Rate limits
Limits keep the API fast and fair for everyone. They scale with your plan.
How limiting works
There are two separate ceilings. Your monthly credit pool is the main one — it scales with your plan (see API credits). On top of that, a burst guard protects the upstream registries from rapid fire: sustained bursts get a 402 whose error text reads "Rate limit exceeded" — that means slow down and retry, not buy more credits.
Response headers
Every metered response reports your live credit balance.
| Header | Description |
|---|---|
x-credits-limit | Your plan’s credit pool for the current cycle |
x-credits-remaining | Credits left before overage (paid plans) or a hard stop (Free) |
Best practices
- Watch
x-credits-remainingand alert yourself before it runs out. - On a
402that says “Rate limit exceeded”, retry with exponential backoff and jitter. - Cache results on your side for queries you repeat often — repeats within our cache window are free anyway.
- Pace background jobs at a few requests per second instead of bursting — or upload a file to Bulk Search in the dashboard and let it pace itself server-side.