Quota and Rate Limits

Overview

MarketCheck API enforces both monthly quota limits and rate limits to ensure fair usage across different subscription tiers. These limits vary depending on the package you have subscribed to.

Quota Limits

API access is subject to a monthly quota, which limits the total number of requests per account. Once the quota is exhausted, further requests are blocked for the remainder of the month.

• Quota limits are reset at the start of each calendar month
• Quota is tracked and enforced at account level, across all API keys
• Unused quota does not roll over to the next month

Example: Quota Limit Exceeded

{
  "message": "Monthly API quota exhausted"
}

Rate Limits

Each subscription plan has a corresponding rate limit that controls how many requests can be made per second (RPS). Exceeding this limit results in throttling.

Example: Rate Limit Exceeded

{
  "message": "API rate limit exceeded"
}

Rate Limit & Quota Headers

MarketCheck adds comprehensive headers to all API responses to help you monitor your usage and plan your API calls effectively.

Error Responses

When rate limits or quotas are exhausted, MarketCheck returns a 429 Too Many Requests response with detailed information to help you determine the appropriate retry strategy.

Example: 429 Response with Headers

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Content-Type: application/json
RateLimit-Limit: 5
RateLimit-Remaining: 0
RateLimit-Reset-Time: 2025-07-22T14:30:16Z
Quota-Limit: 100000
Quota-Remaining: 0
Quota-Reset-Time: 2025-08-01T00:00:00Z
Retry-After: 86500

{
  "message": "Monthly API quota exhausted"
}

Mitigation Strategies

To avoid disruptions caused by rate limit throttling:

• Monitor RateLimit-Remaining and Quota-Remaining headers to track your usage in real-time
• Implement exponential backoff strategies for retry logic to avoid consecutive failures
• Use RateLimit-Reset-Time and Quota-Reset-Time headers to schedule API calls efficiently
• Upgrade to a higher plan for increased RPS
• Contact support for custom enterprise limits

API Monitoring

API Monitoring allows you to configure email alerts that notify you when your API usage reaches defined thresholds. This helps you proactively track consumption and avoid unexpected overages.

API monitoring can be enabled and managed from the API Usage Alerts section of the Universe Portal.

Key Features

• Alert Thresholds: Configure percentage-based thresholds (for example, 75%, 90%, and 100%) to receive notifications as your usage approaches defined limits.
  Default thresholds (if not customized): 75%, 90%, and 100%.
• Custom Quota Limit: Define a custom monthly quota for alert evaluation. This is especially useful for Standard and Enterprise plans operating on a pay-per-use model without a fixed monthly quota.
• Multiple Recipients: Specify one or more email recipients for alert notifications. If no recipients are configured, alerts are sent to the registered account email address by default.
• Alert History: View historical alerts to track when usage thresholds were reached.

How Alerts Are Evaluated

See Also

• Authentication