Google is adjusting their pricing model for the Adwords API, acknowledging that having a free usage tier is important. Making the API easier to access, while also ensuring a certain QOS.
Google has opted to go with two levels of API access:
- Basic - Basic access is provided by default and allows up to 10,000 operations per day
- Standard - Standard access is available to qualified developers and has no daily limit on operations
With both basic or standard access, there are no charges for AdWords API usage. Google is just looking to maintain quality over which developers can hammer on the API, while acknowledging a free tier allows for experimentation and innovation. All you have to do is apply to be part of the standard level, if you reach limits of basic tier.
This is a good model for even a totally open data of free resource APIs. While you want your data and resources to be open, you also want to be able to offer a certain quality of service, and keep infrastructure costs to a minimum.
To do this, you will need to to secure the API interface to some degree.
