# nowyourlink pricing

nowyourlink offers free public Spotlight reads, paid per-request metrics, and advertising allocated by a daily sealed-bid auction. There is no subscription or seat licence. Public Spotlight content is free; the optional metrics endpoint costs EUR 1.00 per request.

## Plans and prices

| Plan | Price | Billing unit | Included features | Main limits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Public reader | €0 (EUR 0) | No billing | Homepage, archive, day pages and Markdown | Shared public request budget |
| Public agent and developer | €0 (EUR 0) | No billing | REST reads, public MCP, documentation, SDKs and synthetic sandbox | 50 days per archive page; 10 dates per batch |
| Paid metrics | €1.00 (100 cents EUR) | Per successful new payment challenge | Clicks, human clicks and distinct countries for one settled day | One day per resource; no subscription or prepaid bundle |
| Advertiser | Winning bid, from €1 (EUR), net of VAT | Per won auction | One Spotlight placement, creative library, dashboard and invoice | EUR 1 bid increments; no guaranteed winning price |
| Advertiser agent | EUR 0 additional API fee; winning bids still apply | Per won auction | OAuth-authorized bidding and creative management | Advertiser's per-bid ceiling, daily cap and grant expiry |

These are access options, not recurring subscription tiers. There is no Pro, Enterprise, unlimited-throughput or prepaid API plan. No payment is required to use the public read API or synthetic sandbox.

## Cost examples

- Read the current Spotlight and ten archive pages: EUR 0.
- Fetch ten known days in one batch: EUR 0; the batch limit is ten dates.
- Buy one metrics report through MPP or ACP: EUR 1.00.
- Make ten separate successful metrics purchases: EUR 10.00.
- Replay the same paid request with its original credential: no additional charge.
- Submit a EUR 25 advertising bid and lose: EUR 0.
- Win at EUR 25: EUR 25 net, plus applicable VAT; no additional agent API fee.
- Grant an agent a EUR 100 spending ceiling: this is a limit, not a subscription or an upfront charge.

## Choosing an access option

Use the free REST API or public MCP for content discovery. Choose paid metrics
only when aggregate click counts are needed. Choose advertiser access to compete
for a placement; a metrics purchase does not buy advertising. Public reading
and paid metrics do not require an advertising subscription.

## Free public reader — €0

- Price: free. No account, API key or bearer token.
- Includes: website, current Spotlight, settled archive, day pages, Markdown twins.
- Limits: shared public request budget (see Limits).

## Free public agent (MCP) — €0

- Price: free. No authentication.
- Includes: get_current_spotlight, list_spotlights, get_spotlight, create_sandbox_job, get_sandbox_job on https://nowyourlink.com/mcp; read_docs_page and search_docs on https://docs.nowyourlink.com/mcp; MCP Apps card; NLWeb /ask; A2A SendMessage.
- Excludes: bidding, payment, account access.

## Free developer (REST) — €0

- Price: free. security: [] in OpenAPI.
- Includes: GET /api/v1/spotlight, /api/v1/spotlights, /api/v1/spotlights/{day}, /api/v1/spotlights/batch, sandbox reads and the sandbox async job with Idempotency-Key. JavaScript, Python and Go SDKs under MIT; JavaScript and Python CLIs.
- Excludes: write access to auctions, invoices or accounts.

## Pay-as-you-go metrics — €1.00 per report

- Price: EUR 1.00 (100 cents) per request, charged per call, no account.
- Includes: GET /api/v1/spotlights/{day}/metrics, the click aggregate of one settled Spotlight day (all clicks, human clicks, distinct countries).
- Discovery: [OpenAPI payment operation](https://nowyourlink.com/openapi.json) includes x-payment-info and a concrete day parameter example. A credential-free [example metrics request](https://nowyourlink.com/api/v1/spotlights/2026-09-01/metrics) returns the payment challenge without making a charge; availability of that day is checked before settlement.
- Merchant: the live challenge includes methodDetails.networkId and paymentMethodTypes so a wallet can scope its Stripe token.
- Alternative: ACP checkout (API-Version 2026-04-17) purchases this same report using OAuth identity and a separately buyer-approved Stripe token; see https://nowyourlink.com/developers.md.
- How: the first request answers 402 with a WWW-Authenticate: Payment challenge (method stripe, intent charge). Retry with Authorization: Payment carrying a Stripe Shared Payment Token. The response carries a Payment-Receipt header. Read https://nowyourlink.com/openapi.json (x-payment-info) for the machine-readable offer.
- Limits: one charge per challenge id; a replayed credential returns the stored receipt without a second charge. Challenges allow a new payment for 5 minutes. An existing attempt can be reconciled with the same credential after expiry. On 503, retry that exact credential; do not request a fresh challenge. A 402 without a new challenge is a definitive failure, and 409 requires buyer action or indicates a conflicting retry.

## Advertiser — winning bid from €1 net

- Price: the winning bid of the daily auction. Minimum bid EUR 1, increments EUR 1, net of VAT. Losing bidders pay nothing.
- Includes: one Spotlight slot per auction, creative upload (image or video), bid history, advertiser dashboard, invoice per won auction.
- Requires: a business account. The public signup flow supports EU-registered businesses with an EU VAT ID; eligibility is checked after email confirmation. Payment setup is required before the first bid is submitted.
- Not offered: enterprise or custom contracts, reserved slots, volume discounts, multi-day packages.

