Live Football API's pricing page has settled into three distinct models — one-time Credit Packages, Unlimited subscriptions, and a recurring Monthly Subscription tier — and every single plan across all three now lists an exact sustained requests-per-second and burst rate limit. This is a full breakdown of current pricing and what those rate limits actually mean for choosing a plan.
The Three Pricing Models
- Credit Packages — one-time purchases where credits never expire
- Monthly Subscription — a recurring monthly charge with a fixed daily request cap
- Unlimited — no credit system, no daily cap, priced monthly to annually
Credit Packages
| Plan | Price | API Calls | Sustained | Burst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $9.99 | 50,000 | 2 req/s | 5 |
| Professional (Popular) | $39.99 | 300,000 | 5 req/s | 15 |
| Enterprise | $99.99 | 1,250,000 | 15 req/s | 40 |
| Ultimate | $249.99 | 5,000,000 | 40 req/s | 100 |
Credits never expire, so unused calls from a quiet month carry over indefinitely — this model suits finite or irregular projects better than a recurring charge.
Monthly Subscription
| Plan | Price/mo | Daily Requests | Sustained | Burst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Monthly | $9.99 | 5,000/day | 2 req/s | 5 |
| Plus Monthly (Popular) | $19.99 | 25,000/day | 5 req/s | 15 |
| Growth Monthly | $29.99 | 100,000/day | 10 req/s | 30 |
| Elite Monthly | $39.99 | 200,000/day | 20 req/s | 60 |
| Business Monthly | $69.99 | 500,000/day | 40 req/s | 120 |
Auto-renews via Stripe, cancel anytime. The daily cap resets every day and doesn't roll over — this model suits steady, predictable traffic where you'd rather not watch a credit balance.
Unlimited
| Plan | Price | Sustained | Burst |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Monthly | $99/mo | 50 req/s | 150 |
| Unlimited 3-Month (Popular) | $349 | 75 req/s | 200 |
| Unlimited 6-Month | $599 | 100 req/s | 300 |
| Unlimited Annual | $999 | 150 req/s | 450 |
No credit system, no daily cap — only a rate limit remains, and it scales up with longer commitment terms. The 3-month, 6-month, and annual tiers also bundle unlimited access to the sibling basketball, tennis, and volleyball APIs at no extra cost.
Two Different Limits, Two Different Failure Modes
It's worth being precise about what each number protects against, since hitting either one looks identical from your app's side (a failed request):
- Quota (total calls, or daily requests) — a volume ceiling over time. Run out, and you're done until top-up or reset.
- Sustained req/s + burst — a speed ceiling, independent of quota. You can have plenty of quota left and still get throttled by firing too many requests in the same instant.
When Rate Limit Matters More Than Quota
Two apps with identical monthly volume can need different plans purely based on how requests are timed:
Sequential polling
An app checking scores for a few leagues every 30-60 seconds, one request at a time, rarely approaches even a 2 req/s limit. Quota is the only number that matters here.
A match center page
Loading /live_match_details, /lineups, /h2h, and /officials in parallel fires 4 requests at once. On Starter (burst 5), that's fine for one visitor — but 10 people loading that page simultaneously means 40 concurrent calls against a burst ceiling of 5.
A live dashboard tracking many matches
Refreshing 20 live matches every 30 seconds, unstaggered, can produce short bursts of 15-20 simultaneous requests — exactly where the burst column, not total quota, decides the right plan.
Estimating Your Real Peak Rate
// Fires everything in the same instant
async function loadMatchCenter(matchId) {
const [details, lineups, h2h, officials] = await Promise.all([
fetchLiveMatchDetails(matchId),
fetchLineups(matchId),
fetchH2H(matchId),
fetchOfficials(matchId)
]);
}
// Same 4 calls, spread across a few hundred milliseconds instead
async function loadMatchCenter(matchId) {
const details = await fetchLiveMatchDetails(matchId);
const lineups = await fetchLineups(matchId);
const h2h = await fetchH2H(matchId);
const officials = await fetchOfficials(matchId);
}
Sequencing calls trades a bit of page load latency for staying under a lower burst ceiling — useful on Starter or Professional if you don't want to upgrade solely for occasional concurrent-visitor spikes.
Which Model Fits Your Situation
- Finite or irregular usage → Credit Packages
- Steady daily traffic, want predictable auto-renewal → Monthly Subscription
- High or unpredictable volume, want to stop counting entirely → Unlimited
- Also need basketball, tennis, or volleyball data → Unlimited 3-Month or longer, for the bundled access
Frequently Asked Questions
Do credits or daily requests roll over?
Credit Package balances never expire. Monthly Subscription daily caps reset every day and do not carry over.
What happens if I exceed the rate limit but still have quota left?
Rate limiting and quota exhaustion are separate mechanisms — expect a distinct response for rate-limit violations even with plenty of quota remaining.
Does "Unlimited" mean no rate limit at all?
No — Unlimited removes the quota ceiling but still carries a sustained/burst rate limit, scaling from 50 req/s (Monthly) up to 150 req/s (Annual).
Is the free trial enough to test rate limits realistically?
New accounts get 500 free credits, enough to validate integration logic, though testing sustained concurrency at production scale is better done on a paid tier matching your expected traffic pattern.
