Paid API Starter Kit: FastAPI Scaffold with API Keys, Rate Limits, Usage Metering and Payments

A working, sellable API scaffold plus the plan that takes it live in one weekend: keys, rate limits, metering, payments, docs, and launch, with everything that does not make the API sellable already cut.

What's inside (ZIP download):

- FastAPI scaffold (Python): hashed API-key authentication, per-key token-bucket rate limiting, a usage log, an admin endpoint to mint keys, a Stripe webhook stub, and a health check. SQLite storage, no infrastructure to provision. A demo endpoint is included so you can watch the whole flow work before swapping in your own capability.

- requirements.txt: four dependencies. That is all.

- Pricing guide: per-call vs tiers vs credits, free-tier design that does not bankrupt you, unit-cost math, and when to raise prices.

- Landing page copy: the one-page structure and fill-in copy that sells APIs. Problem, one demo, pricing, docs link.

- Launch checklist: deployment options compared honestly, the pre-launch checklist, where to post, and the first-week support playbook.

The weekend plan: Friday evening, run the scaffold and point it at your one core capability. Saturday, wire payments so keys activate automatically on purchase, and write the docs page as you test. Sunday, landing page, deploy, launch post. One endpoint, priced and documented; breadth is a month-two problem.

Who it's for: developers with one capability other people would pay to call (a data cleanup, a conversion, a check, a generation step) who want to sell it as an API without building account systems and billing from scratch.

Requires: Python 3 and a place to host a small web service. Payment setup uses Stripe for cards, with a crypto checkout option covered in the pricing guide. Licensed for commercial projects, client work included. Not licensed for resale of the kit itself.