## How billing works

- One sealed-bid auction per calendar day (UTC). EUR 1 is a bid floor, not a guaranteed winning price. The highest eligible bid can win after creative and payment checks.
- No listing, setup, platform or monthly fee. The winning bid is charged through Stripe during settlement after close. Losing bids are not charged.
- Invoices are issued per won auction under German law (§14 UStG). Reverse charge applies to VIES-validated EU B2B customers; German VAT applies otherwise.
- A failed payment cascades the slot to the runner-up and adds a strike to the account. Refunds, when granted, are issued as credit notes.
- Currency: EUR only.

## Before your first bid

- Register your business, confirm your email and complete the eligibility checks. Additional identity verification may be required.
- Upload a creative in your library and submit it for moderation. Select an approved creative that you own.
- Choose an auction date and a sealed bid amount. You can raise your bid before close, but cannot lower it.
- Save or select a payment method and confirm the bid. Saving a card alone does not submit a bid.
- After close, payment and creative checks determine the winning placement. A losing bid costs nothing.

The selected date identifies the auction, not the display day. Auctions close near the end of that UTC date. Activation is scheduled for 24 hours after the actual close, subject to successful payment, creative approval and processing delays.

Example (UTC): if auction 2026-09-19 closes on 2026-09-20 at 00:00 UTC, its activation target is 2026-09-21 00:00 UTC. This is an example, not a guaranteed start time.

The homepage shows the latest settled Spotlight. Archive URLs use the auction date, which can differ from the calendar date it appears. Views, clicks, audience size and results are not guaranteed. Ask for dated audience evidence before deciding whether a placement fits your campaign.

## Feature breakdown

| Feature | Public reader | Agent (MCP) | Developer (REST) | Advertiser |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Current Spotlight | Website | get_current_spotlight | GET /api/v1/spotlight | Website |
| Settled archive | Website | list_spotlights, get_spotlight | GET /api/v1/spotlights, /api/v1/spotlights/{day}, /api/v1/spotlights/batch | Website |
| Documentation | Markdown pages | read_docs_page, search_docs at https://docs.nowyourlink.com/mcp | /developers.md, /llms.txt | Markdown pages |
| Natural-language lookup | No | NLWeb /ask, A2A /a2a | NLWeb /ask | No |
| Interactive result view | Website | MCP Apps card (ui:// resource) | No | Website |
| Sandbox / test mode | No | create_sandbox_job, get_sandbox_job | GET /api/v1/sandbox, POST /api/v1/sandbox/jobs | No |
| Paid day metrics | No | No | GET /api/v1/spotlights/{day}/metrics, EUR 1.00 per request (MPP) | Dashboard, free |
| Idempotent retries | No | Reads and create_sandbox_job (idempotencyKey) | Idempotency-Key header on the sandbox job | No |
| Place a sealed bid | No | Yes, with OAuth mandate | No | Yes |
| Upload a creative | No | Yes, with OAuth mandate | No | Yes |
| Bid history and dashboard | No | Yes, with OAuth mandate | No | Yes |
| Invoice per won auction | No | Yes, with OAuth mandate | No | Yes |

## Limits

| Limit | Value | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Public request budget | burst 120 requests, refill 2 per second | Client IP; /api/v1/*, /mcp, /ask, /a2a; documentation requests share the upstream budget |
| Archive page size | 1 to 50 settled days | Per request |
| Batch lookup | 1 to 10 dates | Per request |
| NLWeb query | 500 characters; POST body 4096 bytes | Per request |
| MCP request body | 16 KiB | Per request |
| Sandbox job key | Idempotency-Key 1 to 255 visible ASCII characters, no spaces | Per request |
| Minimum bid | EUR 1, increments EUR 1 | Per auction |
| Maximum bid | EUR 1,000,000 | Per auction |
| Agent mandate | max bid per auction EUR 1 to 1,000,000; daily cap at least the max bid; valid up to 90 days | Per OAuth grant |
| Advertiser API and MCP | 120 requests per minute | Per OAuth grant |
| Paid metrics | EUR 1.00 per request, challenge valid 5 minutes | Per request |

The budget is a token bucket, not a fixed window. RateLimit-Policy and RateLimit use the IETF draft structured-field format; exhaustion returns 429 with Retry-After. If trusted client identity or budgeting storage is unavailable, requests return 503. Missing or removed content is unavailable, not a paid upgrade. No throughput reservation or service-level guarantee is offered.

## Frequently asked pricing questions

- Is there a free trial? Not needed: reading is free, and bidding costs nothing unless the bid wins.
- Can an agent place a bid or pay? An agent can place bids and manage creatives for an advertiser who granted it an OAuth mandate with a per-bid ceiling and a daily cap; see [Advertiser OAuth](https://nowyourlink.com/auth.md). Payment methods, KYC and VAT stay in the browser at https://nowyourlink.com/login. The anonymous public API and the public MCP server never bid or pay. Background: [the advertiser MCP server, explained](https://nowyourlink.com/blog/en/advertiser-mcp-server). Any agent can also buy the paid metrics resource per request over the Machine Payments Protocol; see the Paid data section above.
- Are there discounts for multiple days? No. Each day is a separate auction at its own winning price.
- Where are the binding terms? https://nowyourlink.com/agb. Operator details: https://nowyourlink.com/impressum. Sign up: https://nowyourlink.com/signup.