Rate Limits

Default Limits

Rate limits are applied per API key, not per IP address. This means all requests using the same API key share the same rate limit bucket.

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes headers to help you track your rate limit status:

Example Response Headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 95
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1705845600

Exceeding the Limit

When you exceed the rate limit, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response:

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1705845600

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Try again in 45 seconds."
  }
}

Best Practices

• Monitor headers - Check X-RateLimit-Remaining to anticipate limits
• Implement backoff - Use exponential backoff when hitting 429 errors
• Batch operations - Combine multiple questions into fewer API calls
• Cache responses - Store survey and question data locally when possible
• Use webhooks - For real-time updates, use webhooks instead of polling

Retry Strategy

When you receive a 429 response, wait before retrying. Use the X-RateLimit-Reset header to know exactly when to retry, or implement exponential backoff:

async function apiRequestWithRetry(url, options, maxRetries = 3) {
  let retries = 0;

  while (retries < maxRetries) {
    const response = await fetch(url, options);

    if (response.status !== 429) {
      return response;
    }

    // Get reset time from header
    const resetTime = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset');
    const waitMs = resetTime
      ? (parseInt(resetTime) * 1000) - Date.now()
      : Math.pow(2, retries) * 1000; // Exponential backoff

    console.log(`Rate limited. Waiting ${waitMs}ms before retry...`);
    await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, Math.max(waitMs, 1000)));

    retries++;
  }

  throw new Error('Max retries exceeded');
}

Plans & limits

The REST API is available on Business and Enterprise plans only — requests from keys on other plans are rejected with 403. There are no per-second burst limits.

The limit is applied per API key (default 100 requests/minute). Contact support if you need a higher per-key limit.