What counts as a vehicle image?

A vehicle image is one vehicle (make, model, year) in one color from one view. It counts once per UTC month, however often and at whatever size it is delivered. Every size, format, background, signed URL, renewal and cache hit of it that month is included. The same vehicle in another color, or from another view, is another vehicle image.

A new vehicle view is a view of a vehicle the catalog has not prepared yet. We prepare the vehicle in that view so it can be shown in any color, and that takes a little time. A plan bounds new vehicle views separately; once a view is prepared, for any account, every color of it is an ordinary vehicle image. A new view also counts as a vehicle image.

Check before you ask: POST /api/v1/images/availability takes up to 200 image objects and says, for free, which views are prepared, which would count as a new vehicle image or a new view this month, and whether they fit the allowance. GET /api/v1/account shows the month's vehicle_images_this_month and new_views_this_month, and every image response carries X-Vehicle-Images-Used and X-New-Views-Used. Past an allowance the API answers 402 plan_image_limit or plan_new_view_limit with checkout_url and pack_url; nothing is charged, so stop and ask the human rather than retrying.