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API Authentication, Credits, and Rate Limits

How to authenticate with the Autobound API, understand credit usage, and work within rate limits.

Written by Kyle Schuster
Updated this week

Authentication

All endpoints under /v1/ require an API key. You can authenticate using either method:

  • X-API-KEY header: Include your key as X-API-KEY: your_api_key_here

  • Bearer token: Include your key as Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

You can obtain your API key from the Autobound Portal. The same API key works across all Signal API endpoints.

Credit Costs by Endpoint

Different API endpoints consume different numbers of credits. Here is the complete breakdown:

Signal API (Search, Enrich, and Intelligence)

  • Search: 1 credit per result returned. Count-only queries (where you just want to know how many signals match) are free.

  • Company Enrichment: 1 credit per company enriched

  • Contact Enrichment: 1 credit per contact enriched

  • Bulk Enrichment: 1 credit per record, up to 1,000 records per request

  • Webhook Delivery: 1 credit per record delivered. Failed deliveries are not charged.

  • Timeline: 1 credit per signal

  • Trending / History: 1 credit per signal

  • MCP Agentic API: 1 credit per result

  • Intent Scoring: 5 credits per request

  • Metadata: Free (no credit cost)

Generate Content API

  • Generate Content: 2 credits per content item generated (emails, call scripts, sequences)

Free Endpoints (No Credit Cost)

The following endpoints do not consume credits:

  • Signal type listings

  • Metadata endpoints

  • Search count-only queries

  • Account info and credit balance

  • Request logs

  • Collection statistics

  • Webhook management (create, list, update, delete)

Pricing Tiers

  • Free: $0/month, 500 credits included, $0.00 per credit

  • Starter: $249/month, 25,000 credits included, $0.010 per credit

  • Growth: $799/month, 100,000 credits included, $0.008 per credit

  • Scale: $2,499/month, 500,000 credits included, $0.005 per credit

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing, $0.003+ per credit

Flat file delivery is available for high-volume data licensing (1.5M+ records). Contact sales for custom pricing.

Tracking Credit Usage

Every API response includes credit tracking headers:

  • x-credits-used — Credits consumed by this request

  • x-credits-remaining — Credits left in your current billing period

  • x-credits-charged — Total credits charged

  • x-credits-reset — When your credit balance resets

Checking Your Balance

Check your credit balance at any time using the free GET /v1/credits endpoint. This returns your monthly limit, current usage, credits remaining, and reset date without consuming any credits.

Rate Limits

The default rate limit is 300 requests per minute per customer. If you exceed this limit, you will receive a 429 (Too Many Requests) response.

Common Error Codes

  • 400 — Invalid parameters in your request

  • 401 — Missing or invalid API key

  • 402 — Monthly credit limit exhausted

  • 429 — Rate limit exceeded (300 requests/minute)

Account Management Endpoints

All account management endpoints are free to use:

  • GET /v1/account — View account info and billing period details

  • GET /v1/credits — Check remaining credit balance

  • GET /v1/logs — Access your request history

  • GET /v1/stats — Review usage statistics

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