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Overview

Rate Limiting

Overview

The Skimmer Public API enforces rate limits to ensure fair usage and maintain service reliability for all consumers. Rate limits are applied per API key.

Rate Limit Thresholds

Limit	Value
Requests allowed	500 requests
Time window	1 minute

Each API key can make up to 500 requests per minute. The limit resets at the end of each 1-minute window.

Rate Limit Response Headers

Every API response includes headers that indicate your current rate limit status:

Header	Description
RateLimit-Limit	The maximum number of requests allowed in the current time window
RateLimit-Remaining	The number of requests remaining in the current time window
RateLimit-Reset	The number of seconds until the current time window resets

Exceeding the Rate Limit

If you exceed the rate limit, the API will respond with:

• HTTP Status: 429 Too Many Requests
• Retry-After header: The number of seconds to wait before making another request

Example 429 Response

Code
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 30
RateLimit-Limit: 500
RateLimit-Remaining: 0
RateLimit-Reset: 30

Recommended Retry Strategy

When you receive a 429 response, use exponential backoff to retry:

1. Wait for the duration specified in the Retry-After header
2. If Retry-After is not present, wait 1 second before the first retry
3. Double the wait time for each subsequent retry (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, ...)
4. Set a maximum number of retries (e.g., 5) to avoid infinite loops

Example (pseudocode)

Code
maxRetries = 5
delay = retryAfterHeader ?? 1

for attempt in 1..maxRetries:
    response = makeRequest()
    if response.status != 429:
        break
    sleep(delay)
    delay = delay * 2

Best Practices

• Monitor your usage using the RateLimit-Remaining header to proactively throttle requests before hitting the limit
• Batch operations where possible to reduce the total number of API calls
• Cache responses for data that does not change frequently to avoid unnecessary requests