Rate Limits

Understanding rate limiting, quotas, and how to handle limits effectively

Overview

Placewise implements rate limiting to ensure fair usage and maintain service quality for all users. Rate limits are applied per API key (or IP address for anonymous requests) based on your subscription plan.

Rate Limit Tiers

Rate Limit Headers

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

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
X-RateLimit-Limit: 1000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 987
X-RateLimit-Reset: 2025-02-09T12:00:00Z
X-Cache: HIT
Location: https://images.unsplash.com/...

Rate Limit Exceeded (429)

When you exceed your rate limit, the API returns a 429 status code with details:

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
X-RateLimit-Limit: 1000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 2025-02-09T12:00:00Z
Retry-After: 3600

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
  "limit": 1000,
  "remaining": 0,
  "reset": "2025-02-09T12:00:00Z",
  "retryAfter": 3600
}

Best Practices

const remaining = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining'));
if (remaining < 100) {
  console.warn('Approaching rate limit!');
}

async function fetchWithRetry(url, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) {
    const response = await fetch(url);
    
    if (response.status !== 429) return response;
    
    const retryAfter = response.headers.get('Retry-After');
    const delay = retryAfter ? parseInt(retryAfter) * 1000 : Math.pow(2, i) * 1000;
    
    await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
  }
}

How Sliding Windows Work

Placewise uses a sliding window algorithm for rate limiting, which is more flexible than fixed windows: