OpenMeter Developer Portal

Build usage metering and billing into your product

Start with a managed Konnect environment or run OpenMeter locally, then integrate through the API or typed clients.

Authentication and API keys

Managed API requests use a Bearer token. Create and scope API credentials in your managed environment, keep them on the server, load them from a secret manager, and rotate them when access changes. Never expose a secret key in browser code, mobile applications, logs, or source control.

Self-hosted local development does not require an API key by default. Production self-hosted deployments should place the API behind authentication appropriate to the environment. Agents and new integrations should use API v3 by default; legacy v1 and v2 references remain available for existing integrations.

Send your first event

The local sandbox accepts CloudEvents-formatted usage data. Start the open source quickstart, then send a request like this:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8888/api/v3/openmeter/events \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/cloudevents+json' \
  --data '{
    "specversion": "1.0",
    "type": "request",
    "id": "evt-00001",
    "source": "my-service",
    "subject": "customer-1",
    "data": { "tokens": "123" }
  }'
Continue the quickstart →

Sandbox and CLI automation

Create a Kong Konnect account to evaluate the managed service, or use the open source Docker Compose quickstart as an isolated local sandbox. The same OpenAPI description can generate clients, validate requests, and drive agent workflows.

The OpenMeter server command is distributed through official GitHub release artifacts and container images. A standalone npm, PyPI, or Homebrew CLI package is not currently published; use the release binary, container workflow, SDKs, or direct API calls for automation.

Agent and MCP access

Agents can discover the API at /api/openapi.yaml and use the v3 operation IDs, typed parameters, response schemas, and RFC Problem Details errors in that document.

No standalone OpenMeter MCP server is currently published. Use the v3 OpenAPI specification or a v3 client by default. Kong Konnect customers can separately evaluate the Konnect MCP server for supported platform-level automation.

Konnect MCP documentation →

Machine-readable errors

OpenMeter REST API errors use application/problem+json and include a problem type, title, HTTP status, detail, and request instance. Clients should branch on the HTTP status and stable problem type, log the request instance, and present the detail as diagnostic context.

View a static Problem Details example →

Rate limits and retries

Limits vary by deployment and plan. Clients should inspect RateLimit and RateLimit-Policy when supplied. After a 429 response, do not retry until the Retry-After delay has elapsed. Use bounded exponential backoff with jitter for other transient 5xx and network failures.

Ready to build?

Start free with Konnect Metering & Billing, self-host OpenMeter, or talk through your architecture with Kong.