Rate Limits

Overview

FeedHorizon uses a sliding-window rate limiter per API key. Each key has a maximum number of requests allowed within a rolling time window.

Rate limit tiers

Tier	Requests	Window	Description
Default	100	60 seconds	Applied to all API keys

Rate limits are applied per API key, not per user. If you have multiple keys, each has its own independent limit.

Response headers

Every API response includes rate limit headers:

Header	Description
`X-RateLimit-Limit`	Maximum requests allowed in the window
`X-RateLimit-Remaining`	Requests remaining in the current window
`X-RateLimit-Reset`	Seconds until the window resets

Example response headers:

X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 87
X-RateLimit-Reset: 42

Rate limit exceeded

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

{
    "error": {
        "code": "RATE_LIMITED",
        "message": "Too many requests"
    }
}

The response still includes rate limit headers so you know when to retry.

Handling rate limits

Best practices

Check headers proactively — Monitor X-RateLimit-Remaining and slow down before hitting 0
Respect X-RateLimit-Reset — Wait the indicated seconds before retrying
Use exponential backoff as a fallback
Batch operations when possible — Create posts with all platforms in one request

Example implementation

Node.js

async function apiCall(url, options, maxRetries = 3) {
    for (let attempt = 0; attempt < maxRetries; attempt++) {
        const res = await fetch(url, options);

        if (res.status === 429) {
            const resetIn = parseInt(
                res.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset') || '60'
            );
            console.log(`Rate limited. Retrying in ${resetIn}s...`);
            await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, resetIn * 1000));
            continue;
        }

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

Python

import time
import requests

def api_call(url, headers, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        res = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

        if res.status_code == 429:
            reset_in = int(res.headers.get("X-RateLimit-Reset", 60))
            print(f"Rate limited. Retrying in {reset_in}s...")
            time.sleep(reset_in)
            continue

        return res
    raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")