[simsla]

The problem I see with (1) is that it becomes a little bit too easy to regenerate public keys and circumvent free tier metering.

[actinium226]

I guess that's easily addressed by requiring an account and a public key to access the free tier. Still better than having to get yet another API key.

[llbbdd]

Same difference to most people and dead on arrival.

[actinium226]

For web dev, where, sadly, it's the norm to have about 13 different services for a website, it would greatly simplify having to herd 13 API keys around

[remram]

Yeah that's not happening. In fact most services with free tiers still ask for a credit card number, and if not still ask for a lot of information. It is a marketing scheme after all.

[danscan]

For sure. Would likely need to be combined with another mechanism like IP rate limits

[hirsin]

I assure you it's far too easy to get as many ip addresses as you want if your interest is in avoiding rate limits.

[danscan]

Valid