Web APIs are a mechanism and therefore a medium for many higher-level implementations. There is nothing that inherently makes it so web APIs blur this distincti

Web APIs are a mechanism and therefore a medium for many higher-level implementations. There is nothing that inherently makes it so web APIs blur this distinction of free or paid content. There is a point at which you are asked to enter payment information. You can hide this pay wall regardless of web API or a series of web pages. It’s based on how you order content and data. As for rate-limiting usage of a provider’s services, that’s what the terms are for. They’re providing the infrastructure and direcly covering the costs. It is an agreement between you and them to abide by their rules for what fair access is. If you disagree, no one is forcing you to pay and/or use that service. You may use another service or even start your own if you feel you can provide a better service. What you can’t do, however, is expect that these services provide some minimum threshold of computation power, especially at their ditect cost. Not unless it’s in the agreement you signed with them.