OpenSLA

OpenSLA is a vendor-neutral specification for API service level agreements. It defines what you promise to your consumers — throughput, latency, quotas, and pricing — in a machine-readable format that the gateway enforces automatically.

What OpenSLA Defines

An OpenSLA document describes the contract between an API producer and its consumers:

Section	What It Specifies
Metadata	API name, version, provider details
Guarantees	P95/P99 latency targets, availability percentage
Quotas	Daily/monthly/quarterly RU limits
Rate limits	Requests per minute (RPM), transactions per second (TPS)
Cost	RU cost rate per operation, currency

Tiered Pricing

Producers define multiple SLA tiers to support different consumer needs:

Tier	Rate Limit	RU Quota	Latency P95	Price
Free	10 RPM	1,000 RU/month	Best effort	Free
Standard	100 RPM	50,000 RU/month	200ms	Per-unit
Premium	1,000 RPM	500,000 RU/month	100ms	Per-unit
Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited	50ms	Custom

Tiers are ordered — the system knows which tier is “above” the current one, enabling automatic upgrade recommendations.

How Tiers Work

For Producers

1. Define your tiers when creating or updating an API
2. Set per-tier rate limits, RU quotas, latency guarantees, and pricing
3. Each tier maps to a specific set of gateway enforcement rules

For Consumers

1. Browse available tiers in the developer portal or marketplace
2. Select a tier manually, or let Apiway recommend one based on estimated usage
3. The selected tier drives the subscription’s rate limits, RU quota, and cost model

Upgrade Flow

When a consumer consistently hits their tier’s limits:

1. After 3+ budget/rate limit breaches in 30 days → ConsumerSlaUpgradeRecommended governance event
2. The event includes the recommended next tier
3. Consumer can one-click upgrade → starts a governance flow
4. Capacity planning validates the new tier has headroom
5. New limits take effect after governance approval

Gateway Enforcement

OpenSLA isn’t just documentation — the gateway enforces it:

SLA Element	Gateway Enforcement
Rate limit (RPM)	RateLimitStage — fixed window, 429 on breach
RU quota	RuMeteringStage — tracks per subscription, 402 on exhaustion
TPS (spike arrest)	RateLimitStage — per-second throttling
Latency	Measured and reported; Assurance validates against targets

Response headers expose the current state to consumers:

RateLimit-Limit: 100
RateLimit-Remaining: 73
X-RU-Limit: 50000
X-RU-Remaining: 41200
X-RU-Cost: 1

Wealth Engine Integration

OpenSLA tiers are the foundation of API economics:

• Each tier has a defined RU cost rate
• Revenue is tracked per tier — producers see which tiers generate the most revenue
• The tier structure IS the monetisation plan
• The Wealth Engine reports revenue by tier across the entire API portfolio