Live Football API's pricing page now has a third option alongside the existing one-time credit packages and unlimited subscriptions: a recurring Monthly Subscription tier with a fixed daily request cap. Here's what it adds and when it actually makes sense to use.
What Was Already There
Two pricing models already existed before this update:
- Credit Packages β one-time purchases (Starter, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) where credits never expire
- Unlimited β subscription plans (Monthly, 3-Month, 6-Month, Annual) with no credit system and no request cap at all
What's New: Monthly Subscription
This new tier sits in between β a recurring monthly charge, auto-renewing via Stripe, with a fixed number of requests allowed per day rather than a lifetime credit pool or fully unlimited access:
| Plan | Price/mo | Daily Requests |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Monthly | $12.99 | 3,000/day |
| Plus Monthly (Popular) | $24.99 | 7,500/day |
| Growth Monthly | $44.99 | 15,000/day |
| Elite Monthly | $69.99 | 30,000/day |
These can be cancelled or managed at any time directly through Stripe.
Why a Third Option Actually Helps
The gap this fills: one-time credit packages work well for predictable, finite usage, but require watching your balance and buying more when it runs low. Unlimited plans remove that concern entirely but cost significantly more upfront. A recurring monthly plan with a daily cap sits between the two β predictable fixed cost, auto-renews without manual top-ups, but still bounded (so a traffic spike or a bug causing runaway requests can't blow past a hard daily ceiling the way a credit balance could get drained fast).
Choosing Between the Three Models
- One-time Credit Packages β best if your usage is finite or irregular (a project with defined scope, infrequent bursts) and you don't want a recurring charge
- Monthly Subscription (new) β best for steady, predictable daily traffic where you want automatic renewal without thinking about a credit balance, but still want a cost ceiling
- Unlimited β best for high-volume production traffic where request volume is unpredictable or growing, and you'd rather pay a flat rate than monitor usage at all
A Practical Way to Pick a Monthly Tier
Estimate your daily call volume before choosing between Starter/Plus/Growth/Elite Monthly β most of that comes down to how many concurrent live matches your app tracks and your polling interval. A rough estimate:
// Example: tracking 10 concurrent live matches,
// polling live_match_details every 60 seconds, 3 hours/day average
const callsPerMatch = 3 * 60; // 180 calls over 3 hours at 1/minute
const dailyCalls = callsPerMatch * 10; // 1,800/day
// This comfortably fits Starter Monthly (3,000/day)
// but leaves little headroom for other endpoints (search, standings, etc.)
Leave some margin above your estimated baseline β a busy matchday with more concurrent live games than usual is exactly when you don't want to hit a daily cap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do unused daily requests roll over to the next day?
No, the daily cap resets each day β unused requests from a quiet day don't carry over, unlike purchased credits which never expire.
Can I switch from a Monthly Subscription to Unlimited later?
Since both are managed through the same account and Stripe billing, switching tiers is a matter of subscribing to the new plan β check your dashboard or contact support for the cleanest way to transition without double-billing.
Does the Monthly Subscription tier include the cross-product bundling that Unlimited plans have?
The 3-month, 6-month, and annual Unlimited plans bundle access to the sibling basketball, tennis, and volleyball APIs β this is specific to those Unlimited tiers, not the new Monthly Subscription plans, which are football-only.
What happens if I exceed the daily request cap?
Requests beyond the daily limit would be expected to fail until the cap resets β check current error-handling documentation for the specific error code returned in this case, since it may differ from the standard credit-exhaustion error.
