In a previous post, we tried to calculate the hypothetical worth of an API, in dollars of course. Now, we have an infographic to walk you through the small amount of steps and calculations. From starting at the cost of any third party API calls, to the amount of time  put in at the development stage, to the quantity of your growing user base, we try to put a number on each. But remember this when asking yourself “How much is my API worth?”:

What most people are willing to pay for it.

This might sound trite, but it’s true. The basic laws of valuation don’t go away just because we’re living in a world of Microservices, PaaS and Big Data on demand. It doesn’t matter if you are giving your API away, any more than it applies for trying to get rid of a litter of “free” puppies. If the user is not willing to make the investment of time, attention and support costs, then your API is not worth much.