How to evaluate a product pricing data API
Before you build on a product pricing data API, ask every vendor the same seven questions. Below each one is ShopSavvy’s answer and where to check it yourself, then the limits we know about and the cases where something else fits better.
- How do you count retailers and products, and what counts as covered?
- How fresh is each price, and how do I know?
- How far back does the price history go, and how dense is it?
- Which identifiers do you accept, and how do you show a match is right?
- What are the rate limits, and what is your incident history?
- Can I predict my bill, and what happens when I go over?
- What commitment do I sign up for, and how do I leave?
Seven questions and ShopSavvy’s answers
1. How do you count retailers and products, and what counts as covered?
Why it matters: A large headline number can include duplicate stores, discontinued products or products with no current price.
How does ShopSavvy count its coverage?
Offers come from tens of thousands of retailers. We do not publish a precise retailer count, because one store can appear under more than one retailer key. The catalog holds 30M+ products, and millions of products with current retailer prices. The fastest check is your own product list: the offers response names every retailer that has a price.
Run your products in the playground →2. How fresh is each price, and how do I know?
Why it matters: A cached price without a timestamp cannot be trusted for a decision made today.
How fresh are ShopSavvy prices?
Every offer carries the time ShopSavvy last saw that price, so freshness is visible per offer rather than promised in aggregate. You can schedule products for refreshes hourly, daily or weekly for retailers we can re-check through an official retailer API; other offers update as ShopSavvy sees them.
Scheduling reference →3. How far back does the price history go, and how dense is it?
Why it matters: A history that starts years ago can still be too sparse to chart a single product.
How deep is ShopSavvy price history?
The archive holds price history back to 2011, dense from 2019: observations before 2019 are sparse, and most of the archive's hundreds of millions of price observations are from 2019 on. Density still varies by product and retailer, and history only contains prices ShopSavvy actually observed.
History reference →4. Which identifiers do you accept, and how do you show a match is right?
Why it matters: A lookup that silently returns a different variant is worse than a miss.
How does ShopSavvy match identifiers to products?
Send a barcode (UPC, EAN, ISBN, GTIN), ASIN, retailer URL, model number or MPN. Every result carries a match object saying which identifier type matched and how many candidates there were, so ambiguous matches can be flagged. Identifiers that match nothing cost 0 credits.
Product lookup reference →5. What are the rate limits, and what is your incident history?
Why it matters: Limits and incident history decide whether the API can sit in a customer-facing path.
What are the ShopSavvy Data API limits?
Each account gets 1,000 requests per rolling hour per account, up to 100 identifiers per call and history windows of up to 366 days. There is no public status page or published uptime figure, so ask us directly if you need incident history.
Rate limit reference →6. Can I predict my bill, and what happens when I go over?
Why it matters: Overage pricing and opaque units turn a pilot into a budget surprise.
How predictable is ShopSavvy Data API pricing?
Plans and the per-request credit table are public, starting at $49 a month for 1,000 credits. You are charged only for data returned. At the monthly limit requests are refused with ERR_CREDITS_EXHAUSTED instead of billed as overage, and an X-Credits-Warning header appears from 75% of the month.
Plans, credit table and estimator →7. What commitment do I sign up for, and how do I leave?
Why it matters: Annual minimums and unclear terms make a trial expensive to walk away from.
What commitment does the ShopSavvy Data API require?
None on self-serve plans: Starter has a 14-day trial, monthly billing is the default, and you can cancel from the billing page with access to the end of the paid period (payments are non-refundable). Product and offer responses can be pulled as CSV. Usage is governed by the ShopSavvy B2B Terms; Enterprise plans add custom contract terms.
ShopSavvy B2B Terms →
What are the known limitations?
- Offers are returned in US dollars only; there is no other currency.
- Not every retailer has a price for every product; test your own product list before you commit.
- Price history before 2019 is sparse, and history only holds prices ShopSavvy observed.
- Scheduled refreshes run at most hourly, and only for retailers we can re-check through an official retailer API.
- There is no public status page or published uptime figure.
- There is no published SOC 2 report or security questionnaire pack; email business@shopsavvy.com for what we can share.
- The API and its data are hosted in the United States; there is no EU data residency option.
When is ShopSavvy not the right fit?
Built for
- Price-comparison, deal and grocery-basket apps that identify products by barcode or ASIN and need prices from many retailers. Price-comparison apps →
- Catalog, POS and analytics tools that enrich product records with identifiers, images and current prices. POS & catalog →
- Insurance and resale teams valuing items at today’s retail price, with history to back the number. Insurance & claims →
- Shopping assistants and agents that need live prices behind a REST call or an MCP server. Shopping assistants →
Not a fit if
- You need Amazon sales rank or detailed seller analytics. The Data API does not track them. ShopSavvy vs Keepa API →
- You need prices in currencies other than US dollars. Offers are returned in USD.
- You need refreshes more often than hourly. Scheduled refreshes run hourly, daily or weekly.
- You need shelf stock at a specific physical store. Offers are online listings, each with a URL.
- You need a free tier. Plans start at $49 a month, with a 14-day trial on Starter.
- You want a dashboard instead of writing code. ShopSavvy for Business →
- You want whole catalog or price-history files rather than per-call lookups. Data Licensing →
Check it against your own products
The playground runs real requests without an account. When you are ready, the Starter plan has a 14-day trial.