What happens when I remove an Item?  An Item is billed through the month in which it is removed. For example, an Item removed on January 1st will be included in January's bill, which you will receive in the beginning of February, but not in February's bill, which you will receive in the beginning of March.
4. What timezone does Plaid use for billing calculations? Plaid uses UTC.
5. If I am using a Plaid Integration Partner, how am I billed?  Once you created a processor token or bank account token for the Plaid Integration Partner, you are billed on the Auth, Balance or Identity endpoints that the Partner calls. You are not charged for the creation of the token. 
6. How can I update my billing contact information? If you are a customer with a Pay as you go pricing plan, please check your company settings and update your billing contact information at the bottom of the page. If you are a customer with a scale pricing plan, please reach out to your Plaid Account Manager.
7. How can I update my Payment Method information? If you are a customer with a Pay as you go pricing plan, please check your billing settings and update your payment information. If you are a customer with a scale pricing plan, please reach out to your Plaid Account Manager.