API Mercado · closed beta
Your API.
Paid per request.
Publish an API, set one price per request, and let the gateway handle docs, keys, rate limits and billing. Consumers prepay, so nobody runs up a tab: a call their balance cannot cover never reaches you.
No listing fee, no monthly fee. You keep 100 percent of your price on paid requests.
The problem
The usual options are not built for API owners.
API Mercado charges consumers per request from a prepaid balance. The platform fee goes on top of their top-up, not out of your price.
How it works
List your API in four steps.
Point at your spec
Give the URL of your OpenAPI 3 spec. Docs render from it, it is re-read every hour, and bumping info.version releases a change.
Set one price
Pick a price per request, from $0 to $1,000. Some calls worth more? Set a max price and send the exact amount in a response header.
Pass the checklist
A passing health check, the provider agreement, and one test call through the gateway. Listings are reviewed before they go public.
Get paid
Connect Stripe for payouts. Earnings accrue daily and are paid monthly once you have $50 to collect.
Pricing
You set the price. You keep the price.
What the gateway handles
The commercial layer, already built.
Hosted OpenAPI docs
Reference pages built from your spec. Consumers can send a real test request from the page before they write any code.
Instant access
Consumers enable an API in one click. No approval, no sales call, no plan to pick.
Org keys with scopes
Consumers create keys for their organization, scoped to all their enabled APIs or a chosen few. The gateway strips the key before the request reaches you.
Spend caps
Each key can carry a monthly spend cap. A call the balance cannot cover is refused before it reaches you.
Rate limits
The gateway enforces a limit per key (20 requests a second by default), so a runaway client hits the gateway, not your servers.
The cost of every call
X-Mercado-Cost-Micros and X-Mercado-Balance-Micros headers on each response, and GET /v1/account/balance for the rest.
Disputes and refunds
A consumer can dispute a charged request within 30 days. If the dispute is upheld, the cost goes back to their balance.
Tax at top-up
Stripe Tax adds GST, HST or VAT at checkout where we are registered to collect it. Tax charged at top-up is ours to remit, not yours.
Docs for agents
Every doc page is also plain markdown, indexed at /llms.txt, and the provider guide is written to hand to a coding agent.
Live in the catalog
Reviewed APIs, running now.
The catalog is in closed beta, so only a few reviewed APIs are live. Read the docs, enable one, and spend your free $1 a month on it.
Forex API
FreeMid-market prices and finalized daily closes & official daily fixings published by central banks.
Insights API
FreeExtract structured intelligence from video transcripts using AI: discover viral moments, stock mentions, sponsor tags, and concise summaries at scale.
Media API
FreeTurn YouTube videos and audio files into word-level transcripts, speaker diarization, voice fingerprints, and rich metadata with fast, reliable APIs.
Domains API
FreeLet your customers use their own hostnames. You create a claim for a hostname with the DNS records your product needs; we check public DNS and tell you when your customer has set them up.
Each API is published and run by its provider, who sets its price and answers for its data, its uptime and its support. API Mercado runs the gateway, the keys and the billing, not the APIs.
Your API is already doing the work. Let it earn.
Listing is free. The gateway, docs, keys and billing are ready. You bring the API and a price.