API quota usage as engagement and upsell timing

Why this matters

API-quota pricing turns engineering into a sales-influencing function. Every call your customer makes is both a feature use AND a step toward needing more. The hot signal — “this customer is about to hit the cap” — is the warmest upsell moment in your business. They’re already paying, they’ve already integrated, they’re feeling the limit.

Stripe Metering can compute usage but doesn’t surface “approaching limit” alerts in a usable form. Most teams find out a customer hit their cap when the customer gets a 429 and emails support angry.

Agentry computes per-account quota utilization in one HogQL query and ranks accounts by “about to hit the wall.” Sales gets the call list; engineering gets the signal too (capacity planning).

What you get

• A per-account utilization table: account | quota | used_today | used_mtd | pct_of_cap | days_to_cap_at_current_rate
• The accounts crossing thresholds (50/80/95/100%) sorted by how soon they’ll hit
• A draft email per top-3 to the account’s primary contact: “you’re at 82% — here’s how upgrading helps”

Walk through it

agentry_analytics_query {
  project_id: "default",
  hogql: "WITH quotas AS (SELECT properties.account_id AS aid, argMax(properties.api_quota_monthly, timestamp) AS quota FROM events WHERE event = 'quota_set' GROUP BY aid HAVING quota > 0), usage_mtd AS (SELECT properties.account_id AS aid, count() AS calls_mtd FROM events WHERE event = 'api_call' AND timestamp >= toStartOfMonth(now()) GROUP BY aid), usage_today AS (SELECT properties.account_id AS aid, count() AS calls_today FROM events WHERE event = 'api_call' AND timestamp >= toStartOfDay(now()) GROUP BY aid), days_passed AS (SELECT dateDiff('day', toStartOfMonth(now()), now()) + 1 AS days_in_mtd, dateDiff('day', toStartOfMonth(now()), toStartOfMonth(now() + INTERVAL 1 MONTH)) AS days_in_month) SELECT q.aid AS account, q.quota AS quota, COALESCE(u.calls_mtd, 0) AS used_mtd, COALESCE(t.calls_today, 0) AS used_today, round(COALESCE(u.calls_mtd, 0) * 100.0 / q.quota, 1) AS pct_of_cap, round(COALESCE(u.calls_mtd, 0) * 1.0 / d.days_in_mtd * d.days_in_month, 0) AS projected_eom, round(q.quota * 1.0 / nullIf(COALESCE(u.calls_mtd, 0) * 1.0 / d.days_in_mtd, 0)) AS days_to_cap_at_current_rate FROM quotas q LEFT JOIN usage_mtd u ON q.aid = u.aid LEFT JOIN usage_today t ON q.aid = t.aid CROSS JOIN days_passed d HAVING pct_of_cap >= 50 ORDER BY pct_of_cap DESC"
}

{
  "rows": [
    { "account": "acct_megacorp", "quota": 1000000, "used_mtd": 982400, "used_today": 41200, "pct_of_cap": 98.2, "projected_eom": 1340000, "days_to_cap_at_current_rate": 0 },
    { "account": "acct_innovate", "quota": 500000,  "used_mtd": 412000, "used_today": 18400, "pct_of_cap": 82.4, "projected_eom": 562000,  "days_to_cap_at_current_rate": 4 },
    { "account": "acct_acme",     "quota": 100000,  "used_mtd": 71000,  "used_today": 3100,  "pct_of_cap": 71.0, "projected_eom": 96900,   "days_to_cap_at_current_rate": 9 },
    { "account": "acct_globex",   "quota": 250000,  "used_mtd": 142000, "used_today": 4800,  "pct_of_cap": 56.8, "projected_eom": 194000,  "days_to_cap_at_current_rate": 22 }
  ]
}

The output

API Quota Utilization (current month)

ACCOUNT         QUOTA      USED MTD    %     PROJ EOM    DAYS-TO-CAP
megacorp       1.0M        982,400    98%    1.34M           0  ★ CRITICAL
innovate       500k        412,000    82%      562k           4  ★ UPSELL NOW
acme           100k         71,000    71%      96.9k           9     warm
globex         250k        142,000    57%      194k          22     ok

ACTIONS:
  ★ megacorp:    AE call TODAY — they will exceed cap tomorrow
                  Draft email above
  ★ innovate:    AE outreach this week — warm lead window
  ★ acme:        CSM heads-up message
    globex:      track for next month

REVENUE OPPORTUNITY:
  If all 3 upgrade to next tier, +$3,500-$6,000 MRR.
  Cost of waiting: customer hits 429, fires angry email, downgrades or churns.

Setting it up

Two events needed:

1. Every API call as an analytics event (sampling OK if volume is huge):

// In your API middleware
app.use(async (req, res, next) => {
  await fetch(`https://api.agentry.sh/v1/analytics/${process.env.AGENTRY_PROJECT_ID}/`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.AGENTRY_DSN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "User-Agent": "myapp-api/1.0",  // REQUIRED — Cloudflare 403s default UAs
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      event: "api_call",
      distinct_id: req.account.id,
      properties: {
        account_id: req.account.id,
        endpoint: req.path,
        // skip waiting on this — fire-and-forget
      },
    }),
  }).catch(() => {});  // never break the request
  next();
});

At >1M calls/day, sample at 1-in-N and divide quota by N in the query — same shape, less ingest cost.

2. Quota changes (set or updated):

// On plan change OR explicit quota bump
await fetch(`https://api.agentry.sh/v1/analytics/${process.env.AGENTRY_PROJECT_ID}/`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { /* same */ "User-Agent": "myapp/1.0" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    event: "quota_set",
    distinct_id: account.id,
    properties: {
      account_id: account.id,
      api_quota_monthly: account.plan.quota,
      plan: account.plan.name,
    },
  }),
});

Variations

• “Same query for endpoint-level usage — which endpoints are the heaviest? Maybe there’s a more efficient API to suggest.”
• “Find accounts that hit 100% last month — did they upgrade, downgrade, or just absorb the 429s?”
• “For each over-cap account, compute the dollar value of their overage at the next tier’s rate. Use it in the sales pitch.”
• “Daily cron at 8am: post any account that crossed 80% in the last 24h to #sales-pipeline.” (uses a Routine)