# Billing and pricing
Source: https://www.desktopaccountingapi.com/docs/platform/billing/

> How Desktop Accounting API bills per active production company file, the free trial, what counts, what stays free, and what happens if a payment fails.

## Price

**$49 per active production company file per month.** Unlimited API requests. No platform fee and no monthly minimum. Volume pricing is available by quote; [contact us](https://www.desktopaccountingapi.com/contact/).

A company file is **active** in a billing period when a production connection to it made at least one successful data request during that period. You pay for the company files your product actually used, not for every customer who ever connected.

## What counts

| Counts toward billing | Free |
| --- | --- |
| Successful QuickBooks data requests (reads, writes, reports, passthrough) in a production project | Everything in test projects |
| | Intuit sample company files, in any project |
| | Health checks |
| | Setup links and the setup flow |
| | End-user management, request lookups and webhooks |
| | Failed requests |

**One company file counts once.** Several connectors, several end users or several projects in your organization that reach the same company file count as one. A customer who moves QuickBooks to a new computer does not count twice.

**Test projects are free.** Use them with sample company files, trial installations and your own test data. **Sample company files are never billed**, even in a production project: we read QuickBooks' own sample-company flag for the open file. If you need to test against a real production company file, contact us; we can exempt it.

## The free trial

Your organization's 30-day production trial starts with its first successful production data request to a company file that is not a sample. During the trial, production requests work without a payment method, and nothing is billed. The dashboard shows how many trial days are left.

Add billing before the trial ends from **Billing › Add billing** in the dashboard (owners only). Billing is metered: at the end of each billing period you pay for the company files that were active in it, and company files used only during the trial are never charged. The billing page lists this period's company files with their end user, project and active days, marks each one **Billable** or **Trial**, and estimates the charge.

## If billing lapses

| State | Production data requests | Everything else |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Trial or active subscription | Work | Work |
| Payment failed, within 7 days | Work, with a banner asking an owner to fix billing | Work |
| Trial ended without billing, or payment still failing after 7 days | Return `402 BILLING_REQUIRED` or `402 PAYMENT_FAILED` | Work |
| Subscription canceled | Work until the end of the paid period, then blocked | Work |

"Everything else" means test projects, health checks, setup links, end users and request lookups. Your customers' connections stay set up, so service resumes as soon as billing is fixed. Your end users see a neutral "contact the application provider" message, never your billing details.

## Invoices and payment methods

Owners manage the payment method, invoices, receipts and cancellation from **Billing › Manage billing**, which opens our payment provider's customer portal. Receipts and failed-payment notices come from the payment provider by email. Billing is per organization, covering all its production projects.

## Billing FAQ

**Do you charge per API call?** No. Requests are unlimited. Only active production company files count.

**Is a customer who connected but whose file was never used billed?** No. A file counts only after a successful data request in the billing period.

**Do health checks keep a file active?** No. Health checks are free and do not count.

**Is the Intuit sample company billed?** No. Sample company files never count and never start the trial.

**What if one customer has two company files?** That is two company files, each counted when used.

**Are changes prorated?** No proration is needed. Each billing period counts the files active in that period.

**Can I get a discount for many company files?** Yes, volume pricing by quote. [Contact us](https://www.desktopaccountingapi.com/contact/).