01 · API-first
Built to fit your stack
Plota delivers JSON, CSV, feeds, and webhooks into your own product, CRM, warehouse, dashboard, map, or automation. It is not trying to become your team's main workspace.
Planning data, without paying for another software suite.
Plota is built for teams that already have a CRM, map, dashboard, data platform, or product. You pay for API access to structured UK planning data, not a bundle of user accounts and software features you may never use.
No card. No sales call. Inspect the response before choosing a plan.
389UK councils monitored
99%+Classification accuracy
DailyChecks of council portals
10M+Applications held
2016+Historic coverage
UK’s #1 planning and land search platform by monthly unique visitors1
1 Similarweb, August 2026. Methodology.
Why the model costs less
Normalised planning data delivered to your systems. No platform logins to manage.
Broader planning, land, and site-sourcing platforms have their place. They also include software, workflows, and commercial structures that are unnecessary when your team mainly needs data inside systems it already operates.
02 · No seat bundle
Usage, not named users
Plans are priced by records, the data you take. A platform's headline price typically buys a single seat, with API access an add-on above it. With Plota the API is the product, and colleagues who see the data in your own tools cost nothing extra.
03 · Focused scope
Planning data, deliberately
You are not funding a large suite of land appraisal, prospecting, campaign, ownership, or project-management tools. Plota concentrates on making planning application data easy to retrieve and use.
04 · Self-service
Less ceremony before you build
Published plans, public documentation, a machine-readable schema, and an automated demo key reduce the cost of demonstrations, bespoke quotations, and manual onboarding.
A different buying decision
Do you need a platform, or the data?
Plota's planning records are available through public search, with source links and live coverage information that can be checked at any time. In practice most API customers already know Plota: they've used the public search, checked the data on their own patch, and don't need a curated demonstration to trust what sits behind the API.
Buying consideration
Broader data platform
Plota API
Primary product
A ready-made software workspace
Structured planning data
Typical commercial model
May involve users, modules, regions, credits, or a bespoke contract
Published request allowances
Interface
Supplier's maps, dashboards, and workflow
Your product, CRM, map, BI tool, or warehouse
Starting process
Often a demo, scope, and commercial discussion
Demo key, docs, and self-service plans
Inspecting data quality
Often assessed through a demo, trial, or selected sample
Public search, source-linked records, and coverage information remain inspectable at any time
Best suited to
Teams wanting a complete off-the-shelf workflow
Teams building or integrating their own workflow
Commercial models vary by provider and contract. This comparison describes common product-model differences rather than claiming that every supplier follows the same approach.
Example search requestGET
GET /v1/applications
?postcode=SW11
&category=extensions
&limit=50
{
"data": [
{ "reference": "2026/2284/FUL", ... },
{ "reference": "2026/2311/HOU", ... },
...
],
"meta": {
"count": 50,
"next_cursor": "eyJzIj..."
}
}Up to 50 applications returnedon a Starter search page
1 API request
The unit matters
How the two allowances work
Every plan has a monthly allowance of records and of requests. A record is a planning application that comes back to your account for the first time in a month. Read it again that month and it costs nothing. A request is one call to the API, whether it returns one application or a full page. Records are the number to pick a plan by. Requests are there so you can poll, look things up and check for changes as often as you need.
1
Make one search callFilter by postcode, council, category, date, status, keyword, or location.
2
Receive a page of recordsStarter returns up to 50 results in a search response; Pro 100, Business 250.
3
Use one request, and a record per new applicationThe number of applications returned does not turn that call into multiple requests. Each application you have not seen this month uses one record.
Which plan fits your patch?
Say how many councils you follow, and see what each plan gets you. From this year's intake: about 110 new applications and 100 decisions a council each month, and roughly 2,500 a council a year in the archive.
2,500 records a month to keep up
Indicative planStarter · £49/month
Compare all plans
Published pricing
Every plan, side by side.
Each paid plan includes commercial use of the data in your own products and services, subject to the API terms. The demo tier is free, one-time, and for evaluation. Rate limits and quotas are hard caps: no automatic overage charges.
Demo
Free
500 records, one-off
500 requests · 30 a minute
Developers testing the API shape
Get a demo keyStarter
£49/mo
10,000 records / month
20,000 requests · 120 a minute
For a local or regional integration, CRM or monitoring workflow, in one organisation. Contact data +£29
Choose StarterRecommended
Pro
£149/mo
100,000 records / month
200,000 requests · 300 a minute
Keep your own dataset in sync with the change feed. Built for products, platforms and marketplaces. Contact data included
Choose ProBusiness
£399/mo
250,000 records / month
500,000 requests · 600 a minute
Operational scale: higher rate limits, 100 feeds and webhooks, setup and support. Contact data included
Choose BusinessNeed more in a busy month? Add 25,000 records for £49, once, without changing plan. Up to twice a month, from your dashboard.
| Feature | Demo | Starter | Pro | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Records / month (search, change feed and export) | 500 total | 10,000 | 100,000 | 250,000 | Custom |
| Results per search page | 10 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 |
| API requests / month | 500 total | 20,000 | 200,000 | 500,000 | Custom |
| Requests / minute | 30 | 120 | 300 | 600 | 1,200 |
| Search API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Application details | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Category filters | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Council source links | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nearby search | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Applicant & agent history on the site | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contact data (applicant, agent, case officer) | No | +£29/mo | Included | Included | Custom |
| Change feed: changed_since, decided_from/to | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Site constraints on every record, and point lookups | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Saved alert feeds | 1 | 5 | 25 | 100 | Custom |
| CSV export, dashboard and API | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Records top-up: +25,000 once, £49 | - | Yes | Yes | Yes | - |
| Webhooks | No | 5 | 25 | 100 | Custom |
| Commercial use in your product | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-tenant platforms and marketplaces | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Docs | Priority email | Priority + setup | SLA | |
| Whole dataset delivery | No | No | No | No | Yes |
What's a record? A planning application returned to your account through search, the change feed or an export. It counts once a month, however many times you read it again. Records are the allowance you buy.
