Skip to content
Color API

Rate Limits

The Color API enforces rate limits to ensure fair usage and stability. Rate limits depend on the tier of your API key.

Tier Limits

Section titled “Tier Limits”
Tier RPM Burst Monthly Requests
Free 25 8 5,000

Without an API key, requests are limited to 25 per minute per IP address.

Understanding RPM and Burst

Section titled “Understanding RPM and Burst”
  • RPM (Requests Per Minute): The maximum number of requests you can make per minute
  • Burst: Short-term burst capacity for handling traffic spikes

Rate Limit Headers

Section titled “Rate Limit Headers”

When you exceed the rate limit, the API returns a 429 status:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before retrying.",
    "details": ["Rate limit: 10 requests per minute"]
  }
}

Best Practices

Section titled “Best Practices”
  • Cache responses when possible
  • Implement exponential backoff for retries
  • Watch the X-RateLimit-Remaining header to see how close you are to the limit