Building APIs to Monetize Your Proprietary Data

by Adrian Machado

If your company is sitting on a goldmine of proprietary data, opening it up through an API can be a fantastic revenue driver - both directly through monetization and indirectly through developer enablement. In the past year - we have seen several examples of companies utilizing their data. Reddit, Twitter, and Giphy have all jacked up the prices of their APIs and implemented anti-scraping measures to generate millions from their platform data.

Monetizing data is especially important in 2025 - as AI companies vy for training data for their models, and Agent companies crawl the web for information. If your data is private, you're missing out on selling it to them. Even worse, if your data is public - they might already be using it to generate revenue themselves! Let's dive into why and how you can use APIs to monetize your data.

Table of Contents#

1. Why Monetize Your Proprietary Data with APIs?
2. Examples of Companies Monetizing APIs
3. Different Monetization Models
4. Tools and Infrastructure for Monetizing APIs
5. Key Considerations: Regulations, Competition, and More
6. Getting Started: A Step-by-Step Roadmap
7. Final Thoughts

Why Monetize Your Proprietary Data with APIs?#

Create New Revenue Streams#

If you’ve spent years collecting unique datasets — be it in user behavior, finance, healthcare, marketing, or any other industry — you might have something others want and are willing to pay for. Providing an API to that dataset creates a fresh revenue line without needing to build a new full-blown product yourself.

Enhance Your Ecosystem#

APIs also open up opportunities for your developer community. By exposing the right endpoints, you can encourage third parties to build complementary services and tools. This leads to a thriving ecosystem that can expand your company’s reach and usage exponentially. For example, back in the early day - Reddit had an free API that powered many 3rd-party mobile clients (before they had their own) which allowed the platform to grow rapidly.

Increase Data Value Through Network Effects#

Ironically, the more that external developers and companies use your data, the more valuable it can become. External feedback, new derived insights, and deeper integrations with other systems can all enhance your data’s richness and relevance over time.

Examples of Companies Monetizing APIs#

Let’s look at a few examples of companies successfully charging for access to their data via APIs. These aren’t just hypothetical models—these are actual companies reaping the benefits right now.

Finance: Sacra#

Sacra provides private markets data through their APIs. Their data is typically difficult to access, and they’ve built a unique repository that’s extremely valuable for fintech apps, investment tools, and advanced financial research. By monetizing access (for instance, charging by the volume of queries or a monthly subscription plan), Sacra can provide granular data sets without building all the possible use cases themselves. It’s a prime example of how specialized data can command a price. See our guide to fintech API monetization to explore more examples.

Healthcare: Ribbon Health#

Ribbon Health’s APIs make comprehensive healthcare data available to healthcare providers, app developers, and insurers. Think provider directories, insurance coverage details, and appointment data — an absolute treasure trove for anyone building in healthtech. By putting a paywall around robust data sets, Ribbon has turned their data into a scalable service.

Here, the user pays for accurate, up-to-date healthcare data to power everything from telemedicine apps to scheduling systems. Revenue models can include subscription tiers based on data usage, per-API-call pricing, or even licensing arrangements.

Social Media: Reddit#

Reddit recently shook things up by starting to charge for API access, especially for large-scale usage (e.g., from AI companies like Google and OpenAI to train their models). This was a major moment in the public eye — Reddit realized that the community-driven content and discussions it hosts are incredibly valuable for training AI, so they decided to place a price tag on it.

It was a controversial move, but from a business standpoint, it highlights a significant opportunity—especially for platforms that didn’t even initially consider their user-generated content as a monetizable data asset.

Over 10,000 developers trust Zuplo to secure, document, and monetize their APIs

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Different Monetization Models#

There are many API monetization models (as explored in our API monetization strategy guide). Here's a few that are typically used for data monetization.

Pay-Per-Call (Usage-Based Billing)#

• How it Works: You charge based on the number of API requests a developer or organization makes.
• Who Uses It: Many SaaS companies with data-rich endpoints prefer this model because it scales with usage. For instance, each request might cost $0.001, or you could have tiers (e.g., first 1M requests are included, then $X per additional million).
• Pros: Easily understandable for developers. Scales with usage.
• Cons: Can be a challenge to forecast revenue. Heavy users might get big bills and look for alternatives.

Subscription / Tiered Plans#

• How it Works: You define pricing tiers—Starter, Pro, Enterprise—each with certain limits on API calls, data features, or data freshness.
• Who Uses It: Common among B2B data services like Ribbon Health.
• Pros: Predictable revenue, simplifies budgeting for clients.
• Cons: Might be limiting if usage patterns fluctuate heavily. You’ll need careful planning to fit different user segments.

Check out our subscription vs usage-based billing tips here

Data Licensing#

• How it Works: You sell or license a portion of your dataset at a negotiated rate—often done with large enterprises or for specialized data. The API then just serves as the delivery mechanism.
• Who Uses It: Companies with unique, proprietary datasets (e.g., Sacra for private markets).
• Pros: High-margin deals, fewer small accounts to manage.
• Cons: Sales cycles can be long, requiring relationship management and custom deals.

