Scoop: Yelp's lack of transparency around API charges angers developers

On July 19, Yelp informed select indie developers that they would have to switch to paid accounts, due to high API usage. Developers were given four days to make the change, in a move that echoes recent communication bungles by Reddit and Twitter.

When the developers replied to the July 19 email, Yelp sent a deck of pricing tiers with base pricing starting from $229 per month for a limit of 1,000 API calls per day.

Developers were concerned that other, more affordable options weren’t mentioned in the deck. Yelp said the pricing is equivalent and simply presented in different ways.

The method of communication and lack of transparency has angered developers, some of whom shuttered their services, even after Yelp gave them a 90-day leeway and apologized.

What happened?

The email, which was viewed by TechCrunch, notes, “We appreciate you signing up for and trialing the Yelp Fusion API. Your API usage is higher than lots of other Yelp Fusion developers and we would like to learn more about how you’re integrating the Fusion API into your platform.

“If we don’t hear back from you by 4:00 pm EST on 7/23/2024, we will temporarily disable your API key until we receive a response with the above-requested information.”

David Kopec, who developed a Mac app called Restaurants for finding local dining options, noted on his blog that Yelp initially offered him up to 25,000 daily API calls for free in 2014.

Other startups have publicly voiced their own complaints about Yelp’s handling of the situation.

Food Genie developer Nick Perkins told TechCrunch that he was surprised by Yelp’s announcement, and the company didn’t answer his questions about the announcement. Perkins said his 99-cent app, which launched in 2017, used only a few hundred calls per day.

Roj Niyogi, co-founder of Enefits, which is a small startup built around a location-based rewards program, said that the company used Yelp’s API for place data. He said Yelp’s short notice and threatening to take away access were like a “virtual gun to the head.”

Yelp responds

Yelp told TechCrunch that the company moved to a paid pricing model in 2019 and has been gradually budging developers to a paid plan. It also noted that since that move, many developers are still using the free version of the API.

“Yelp sunsetted free, commercial, unlimited use of the Yelp Fusion API in 2019 and has been in the process of migrating developers to a paid program over the last several years. The developer community is important to Yelp, and we’ve heard their feedback about the transition period from the free Yelp Fusion API to our paid program,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The company apologized for its July communications. “We apologize for last week’s abbreviated transition that impacted a small percentage of developers and have extended access to these users,” the company spokesperson told TechCrunch.

On Thursday, Yelp sent an apology email to developers and extended their free usage by 90 days. “Earlier this month, we sent you an email about your Yelp Fusion API usage. That email gave developers until July 23 to contact us if they want to continue using Yelp’s data for use in their app. We realize you might need more time and are extending your free access for an additional 90 days starting today. Your access should be available now,” according to the email, which was viewed by TechCrunch.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience or frustration this abbreviated transition might have caused.”

Perkins told TechCrunch that he already pulled Food Genie from the App Store, due to Yelp’s “poor execution” of the transition to a paid API. He added that if he decided to bring back his app, he might look for a different API.

Kopec also decided to shutter his project. He said the company didn’t respond to him about the price disparity between the deck sent to him and the website.

All the developers that TechCrunch talked to were upset about the four-day deadline and how the company handled the communication. They weren’t necessarily upset over the transition to a paid version of API.

“Restaurants was a very low-selling app, and it would not have made sense either way to continue financially. But again, I do not begrudge them going to paid [version of API]. Only that they gave me four days’ notice and sent an inaccurate and threatening email,” Kopec said over email, referring to Yelp’s note about disabling his API key.

As AI models increase in number, companies sitting on large sets of user-generated data have been limiting third-party access. Over the last year, Twitter/X and Reddit made it difficult for makers of third-party clients and tools to keep supporting development by changing their API terms.

These platforms alienated developers who had built popular tools and supported these social networks for years. Much like with Yelp, developers were frustrated by those platforms’ lack of transparency, support and pricing for small developers. Eventually, a lot of them moved to developing apps for new platforms.

Maybe there is a lesson for Yelp in this.