> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thedatacity.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rate limits

> Each key is limited to 60 requests per minute. Exceeding it returns 429 with a retry-after header.

Each API key is limited to **60 requests per minute**. Every request counts as one, whatever the
response status or the size of the result.

<Note>
  This is a different limit from the [Industry Engine API](/api-reference/guides/rate-limits), which
  allows 200 requests per minute. If you use both APIs, do not reuse the same backoff settings.
</Note>

## Hitting the limit

Requests over the limit are rejected at the gateway, before they reach the data service:

```http theme={null}
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
content-type: application/problem+json
retry-after: 26
```

The body follows the same problem-details shape as every other gateway error, described in
[Errors](/global-api/guides/errors). The header you need is `retry-after`.

## Backing off

The `retry-after` header gives the number of seconds until your quota resets. Wait that long before
retrying. Do not retry immediately, and do not retry on a fixed short interval — a client that
retries every second while throttled simply stays throttled.

```python theme={null}
import time
import requests

def call(url, headers, body, attempts=5):
    for attempt in range(attempts):
        response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=body, timeout=60)
        if response.status_code != 429:
            return response
        wait = int(response.headers.get("retry-after", 2 ** attempt))
        time.sleep(wait)
    raise RuntimeError("still rate limited after %d attempts" % attempts)
```

If `retry-after` is absent for any reason, fall back to exponential backoff rather than a fixed
delay.

## Staying under the limit

Most jobs that hit the limit are paginating a large result set one small page at a time. Two things
help more than backoff does:

* **Ask for larger pages.** `Limit` accepts up to 1000 records per request. Ten requests of 1000
  cost ten calls; a thousand requests of 10 cost a thousand. See
  [Pagination](/global-api/guides/pagination).
* **Turn off work you are not using.** Setting `IncludeInsights` and `IncludeTotalCount` to `false`
  makes each request cheaper to serve when you only want the company records.

## Higher limits

If 60 requests per minute is not enough for your use case, email
[support@thedatacity.com](mailto:support@thedatacity.com) and tell us the shape of the workload —
how many records you need and how often. The limit is set per key and can be raised.