How do I understand HERE invoice units such as Transactions, Requests, Results, GB-hours, MAUs, and Assets?

Symptoms

Customers reviewing HERE billing or usage reports may notice one or more of the following:

Invoice charges are displayed using units such as Transactions, Requests, Results, GB-hours, or Core-hours.
Usage reports show higher or lower consumption than expected because unit definitions are unclear.
Customers need to understand how API calls are measured and billed.
Customers need clarification on storage, data transfer, compute, or SDK usage metrics.
Customers want to reconcile platform usage with invoice line items.
Customers are unsure how Monthly Active Users (MAUs) or Assets are counted.

Answer

HERE uses different units of measure depending on the product, API, platform capability, storage service, or compute service being used. Most HERE Platform products follow a pay-as-you-go pricing model, meaning you are charged according to actual usage. Understanding the unit associated with each billable item helps explain how costs are calculated and reported.
For detailed pricing information and service-specific exceptions, refer to the HERE Pricing page and the HERE Cost Management Dev Guide.

Unit Definitions

Transactions

A Transaction is the standard unit of measure used by many HERE APIs. In most cases, one Transaction is counted for each Request made to a HERE service feature. Some products have specific billing rules or exceptions as documented in HERE pricing information.

Request

A Request is an API call sent to a HERE service by an application or end user for data, processing, routing, search, mapping, or other supported functionality. Internal server communications initiated by HERE services are not counted as customer Requests.

Result

A Result is a unique response or delivery of information returned to an application by a HERE service following a Request.

Gigabytes (GB)

GB is commonly used to measure data transfer volume. This unit is typically associated with moving data into, out of, or within HERE Platform services.

GB-Months

GB-Months are commonly used for storage billing. Storage consumption is measured continuously and reported based on gigabytes stored over time. Usage is generally calculated hourly and billed monthly.

MB/s-Months

MB/s-Months (megabytes per second per month) are used for services where provisioned throughput or bandwidth capacity is measured and billed monthly.

Core-Hours

Core-Hours measure compute processing usage. One Core-Hour represents one CPU core used for one hour and is commonly associated with data processing pipelines and compute workloads.

GB-Hours

GB-Hours measure memory consumption. One GB-Hour represents one gigabyte of RAM used for one hour by a compute workload or pipeline.

Monthly Active User (MAU)

A Monthly Active User (MAU) is a unique device that uses a HERE SDK or calls HERE APIs through a HERE SDK within a calendar month, as determined by HERE usage records. A device is counted once per calendar month regardless of the number of SDK interactions during that period.

Asset

An Asset is any individually managed entity tracked or processed using HERE services. Examples include people, devices, vehicles, cargo, animals, transportation units, or other managed objects.

Root Cause

Confusion typically occurs because different HERE products use different billing metrics. API services, storage services, compute services, SDKs, and asset-tracking solutions may each use distinct units of measure.

Impact

Misunderstanding usage units can make it difficult to validate invoices, forecast consumption, or compare billing reports with application activity.

Expected Behavior

Usage is measured using the unit associated with the specific HERE product or service.
Billing reports and invoices display consumption according to those predefined units.
Different services may use different units even within the same HERE account.

Unexpected Behavior

Assuming all HERE services use Transactions as the billing unit.
Comparing storage, compute, SDK, and API usage using the same measurement model.
Expecting every API Request to follow identical billing rules when documented service-specific exceptions apply.

Keywords / Tags

HERE invoicing, HERE billing units, Transactions, Request definition, Result definition, GB-months, GB-hours, Core-hours, Monthly Active User, MAU, Asset definition, HERE Platform pricing, data transfer billing, storage billing, compute billing.