What we shipped this month: geocoding, IP, time zone and more
A roundup of recent work across the API: new compatibility hosts, faster time zone and elevation lookups, dashboard features, and clearer quota visibility.
New ways to pay: PayPal, cryptocurrency and bank transfer
Paying for an API should not be harder than using one. My Geocode now accepts three payment methods for prepaid credit and Unlimited packages: PayPal, cryptocurrency, and bank transfer, so an account can pick whichever fits its own setup rather than being locked into a single option.
PayPal suits accounts that want the fastest path from decision to active credit, using an account most people and businesses already have set up. Cryptocurrency suits accounts that prefer to pay that way for their own reasons, whether that is speed, privacy, or simply preference, and it is treated as a first-class option here rather than an afterthought bolted on separately. Bank transfer suits accounts, often larger organizations, that need a traditional paper trail or that operate under procurement rules requiring it.
Supporting three rails rather than one is mostly a question of settlement speed and paperwork, not a difference in what a payment buys. PayPal and cryptocurrency both settle quickly enough that credit or an Unlimited package can go active within the same session. Bank transfer settles on banking timescales instead, sometimes a business day or more, which is the tradeoff an organization accepts in exchange for the transfer record its own procurement process requires.
All three methods lead to the same place: either topped-up prepaid credit at €0.0001 a request beyond the free allowance, or an active Unlimited package at €50 a month. There is no difference in what you get based on how you paid for it, and no method carries a different rate or a hidden surcharge attached.
This flexibility matters because the accounts using My Geocode range widely, from an individual developer testing an idea on a personal card through PayPal, to a company settling invoices by bank transfer as a matter of internal policy, to a team that simply prefers paying in cryptocurrency. Building for EUR-based, worldwide usage means building for that same range of payment preference, not assuming one method fits everyone.
In practice this plays out as three very different account holders reaching the same result by different paths: a developer funding a small prepaid balance with a personal PayPal account before a weekend project, a company routing a larger Unlimited package through a bank transfer tied to a purchase order, and a team that simply prefers settling in cryptocurrency for its own operational reasons. All three see the identical €0.0001 per request rate and the same €50 monthly figure once the payment clears.
Every key gets a free daily allowance. Past it, requests draw on prepaid credit or are covered by an Unlimited package. Every response tells you where you stand in its headers, and now, funding that credit or that package is a matter of picking whichever of the three payment methods is easiest on your end.
Coupon codes sit next to payment methods in the dashboard for accounts that receive a promotional or referral credit rather than paying directly, applying the same way to a prepaid balance regardless of which of the three payment methods eventually tops it up further.
Managing payments, whichever method you choose, happens directly inside the client dashboard at /dashboard, alongside invoices, usage stats and API keys. Pricing details for prepaid credit and Unlimited packages are at /pricing/.