Simbase Usage Guard Toolkit (DIY)

Automatically disable SIM cards when they exceed your usage threshold, using our API and Make.com

We don’t currently support real-time usage limits in our platform. Usage counters are updated as soon as we receive billing records, which typically happens after a session ends or after a certain data threshold is reached (e.g. every few hundred MBs or multiple hours — varies by partner).

That means: usage can overshoot your defined cap by a bit before we’re able to reflect it.

A native usage cap system is on our roadmap, but in the meantime, we’re offering this Usage Guard Toolkit for those who want control today.

What this toolkit does

With the Simbase Usage Guard Toolkit, you can:

✅ Periodically check SIM usage (e.g. every 30 minutes)

✅ Compare data usage or cost against your own threshold

✅ Automatically disable SIMs that exceed that limit

✅ Get notified (Slack, email, webhook, log to Google Sheets, etc.)

You’ll use Make.com to build it, a visual automation tool that many of our customers already use.

Blueprint

Drawing

If this looks complicated, don’t worry. This tutorial will guide you step-by-step through building your own Usage Guard Toolkit. You don’t need to write any code, and we’ll show you exactly how to set it up using Make.com. Most customers get it running in under 15 minutes.

Step 1: Choose Your Automation Tool

You can use any automation platform that can make HTTP requests, such as Make.com, Zapier, n8n, or even a custom script. In this guide, we’ll use Make.com because it’s:

  • Visual and beginner-friendly

  • Powerful enough for advanced use cases

  • No-code / low-code — no hosting required

Tip: Already using Zapier or n8n? You can follow the same logic using your preferred tool.

Set up your Make.com account

  1. Go to make.com

  2. Create an account (it’s free to start)

  3. Once logged in, click “Create a new scenario”

  4. You’re ready to start building

Step 2: Create Your Simbase API Key

To connect Make.com to Simbase, you’ll need an API key with the right permissions.

How to create your API key

  1. Log in to the Simbase Dashboard

  2. Go to Integrations → API Keys

  3. Click “Create API Key”

  4. Give it a name like Usage Guard Toolkit

  5. Under permissions, enable: ✅ Write (leave all other settings as default)

  6. Click Create, then copy your API key

Keep your key safe — treat it like a password. You’ll paste this into Make.com in the next steps.

Step 3: Set up Make.com

We built a pre-configured blueprint that you can import straight into make and just requires a few small tweaks. Download the blueprint below and follow the instructions in the video below.

  • Click the block below

  • On the page that opens, right click, and choose save as → and store on you PC.

27KB
Simbase Usage Guard Toolkit.blueprint.json

Background information

Working with Arrays in Make.com

The usage API returns an array of SIM objects under the simcards field.

To process each SIM individually:

  1. Set parsing to yes

  2. Add an Iterator module:

    • Set the array to simcards from the HTTP response

    • This splits the array into individual SIMs so you can process them one by one

📏 Setting the Usage Threshold: 10GB

We’re using a 10GB cap as an example in this tutorial.

  • The data field in the API response is in bytes

  • 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes

  • Therefore, 10 GB = 10,737,418,240 bytes

Optional modules

The modules below are not part of this tutorial but can be created as well.

⚠️ Pagination (Advanced – Optional)

This pagination flow is not covered in this tutorial, but if you manage large SIM fleets (500+), we recommend using Make.com’s “Iterator + HTTP request” logic to build it.

The /v2/usage/simcards API returns usage data in pages. If the response contains "has_more": true, it means there are more SIMs to fetch.

To get the next page, you’ll need to:

  • Read the cursor value from the response

  • Make another request to the same endpoint with ?cursor=<value>

🔔 Optional: Send Notifications

You can also extend this toolkit to send notifications when a SIM exceeds its usage cap, for example via email, Slack, or a push alert.

Since every team uses different tools, and email setup can be tricky due to security restrictions, notifications are out of scope for this tutorial. But they are fully supported in Make.com.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The Usage Guard Toolkit is a do-it-yourself solution provided for your convenience. While it uses our official API, Simbase does not take any responsibility for missed usage caps, delays in data reporting, SIMs not being disabled in time, or any resulting costs, overage, or service interruptions.

Data usage updates are subject to delays based on network reporting and partner infrastructure. Please test your setup thoroughly and monitor its performance regularly.

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