Rate limits

The limits

Limit	Applies to	Window
60 requests	Each API key, across every endpoint	Per minute
500 quotes	Each live API key, calls to `POST /v1/quotes`	Per day
2,000 quotes	Your whole agency, all live keys together, calls to `POST /v1/quotes`	Per day
200 quotes	Each test API key, calls to `POST /v1/quotes`	Per day
500 quotes	Your whole agency, all test keys together, calls to `POST /v1/quotes`	Per day

Windows are fixed, not rolling. The minute resets at the start of each minute, and the day at midnight UTC. The agency limit means several live keys can’t add up to more than 2,000 quotes a day between them. Test quotes are counted separately, against their own limits, so building and testing never use up your live allowance. If you need more headroom during the beta, tell your Bridgeline contact.

What counts

Every authenticated request counts, whatever its outcome. That includes requests we reject as invalid (422), idempotent replays, and requests refused for being over a limit. So:

Validate before you send. A 422 costs a quote from your daily allowance. Don’t retry it unchanged.
Don’t poll hard. Checking quotes for a client’s response uses the same 60 a minute as everything else. See checking for a response.
Back off on 429. Hammering a limit keeps it full.

The headers

Every response to an authenticated request, errors included, tells you where you stand against whichever limit is closest to running out:

RateLimit-Limit: 60
RateLimit-Remaining: 57
RateLimit-Reset: 42

Header	Meaning
`RateLimit-Limit`	The size of that limit
`RateLimit-Remaining`	Requests left in the current window
`RateLimit-Reset`	Seconds until the window resets

At the limit

Over a limit, you get 429 with a Retry-After header giving the seconds to wait:

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 18
RateLimit-Limit: 60
RateLimit-Remaining: 0
RateLimit-Reset: 18

{
  "error": {
    "type": "rate_limit",
    "code": "RATE_LIMITED",
    "message": "Too many requests. Retry after the time in the Retry-After header.",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.bridgelinepf.com/errors#RATE_LIMITED",
    "request_id": "req_8fJ2kQ9xLm4TzW7nB3cY5pDv"
  }
}

Wait at least Retry-After seconds, then retry with the same Idempotency-Key. A refused request does no work, so the retry is safe. If you hit a daily limit, Retry-After runs to midnight UTC. The retrying client in the idempotency guide handles this for you.

Get started

Guides

Going to production

Concepts

Resources

The limits

What counts

The headers

At the limit

​The limits

​What counts

​The headers

​At the limit

The limits

What counts

The headers

At the limit