---
title: "Quote the credit cost of a call or a plan"
method: GET
path: "/utility/estimate"
tags: ["utility"]
---

# Quote the credit cost of a call or a plan

`GET /utility/estimate`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1`
- URL: `https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/utility/estimate`
- Auth: API key in header `x-api-key`

Quote what a call will cost before you make it: the exact credits the API holds up front (expected_max, the most it can cost), the lowest possible charge for a successful call (expected_min; unused hold is refunded), the formula, and the params that change the price (levers). The quote comes from the same pricing the API bills with, so it never differs from the real charge. Pass the endpoint as id and its params on this same URL as you would send them (id=tiktok/post/comments&url=...&label=spam), or URL-encoded in params (a query string or a JSON object), which wins on a conflict; a batch endpoint takes its JSON body as body. Add items=N to turn N rows into pages on an endpoint with a known page size. For several calls at once, pass plan: base64url JSON of {calls:[{id, params, repeat}], fan_out:[{from, each, to}]}, or the steps of a utility/plan answer as they are, for per-call and total holds. A request the API would reject comes back valid:false at 0 credits. Nothing is fetched. Free to call.

## Query parameters

- `id` string
- `method` 'GET' | 'POST' | 'PATCH' | 'DELETE'
- `params` string
- `body` string
- `items` integer
- `plan` string

## Headers

- `Cache-Control` string
- `Idempotency-Key` string

## Response `200`

Successful response

- object
  - `success` boolean, required: Whether the request succeeded
  - `platform` string, required: Platform name
  - `endpoint` string, required: API endpoint path
  - `data` object, required: Platform-specific response data
    - `metrics` object: Key performance metrics
      - `total_views` integer: Total view count
      - `total_likes` integer: Total like count
      - `total_comments` integer: Total comment count
      - `engagement_rate` number: Computed engagement rate (0-1)
    - `period` string, nullable: Time period for the analytics data
    - `breakdown` object[], nullable: Per-item or per-period breakdown
    - `_warnings` string[]: Non-fatal notices about this response (field-map drift, clamped computed values). Advisory only: its presence never means the request failed. Omitted entirely when there is nothing to report, so treat absent as 'no warnings'.
  - `credits_used` integer, required: Number of credits consumed
  - `credits_remaining` integer, nullable, required: Current account balance, or null when this response could not establish one. Free cache hits always return null because they do not establish an authoritative post-request balance. An idempotency replay also returns null when its current-balance lookup fails. It is never a fabricated zero, so a zero here means the account really is empty. The authoritative reading is the one on a billed response, which comes straight from the deduction.
  - `request_id` string, required: Unique request identifier for support
  - `cached` boolean, required: Whether the response was served from cache
  - `idempotent_replay` boolean: True only when this response is an idempotency replay
  - `meta` object: Optional. Present only when this call completed a pattern that one other call does more cheaply or in one step, at most once per pattern per API key per day. Send the header `X-SocialCrawl-Hints: off` to never receive it.
    - `hint` object: One suggestion: what to call instead and why, with the price when the suggested call costs more than the calls it replaces.
      - `code` string: creator_card | batch_profiles | search_multi | incremental_sync | comment_labels | search_repeat
      - `message` string: One sentence for a person or an agent to read.
      - `method` string: GET or POST.
      - `path` string: The call the hint points to.

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid request - missing or malformed parameters
- `401`: Unauthorized - missing or invalid API key
- `402`: Payment required - the account balance is too low, or the calling key has spent its own per-key credit limit
- `404`: Not found - the endpoint does not exist, or the requested resource was not found upstream
- `405`: Method not allowed - wrong HTTP verb for this endpoint
- `409`: Conflict - an idempotent request is still in flight, its completed body exceeded the replay limit, or the cohort resource is not in a state that allows this operation
- `410`: Gone - the discover run's retention passed and its rows were deleted; start a new run
- `413`: Payload too large: the JSON request body exceeds the 1 MB size limit and is rejected before parsing, or a single cohort result cannot fit beneath the 1 MB response-page ceiling
- `422`: Idempotency payload mismatch - this Idempotency-Key was already used with a different request payload; or a discover request with async=false is over what one call can answer (NEEDS_ASYNC)
- `429`: Rate or concurrency limit exceeded. `RATE_LIMITED`: more than 600 requests in a 1-minute sliding window on this API key (headers `X-RateLimit-Limit`/`Remaining`/`Reset`; `Retry-After` is seconds until the window resets). `CONCURRENCY_LIMIT`: more than 50 simultaneous in-flight requests (headers `X-Concurrency-Limit`/`Remaining`; short static `Retry-After`). Both are unbilled. Honor `Retry-After`, then back off with jitter. See /docs/rate-limits.
- `500`: Internal server error - an immediate refund is attempted; credits_used reports the committed net charge and exact compensation is queued if that refund cannot commit
- `502`: Upstream error - the platform returned an error; an immediate refund is attempted and credits_used reports the committed net charge
- `503`: Service unavailable - the request is unbilled when rejected before deduction, otherwise an immediate refund is attempted and credits_used reports the committed net charge
- `504`: Gateway timeout - the request was still running close to the platform time limit and is answered as UPSTREAM_ERROR, the same code as 502. An immediate refund is attempted and credits_used reports the committed net charge. When details.retry_with is set, retryable is false and there is no Retry-After

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/socialcrawl/apis/socialcrawl-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/socialcrawl/apis/socialcrawl-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/socialcrawl/apis/socialcrawl-api/revisions/a0ad2511004a?raw)