Understanding rate limits for Swiftia API

The Swiftia API employs a rate limit to ensure fair usage and prevent abuse. This limit applies to all API users.

Current Rate Limit

• Requests per Second: 2

Future Plans

Swiftia plans to introduce more sophisticated rate limiting, including tiered limits based on subscription plans and burst handling, in the future. This documentation will be updated when these changes are implemented.

Exceeding the Rate Limit

If you exceed the rate limit, you will receive a 429 Too Many Requests error response:

{
  "status": 429,
  "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Please try again later.",
  "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED"
}

The response will also include a Retry-After header indicating how many seconds to wait before retrying the request.

Handling Rate Limits

• Implement retry logic: If you receive a 429 error, use the Retry-After header to determine when to retry the request.
• Optimize your requests: Avoid unnecessary API calls to stay within your rate limit.
• Contact support: If you consistently exceed your rate limit, contact Swiftia support to discuss your needs.

Example Retry Logic (Python)

import requests
import time

def make_request(url):
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

    if response.status_code == 429:
        retry_after = int(response.headers.get('Retry-After', 1)) # Default to 1 second if header is missing
        print(f"Rate limit exceeded. Retrying in {retry_after} seconds...")
        time.sleep(retry_after)
        return make_request(url)  # Retry the request

    return response

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