Qrop credits and API subscriptions: how billing works

What's free — and who it's for

Qrop is genuinely free to use without registering. Anonymous visitors get 5 QR code generations per day, capped at 512px output, with a small 'Generated by Qrop' badge composited into the logo slot of each code. There's no signup required and no credit card needed.

If you register a free account, the allocation increases significantly: personal accounts get 30 free generations per month, company accounts get 100, and both are completely watermark-free with output up to 2048px — more than enough for most print applications. Registered accounts also get 5 free logo-embedded generations per month (the personal tier), letting you try branded QR codes before committing to credits.

The free tier is designed to be genuinely useful for individuals, small projects, and occasional use. You'll hit the limit if you're generating QR codes regularly for client work, or integrating generation into an application — that's when credits and API plans come in.

• Anonymous (no account): 5 generations/day, 512px max, watermarked.
• Free registered — Personal: 30 generations/month, 2048px max, no watermark, 5 logo generations/month.
• Free registered — Company: 100 generations/month, 2048px max, no watermark, 20 logo generations/month.

Credit packs: one-off top-ups for web use

Credit packs are the right purchase if you use the Qrop web interface and occasionally exceed your free monthly allocation. They're a one-off payment — no subscription, no recurring charge — and credits don't expire. You can buy as many as you need and use them across any number of months.

Credits are consumed from your purchased balance after your free monthly allocation is used up. One standard generation costs 1 credit. Adding a logo to a generation costs 2 credits from your purchased balance once your free logo allowance for the month is exhausted.

There are three pack sizes:

• 250 credits — R50. Equivalent to R0.20 per generation. Good for occasional overages.
• 750 credits — R115. Equivalent to ~R0.15 per generation. Better value for a few active months.
• 1,500 credits — R195. Equivalent to R0.13 per generation. Best per-credit rate in the pack range, worth it if you consistently exceed the free allocation.

Credit consumption order: free first, then purchased

Qrop always draws on your free monthly allocation before touching your purchased credit balance. You never burn a credit you paid for while free credits are still available. The order is strict: free allocation first, then purchased credits.

At the end of each billing period, any unused free allocation simply expires — it doesn't roll over. Purchased credits persist indefinitely.

Example: you're on a free personal account with 30 generations/month. In a busy month you generate 45 QR codes. The first 30 come from your free allocation at no cost. The remaining 15 draw from your purchased credit balance at 1 credit each — so 15 credits consumed from your pack.

Logo generations: a separate allowance

Adding your logo to a QR code is a registered-only feature, tracked on its own separate allowance. Personal accounts get 5 free logo generations per month; company accounts get 20. Once that allowance is used up, logo embedding isn't simply charged from your free generation pool — it's charged 2 credits from your purchased balance per generation.

This matters if logo-branded codes are your primary use case: plan on either the company tier's 20/month free allowance, or keeping a credit balance to cover the overage. If you're on the API (subscriptions), the logo gate doesn't apply — every API generation costs 1 credit flat, whether or not it includes a logo.

Example: you're on a personal account and have generated 5 logo-embedded codes this month (your free allowance). You want to generate 3 more. Those 3 will each cost 2 credits from your purchased balance — 6 credits total — rather than pulling from the 25 remaining free plain generations.

API plans: metered subscriptions for developers

If you're integrating QR generation into an application — a SaaS product, an agency CMS, a logistics system, an e-commerce platform — the API is the right surface. It accepts a Bearer API key, supports batch generation of up to 100 codes per request, and returns PNG, SVG, or PDF output.

API access requires an active subscription. Plans are billed monthly via PayFast in ZAR and renew automatically. Each plan includes a monthly credit allocation for API calls, with overage billed post-paid at R0.025 per credit beyond the included amount. The overage rate is identical across all paid plans — upgrading is purely about headroom, not avoiding a penalty rate.

There are two plans currently available:

• Starter — R149/month, 3,000 credits included. 5 requests/second, 100 requests/minute. Right for low-to-moderate volume integrations: a few thousand codes a month, a single integration, a small team.
• Pro — R299/month, 9,000 credits included. 15 requests/second, 400 requests/minute. Right for mid-volume integrations: a growing SaaS product, an agency with multiple client feeds, or any use case that consistently bumped against the Starter ceiling.

How API credits are consumed

Every successful API call to `/api/v1/generate` or `/api/v1/generate/batch` costs 1 credit per QR code generated. A batch of 50 codes costs 50 credits. Validation failures (contrast too low, invalid data) cost 0 credits — you're never charged for a request that doesn't produce output.

The consumption order within a subscription is: carried credits from the previous period → included credits for the current period → your free monthly allocation (if any remains) → purchased credit balance → post-paid overage. This means you always get full value from what you already hold before overage kicks in.

Example: you're on the Starter plan (3,000 included credits/month). You carried 400 credits from last month. This month you generate 3,600 QR codes. The first 400 draw from carried credits, the next 3,000 from the included allocation — then 200 are post-paid at R0.025 each (R5.00 added to your next invoice). Total month: R149 + R5.00.

Credit carry-over: unused credits roll forward

If you don't use all your included API credits in a month, the unused portion rolls forward to the next period rather than expiring. This is intentional — you shouldn't be penalised for a quieter month. The carry-over pool is capped at 3× the plan's monthly allocation to keep the model balanced.

For the Starter plan (3,000 credits/month), that cap is 9,000 carried credits. For Pro (9,000/month), the cap is 27,000 carried credits.

Example: you're on Starter and used only 1,200 credits last month. The remaining 1,800 carry forward. This month you're busier and generate 4,000 codes. You draw the 1,800 carried credits first, then 2,200 from the included allocation — no overage.

Upgrading and downgrading your API plan

You can change your API plan at any time from the billing dashboard. Upgrades (moving to a plan with more included credits) take effect immediately: a pro-rated charge is calculated for the remaining days in the current billing period, and your new rate limits and credit allocation apply as soon as the payment clears.

Downgrades are deferred to the next billing cycle. Your current plan's allocation and rate limits remain active until the period ends, at which point the lower plan takes effect. You always keep full access through the end of the period you've paid for.

Cancellation also defers to period end. API access continues until your current period expires — you're not cut off mid-period. After that, your API keys stop working and the account returns to a free status. You can re-subscribe to any plan at any time from the billing dashboard without contacting support.

What you need to start using the API

1. Register for a Qrop account at /register — only a name and email address required.
2. Navigate to the billing dashboard and subscribe to an API plan (Starter or Pro). PayFast processes the payment; you'll receive a confirmation immediately.
3. Go to the API Keys tab in your dashboard and create an API key. Copy it immediately — Qrop stores only a hash of the key and cannot show it again. If you lose it, create a new one and revoke the old.
4. Make your first API call: POST to /api/v1/generate with Authorization: Bearer <your-key> and a JSON body specifying the data type, content, and output format. The response is a base64-encoded image or a redirect to an SVG stream.
5. Check /api/v1/usage to see your current period's credit consumption, carry-over balance, and rate limit ceilings at any time.

A worked example: agency generating client QR codes

A useful way to understand the credit model is through a concrete scenario. Suppose you run a small design agency generating branded QR codes for client marketing campaigns. A typical month might look like this:

Client A — a restaurant chain — needs 300 QR codes linking each table to a unique URL, with the chain's logo composited in. Client B — a retail group — needs 150 QR codes for a poster campaign, no logos. Client C — event signage for a single event — 20 codes.

Total: 470 codes. 300 with logos, 170 plain. You're on a free company account (100 free generations/month, 20 free logo generations/month).

The first 100 of Client B's and C's plain codes are free. Client A's 300 logo codes: the first 20 draw from the free logo allowance, the remaining 280 cost 2 credits each from your purchased balance — 560 credits. The remaining 70 plain codes (beyond your free 100) cost 1 credit each — 70 credits. Total credits consumed: 630 from your purchased balance.

At the 750-credit pack (R115), this entire month costs R115 — around R0.24 per code. The 1,500-credit pack at R195 works out to R0.13 per code and leaves 870 credits for next month.

Choosing between credit packs and an API plan

The right choice depends on whether you're using the web interface or the API, and on your volume.

• Web interface, occasional use: start on the free registered tier. Buy a credit pack when you hit the monthly limit. No subscription needed.
• Web interface, consistent heavy use: the 1,500-credit pack at R195 is the most cost-effective. If you're consistently buying multiple packs a month, consider whether the API and a Starter subscription (3,000 credits for R149) would be more cost-effective depending on your workflow.
• API, low-to-moderate volume (up to ~3,000 codes/month): Starter at R149/month. The carry-over means a quieter month doesn't waste the allocation.
• API, growing or mid-volume (up to ~9,000 codes/month): Pro at R299/month. The rate limits (15 req/sec vs 5 req/sec on Starter) also matter if you run batches in parallel.
• API, very high volume or custom requirements: contact us directly — enterprise pricing is available with custom included credits and dedicated rate limits.

Frequently asked questions

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