At Zoho Desk, we’re always looking for ways to help keep your business operations running smoothly. This includes empowering teams that rely on APIs for essential integrations, functions and extensions. We’ve reimagined how API usage is measured to give teams more control, and now we're introducing API credits to deliver an efficient, flexible, and reliable way to manage and scale your team's usage.

The old API limit model didn’t reflect actual resource usage because every call was counted the same, whether it was a simple fetch or a complex operation. The new API credit system changes this by scaling your allotment of credits based on both edition and team size. Credits are then consumed based on call complexity to ensure effective usage, optimal resource allocation, and steady performance across business operations.

This change will offer many advantages for teams that rely on Zoho Desk APIs. Here are some additional details.

Why this change benefits you  

• The system offers greater flexibility for both lightweight and resource-intensive workloads.
• Developers can manage high-cost and low-cost APIs in balance, without rigid limitations.
• The model makes it easier to scale and adopt new APIs as they become available.

In practice, this gives you more control over your API usage, while also ensuring that the platform remains reliable and fast for all users.

How your API credits are structured  

Every organization will have three ways to receive API credits:

• Base credits: Automatically included with your Zoho Desk edition
• Variable credits: Scaled according to the number of agents in your account
• Additional credits: Available for purchase when you need extra capacity

For example, a Professional edition account starts with 75,000 base credits, plus 500 variable credits per agent. Enterprise, Zoho One, and CRM Plus accounts begin with 100,000 base credits, plus 1,000 per agent.

This structure ensures your daily capacity always reflects the size and activity level of your organization.

Your Zoho Desk edition comes with a fixed number of base API credits, plus additional credits based on the number of agent in your account, excluding light agents. This calculation ensures your capacity is always aligned with your business size and activities.

The system offers you flexible options to purchase extra credits as your usage grows.

Viewing credit usage details

API credits: What to expect next

We are committed to avoiding any impact on your ongoing business operations by ensuring that the existing process using API limits will be grandfathered (retained and continued without change). Our team has carefully analyzed usage patterns to make the transition as seamless as possible. We understand that changes like these may raise questions, so if you have a specific use case where you feel this transition might affect your setup, we are eager to listen, guide you, and provide the right solutions.

Rollout timeline  

The API credit system will be introduced gradually, data center by data center, starting on or after October 06, 2025. Once in place, it will give you more flexibility, better performance, and a usage model that scales with your day to day business functioning.

This change is designed to give you the confidence that your integrations and other business processes will continue to perform reliably, now and in the future.