Rate Limiting

FastBound limits the number of REST API requests you can make within a specific time. This limit helps prevent abuse and ensures the API remains available for all users. This article explains our API rate limit, helping developers understand how to effectively integrate and interact with FastBound’s API without encountering disruptions.

FastBound’s Rate Limit Policy

FastBound imposes a rate limit of 60 requests per minute for each API key, meaning an API key can make up to 60 requests to the API in a one-minute window. You can limit your requests to one per second or make 60 requests in one second, but then you’ll have to wait 59 seconds before making another request with that API key.

Monitoring Your Usage

Our API includes headers in every response that provide real-time information about your current rate limit status:

• X-RateLimit-Limit: The maximum number of requests permitted in any rate limit window.

• X-RateLimit-Remaining: The number of requests remaining in the current rate limit window.

• X-RateLimit-Reset: The time the current rate limit window resets, expressed in UTC epoch seconds.

Exceeding the Rate Limit

If you exceed the rate limit, you will receive a 429 Too Many Requests response. Your application must implement error handling to detect this status code and respond appropriately, such as by retrying the request after a suitable delay.

Best Practices for Managing Rate Limits

1. Caching: Cache responses from the API to reduce the need for repeated requests.

2. Throttling: Implement client-side request throttling to spread your requests evenly across the rate limit window.

3. Optimizing Requests: Where possible, use API features that reduce the need for multiple requests, such as fetching multiple resources in a single call.