TheMealDB · FinOps Profile

Mealdb Finops

FOCUS-aligned FinOps for TheMealDB: a freemium open-data recipe API with a zero-cost shared V1 tier and a one-time £10 lifetime supporter upgrade for V2 premium access. The dominant cost driver is the optional one-time upgrade rather than recurring usage-based charges. FinOps practice centers on deciding when to upgrade, caching static data to reduce request volume, and tracking any indirect hosting or bandwidth costs incurred by downstream consumers who cache and serve meal data.

Mealdb Finops is the FinOps profile for TheMealDB on the APIs.io network, aligned with the FinOps Foundation Framework.

It defines 3 billable meters, billed in GBP, on a one-time (supporter upgrade); free otherwise cycle, and pricing category freemium / one-time purchase.

The profile maps 8 FOCUS columns for cost-allocation reporting.

Tagged areas include FinOps, FOCUS, Food, Recipes, and Open Data.

Category: Open Data Pricing: Freemium / One-Time Purchase Billing: One-time (supporter upgrade); free otherwise FOCUS v1.3
FinOpsFOCUSFoodRecipesOpen DataFreemium

Framework Alignment

Framework
FinOps Foundation Framework
Data Spec
FOCUS v1.3

Charge Categories

Purchase

FOCUS Columns

BillingCurrency
GBP
ChargeCategory
Purchase
InvoiceIssuerName
TheMealDB
ProviderName
TheMealDB
PublisherName
TheMealDB
ServiceCategory
Open Data
ServiceName
TheMealDB Recipe API
ServiceSubcategory
Food and Recipe Data

Meters

supporter_upgrade
Unit: one-time
One-time £10 lifetime supporter upgrade charge that unlocks V2 API endpoints and a personal production API key. This is the only direct monetary cost of TheMealDB.
api_requests
Unit: request
API requests made against V1 (free) or V2 (supporter) endpoints. No per-request charge is levied; tracking is useful for rate governance and capacity planning.
cached_meal_data
Unit: record
Count of meal records, ingredient records, or category records cached locally by the consumer. Caching reduces API call volume and downstream latency.

Sources

Work with this as data

Every finops artifact here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for finops

4 MCP tools reach this
  • find_finopsBrowse and filter every finops artifact in the catalog.
  • apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
  • resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
  • find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.
All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

curl for this page
This finops artifact 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/finops/mealdb-finops"
All finops 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/finops?limit=25"

Discovery needs no key. Ratings and market analysis are Pro.

Get an API key

Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.