Reduce Flexport API costs by minimizing unnecessary calls. Key strategies: use webhooks instead of polling, cache aggressively, maximize page sizes, and batch operations.
// BAD: Polling every 5 minutes (288 API calls/day per shipment)
setInterval(async () => {
const shipment = await flexport(`/shipments/${id}`);
if (shipment.data.status !== lastStatus) updateDB(shipment);
}, 5 * 60 * 1000);
// GOOD: Webhook-driven (0 API calls — Flexport pushes updates)
app.post('/webhooks/flexport', (req, res) => {
const event = req.body;
if (event.type === 'shipment.milestone') {
updateDB(event.data); // Only processes real changes
}
res.sendStatus(200);
});
// Savings: 100 shipments * 288 calls/day = 28,800 calls/day eliminated
// BAD: Default pagination (per=25)
// 1000 shipments = 40 API calls
// GOOD: Max pagination (per=100)
// 1000 shipments = 10 API calls (75% reduction)
const shipments = await flexport('/shipments?per=100&page=1');
| Data Type | Change Frequency | Cache TTL | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | Rarely | 1 hour | ~95% fewer calls |
| Shipment list | Every few hours | 5 minutes | ~90% fewer calls |
| Shipment detail | On milestones | Until webhook | ~99% fewer calls |
| Purchase orders | Daily | 15 minutes | ~85% fewer calls |
| Freight invoices | Monthly | 1 hour | ~95% fewer calls |
// Track API call volume per endpoint
const apiMetrics = new Map<string, { count: number; lastReset: Date }>();
function trackAPICall(endpoint: string) {
const key = endpoint.split('?')[0]; // Strip query params
const metric = apiMetrics.get(key) || { count: 0, lastReset: new Date() };
metric.count++;
apiMetrics.set(key, metric);
}
// Report daily usage
function reportUsage() {
console.log('=== Flexport API Usage ===');
for (const [endpoint, { count }] of apiMetrics) {
console.log(` ${endpoint}: ${count} calls`);
}
}
per=100 on all list endpointsFor architecture design, see flexport-reference-architecture.