Freemium Model#

• How it Works: Offer a free tier with limited access (e.g., limited daily calls or older data) to attract developers. Then upsell them to a paid plan for higher usage, more recent data, or advanced endpoints.
• Who Uses It: Startups that want rapid adoption and need to build a developer community quickly.
• Pros: Attracts a wide audience, drives developer engagement.
• Cons: Monetizing can be tricky if your free tier is too generous.

Revenue-Sharing / Partner Integrations#

• How it Works: You integrate your API with a partner’s product, and share revenue from the end customers who use your data. Common in ecommerce API monetization.
• Pros: Creates strong partner relationships; can unlock distribution channels you might not otherwise have.
• Cons: Complex revenue tracking and disputes over revenue splits can emerge if not clearly defined.

Tools and Infrastructure for Monetizing APIs#

API Gateways and Management Platforms#

You’re probably using something like Apigee, AWS API Gateway, or (hint hint) Zuplo to manage your APIs. These platforms handle authentication, rate limiting, usage analytics, and monetization features. They free you up to focus on your data, rather than the nitty-gritty of access controls.

• Opinion: Zuplo is our own product, so of course I’m biased—but I genuinely believe it’s the easiest way to secure, monitor, and monetize your APIs. It’s designed for scaling from day one, which is critical if you anticipate growth in API usage.

Billing and Payment Integration#

Stripe, Paddle, and Chargebee are popular for handling subscription billing and pay-per-usage scenarios. Integrate one of these with your API gateway so that when a user surpasses a certain threshold, they get billed automatically or need to upgrade.

Usage Analytics and Observability#

Tools like Datadog, New Relic, and Splunk can help you keep an eye on your API usage in real-time. This is crucial for:

• Identifying Overuse or Abusive Behavior: You don’t want someone scraping your entire dataset for free. You can also identify users close to their tier's limit and proactively get them to upgrade.
• Forecasting: Understanding peak usage times can help you plan out capacity and new subscription tier limits.

Key Considerations: Regulations, Competition, and More#

Regulatory Hurdles#

For industries like healthcare and finance, compliance can be a big deal. Think HIPAA in the U.S. for health data, GDPR in the EU for personally identifiable information, and SEC or FINRA regulations in the financial sector. The CCPA adds additional compliance requirements for companies serving California residents. Your API business needs strong data governance to track data lineage, manage consent, and handle deletion requests.

• Recommendation: Consult legal counsel early. Build data governance and security controls into your API from day one. It’s cheaper than refactoring later when regulators come knocking - or facing fines.

Competitive Landscape#

Once you start monetizing your data via APIs, you effectively become a data provider. That means competitors might pop up, or existing data vendors might see you as a rival.

• Opinion: Don’t let this scare you away. Competition validates the market. Differentiate on data quality, ease-of-use, and developer experience.

Data Quality & Security#

Nothing kills an API monetization strategy faster than inaccurate data or security breaches. You must ensure data is accurate, up-to-date, and secure.

• Recommendation: Implement robust QA processes, frequent data refreshes, and enterprise-grade security from day one. This helps you command premium pricing.

Balancing Accessibility and Control#

You want your data to be easily consumable, but not so open that you lose control over its distribution. Rate limiting (especially dynamic rate limiting based on subscription plan), authentication tokens, and usage tracking are vital.

• Opinion: Always err on the side of a more controlled, yet developer-friendly environment. You can gradually open access as your comfort level grows. See our API rate limiting best practices to get started.

Getting Started: A Step-by-Step Roadmap#

1. Identify Your Goldmine
   Make sure the data you plan to expose is truly unique and valuable. Conduct some market research to see if people will pay for it.

2. Define Your Monetization Model
   Will you do usage-based billing, subscriptions, or a licensing approach? Map out sample pricing plans before writing a single line of code.

3. Evaluate Tools & Infrastructure
   Choose an API management solution (I’m partial to Zuplo!) that can handle user authentication, rate limiting, analytics, and billing integration out of the box.

4. Secure Your Data
   Implement strong authentication (API keys, OAuth, etc.), encryption, and role-based access. This is non-negotiable—especially with sensitive data.

5. Pilot and Iterate
   Soft-launch your API with a friendly developer group or a small set of beta customers. Gather feedback on pricing, performance, and data quality.

6. Scale and Market
   Roll out a marketing campaign targeting verticals that benefit most from your data. Invest in docs, tutorials, and dev relations to lower friction and speed up adoption.

Final Thoughts#

Monetizing proprietary data through APIs is a powerful growth strategy. With the right mix of data quality, technical infrastructure, and developer support, you can build a new revenue stream and expand your brand’s reach. Look at examples like Sacra, Ribbon Health, and even Reddit for inspiration—there’s a lot to learn from the pioneers who have already taken the leap.

Whether you’re a startup founder or an engineering executive, keep an eye on compliance, competition, and user trust. If you’re ready to start building and monetizing your APIs, reach out—at Zuplo, we’re passionate about helping companies bring their data to market in a secure, scalable, and user-friendly way.

Happy building and happy monetizing!