What's a request? One API call, whether it returns 1 application or 100. Requests, rate limits and page size are technical throughput limits. For most integrations, the records allowance is the one that decides your plan.
No per-user charges on any plan. One subscription covers your whole team, however many people use the key, the dashboard and the alerts.
CSV export needs no code at all: filter, preview the count, and download from your dashboard. See how the spreadsheet workflow works. Every paid plan includes it, within the monthly row allowance above. Starter exports cover the last 12 months; Pro and above export the full archive.
Whole dataset delivery means the entire database handed over as files, which is an Enterprise arrangement. Exporting the rows you need is a different thing, available on Starter and above.
Running a multi-site estate rather than an integration? Portfolio monitoring is a separate product: upload a spreadsheet of your sites and get alerts routed by region, priced by site count with a 14-day free trial.
Contact data +£29 on Starter · included on Pro and Business, up to your monthly records allowance
Applicant, agent and case-officer details on your responses - applicant name, agent name and company, the agent's email and phone, and the council case officer's name and direct contact details where the council publishes them. Names and details are as published on councils' public registers. Contact data follows your monthly records allowance: 10,000 on Starter, 100,000 on Pro and 250,000 on Business. Only records that carry contact details count, across all contact fields.
These come straight from councils' public registers, so they're there wherever the council publishes them - , or validate it yourself on the free demo key. Usage rules are in the API terms.
Choose the right product
API-first is a strength, but it is not for everyone.
Plota is built for teams that want planning data inside their own products and workflows. A complete platform may be a better fit for teams that want an off-the-shelf workspace.
Plota is likely a good fit when…
Your team has an existing system or wants control over the final experience.
- You are adding planning data to a product or customer portal.
- You are creating a white-labelled internal tool, or want to give wider teams access without buying individual seats.
- You want records in your CRM, warehouse, BI tool, or internal map.
- You need a repeatable feed, export, or webhook.
- You prefer published usage allowances to named-user licensing.
A full platform may suit you better when…
You want an off-the-shelf workspace rather than an integration.
- You need a complete site-sourcing or appraisal workflow immediately.
- You want bundled ownership data, or ready-made PDF reports for clients.
- You want a ready-made platform to be the main workspace, rather than building the experience around your own tools and systems.
If that’s what you’re looking for, we’d suggest considering Glenigan, LandTech, or Searchland. They offer ready-made platforms with much of the workflow already built in, which may suit teams that simply want to log in and get started. Plota is designed for teams that want the data to work around their own tools, systems, and AI workflows.
Planning API pricing FAQ
Straight answers about the price.
The commercial questions buyers ask before choosing between a data API and a platform subscription.
Why is the Plota planning API cheaper than many planning data platforms?
Plota is built API-first. You pay for programmatic access to structured planning application data rather than a bundled software suite, named user seats, or a multi-user workspace you may not need. Broader platforms can include useful additional tools, but those tools also change the product and its cost.
Does Plota charge per user?
No. Plota API plans are based on API usage rather than named user seats. Your team can use the data in internal tools and permitted commercial products, subject to the allowance and API terms for the plan.
Does one API request equal one planning application?
No. A request is one call to an API endpoint. A search request can return multiple planning applications, up to the page-size limit for the plan - 50 on Starter, 100 on Pro, 250 on Business. Plota does not treat every application returned as a separate API request. Alongside requests, each plan has a monthly allowance of records: an application counts the first time it reaches your account in a month, and reading it again is free. Requests measure how often you call; records measure how much data you take.
What does the £49 Starter API plan include?
Starter includes 10,000 records a month, with 20,000 API requests at up to 120 a minute and up to 50 results per search page, CSV export from the same records allowance covering the last 12 months, five saved alert feeds each able to drive a signed webhook, email support, and commercial use within one organisation subject to the API terms; multi-tenant platforms and marketplaces are Pro and above. Search reaches the full archive back to 2016 on every paid plan; bulk export of the archive is on Pro and above. A one-off top-up adds 25,000 records for £49.
Is the data cheaper because it is less open to inspection?
No. Plota exposes its planning dataset through the public search interface, publishes council coverage and last-checked information, and links records back to the official council source where available. The data remains open to inspection before and after subscribing, which makes gaps, stale records, and formatting problems easier to identify and correct.
Do I need a developer to use Plota?
Not always. Developers can integrate the REST API directly, while other teams can use CSV exports, webhooks, and integration guides for Zapier, Make, n8n, Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot, and Pipedrive. We also provide guidance for AI agents to help you get started.
See whether Plota fits your workflow.
Generate a free demo key, make your first request, inspect the source-linked records, and decide with real data rather than a sales presentation.