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by malfist 825 days ago
You absolutely should charge people for access to their data. What do you think paying for s3 retrievals or db queries are?
2 comments

But s3 retrievals cost money regardless of if you use the API or something else. You don't pay extra you use the browser vs uploading through their UI (not that anyone uses their UI).

Charging users to use an API when you don't charge them to use the website is _pretty bad_. If it's B2B, they might just suck it up and pay. But if it's B2C, don't be surprised if someone makes an "unofficial API" that's free.

Not the same thing at all. db queries are a computation service. S3 is literally renting storage, not an app.
Retrieving your data is absolutely a computation service too. And S3 is renting storage, but you also pay for retrievals as well as storage.