All 5000 transactions used up in just 6 days!

Question

My application that integrates with the bing image search just started returning 503 errors.

Checking my account it says that all 5000 of the free monthly transactions have been used up and there are none left.

Given the number of users I have I find it very hard to believe that they have managed to do 5000 searches in just 6 days

I have upgraded to the paid subscription to re-enable my app. I'm monitoring the usage and there's no way that it is being used at any rate that would burn through 5000 transactions that quickly.

Have Microsoft forgotten to add 5000 new transactions for the start of August?

Answer 1

Hi,

We normally see no issues with transaction accounting and your transaction package is good for 30 days from subscription time. The transaction reset happens after 30 days of usage, so it was not supposed to happen in 6 days.

If you want to make sure this is a result of your traffic, please open support ticket here: https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=15821&st=1&wfxredirect=1&sd=gn. We will pull the information for your account and let you know if there were any issues with transaction counting.

Thanks,

Max

Answer 2

No way is Microsoft aware of this exravagant charges per qury.

And yes in the free API you have forgoten a 0  5000 transactions were never spoken by Bing.

Bing Spoke about queries only. Read here http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/developer/archive/2012/04/12/bing-dev-update.aspx

Answer 3

I've just signed for 20,000 Transactions/month Web only search.  Now after only couple of hours and 10-15 searches I see  that "19,940 Transactions remaining"... 

Is there a log where I can check how and which searches accounted as transactions?

Thanks

Drazen

Answer 4

I posted on the other thread, but surfacing here as well:

Query returns a limited number of results for a given keyword. You can refer to Bing API Schema document: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252151 for exact number of results allowed for each source type.

The sample implementation (and if you want to get a next batch of results) issues a new query to the service, resulting in a new transaction.

To give you an example: If you queried images for "XBOX", the total number of results is a 7 digit number. However, your first request will return a maximum of 50 results (as described in the schema document), and these 50 results will cost you 1 transaction. If you query for the next 50 results, this will cost you another transaction and so on.

We do not currently provide visibility into what searches were made, but based on the above, your number makes sense if your applications goes for the second batch of results.

Thanks,

Max

Answer 5

How comes on 1 page view of results which contained 10 results i was charged 100 transaction units why?

Answer 6

We are looking into you account to understand if there is anything wrong with any specific query.

However, in most cases, this really depends on your application implementation. For example (and these are actual cases we encountered), your application may bring 1,000 images, but only display first 10 on the page.

Thanks,

Max

Answer 7

No, my queries make only one connection at the time, with 50 results. But, to clarify, each connection to API is one transaction, right?

D.

Answer 8

Almost correct, as you can send multiple request and responses on a single HTTP connection.

Every successful response resulting in a number of records (limited by the maximum number for a given source) is considered to be one transaction.

Thanks,

Max

Answer 9

Something is WRONG here. After 60 searches, each having only one query 

@api.datamarket.azure.com/Bing/SearchWeb/Composite?Query=%%27%s%%27&$top=50&$skip=0&$format=atom&Options=%%27DisableLocationDetection%%27&WebSearchOptions=%%27DisableQueryAlterations%%27

like this I'm down to 19,825 transactions from 20,000. You said you do not provide logs,  so either you guys need to take a look at what's going on or I'll have to cancel the service. This just does not make any sense.

Drazen

Answer 10

In case it's needed, double %% in previous post come from C ... 

Answer 11

Hi DeltaLook, we looked at your account usage history.  It seemed that inside the same subscription cycle, you cancelled your subscription, and then resubscribed to the free offer again.  Each customer can only get max 5000 transactions per month for free.  Cancel and resubscription will not give you another 5000 transaction.  This is the way to pretect from over use the free offers.  By later this month, we will rollout the update to make this information very clear when users try to resubscribe during the same subscription period.  Hopefully this clarifies your question.

Thanks,

Sherry

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Sherry Li

Answer 12

Hi Drazen,

I am not quite sure how your query works, as you are supposed to list sources in Composite queries.

The example of Composite query is: https://api.datamarket.azure.com/Data.ashx/Bing/Search/v1/Composite?Sources=%27web%2bimage%2bvideo%2bnews%2bspell%27&Query=%27xbox%27&Options=%27DisableLocationDetection%27&WebSearchOptions=%27DisableQueryAlterations%27&$top=50&$format=Atom

My assumption would be that you are not listing sources correctly and generate additional query to each source separately. The best way to test is to open resulting query in IE and provide your account key as password. Then look at your account and you should see that you are charged only for one transaction.

I validate the query again and everything seems to be counting correctly.

thanks,

Max

Answer 13

Hi Max

I'm subscribed to Web Results only... IT does work.

BTW, I commented out Bing  from my code last night, so no connections have been made towards your search. Nevertheless, the  the counter still shows that I've used 10 transactions: last night I was on 19,825 and now on 19,815!

Is there a way to escalate this and open a ticket and get full log?

Thanks

D.

Answer 14

Hi Drazen,

Yep, sorry, I missed you are using Composite with SearchWeb.

Two ways to escalate:

1. Send over your accountID to the feedback alias, and we will pull your usage data and check.

2. Open official support case here: https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=15821&st=1&wfxredirect=1&sd=gn

We checked the transactions counting back and forth based on this thread, but so far, all of the accounting is done correctly. So, I don't have any generic answer for why this is happening in your case.

Thanks,

Max 

Answer 15

Thanks, I've emailed my Customer ID and thread URL to [e-mail] ...

D.