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Flip feature flags by editing a Google Sheet

Feature flags do not belong in a redeploy. PasteSheet turns a Google Sheet into a live, cached flags API your app reads on launch, so you flip a boolean, tweak a rollout percentage, or point an A/B test at a new variant by editing a cell — no build, no release, no app-store review to wait on.

Last updated

Key facts

  • A kill switch propagates as fast as your cache TTL: Free is a fixed 5 minutes, while paid plans set it anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 hour. Thirty seconds is the floor — this is not a sub-second flag service.
  • A cached endpoint reads the sheet once per TTL, not once per request — so 10,000 visitors become one upstream read, and Google's quota stops being your problem.
  • The Google Sheets API allows 300 read requests per minute per project and 60 per minute per user. Past that it returns 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. source
  • The flags endpoint is read-only by design, so it is safe to ship the URL inside a client: an app can read every flag but can never flip one.

Why keep feature flags in a Sheet

A feature flag is just a row: a key, a boolean, maybe a rollout percentage and a variant. That is a table, and a spreadsheet models it perfectly. Product and marketing can toggle a launch or dial a rollout up and down without pinging an engineer, and you never ship a build just to turn something on.

PasteSheet sits in front of the sheet and serves it as clean, typed JSON over a fast, cached endpoint. Your app — a mobile client, a Next.js front end, or a background worker — fetches the flags on launch and branches on them. Edit a cell, and the new state is live once the cache refreshes.

What you can drive from the sheet

One tab of flags, a column per attribute. Common patterns people ship:

  • Kill switches — flip enabled to false to disable a feature instantly.
  • Percentage rollouts — bump a rollout column from 10 to 50 to 100.
  • A/B variants — assign a variant per key and read it client-side.
  • Per-platform gates — filter with ?platform=ios so each build sees only its flags.

Read the flags as JSON

Point your app at the endpoint and read the enabled flags. Filter, sort, and paginate with URL parameters — no query language to learn:

terminal 
curl "https://pastesheet.com/your-endpoint/Flags?enabled=true"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "key": "new_checkout",
      "enabled": true,
      "rollout": 50,
      "variant": "b",
      "platform": "all"
    }
  ]
}

Read-only, so it is safe to ship in the client

Because the endpoint is read-only by design, it is safe to expose publicly or hand to a teammate: consumers can read and query the data but can never change the sheet. And there is no Google Cloud project, OAuth screen, or service account to set up — you paste a share URL and get a live API.

What it costs

Free

For side projects and trying things out.

$0 /mo
Endpoints
3
Requests / mo
2,000
Row cap
500
  • Type-mapped columns
  • Custom cache TTL
  • Private endpoints & keys
Get started

Start free. The Free plan runs 3 live endpoints with a 5-minute cache — enough for a flags table. Paid plans add a custom cache TTL so a kill switch propagates in seconds, plus private endpoints and keys when the flags should not be public.

Compare plans Start free

Frequently asked questions

How fast does a flag change take effect?

As fast as your cache TTL. The Free plan refreshes every 5 minutes; paid plans let you set a TTL as low as 30 seconds, so a kill switch or rollout change reaches your app almost immediately.

Can someone flip my flags through the API?

No. PasteSheet is read-only by design. The endpoint only serves the flag values — there is no write path — so a client that reads your flags can never change the sheet.

How do I do percentage rollouts?

Store a rollout percentage in a column and read it client-side: hash a stable user id and compare it against the number. Bumping the cell from 10 to 100 widens the rollout with no deploy.

Do I need a Google Cloud project?

No. There is no service account, OAuth screen, or Apps Script. You paste a Google Sheet share URL and PasteSheet hosts the cached JSON API and MCP server for you.

Sources

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Turn your sheet into an API in minutes

Paste a Google Sheet URL and get a live REST API and MCP server — no backend, no code, free to start.

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