Rate Limiting Guide

Rate Limiting & Usage Tracking

Understanding API limits, billing cycles, and best practices for optimal usage

Transparent Limits

Know exactly how many API calls you have left at all times

Billing Cycle Based

Limits reset on your 30-day billing cycle, not calendar months

Smart Headers

Industry-standard rate limit headers in every response

Rate Limit Headers

Standard Headers Returned

X-RateLimit-Limit

Your total daily limit for this endpoint

150

X-RateLimit-Remaining

Requests remaining in current billing period

142

X-RateLimit-Reset

Unix timestamp when your limit resets

1735689600

Handling Rate Limits in Code

Rate Limit Examples
# Check rate limit headers in response (requires API key)
curl -i -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.ogfetch.com/extract?url=https://github.com"

# Headers returned:
# X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
# X-RateLimit-Remaining: 99  
# X-RateLimit-Reset: 1735689600

429 Rate Limit Exceeded

When You Exceed Your Limit

HTTP Response

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
X-RateLimit-Limit: 150
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1735689600
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "message": "You have exceeded your daily limit of 150 requests",
  "reset_time": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

Best Practices:

Check the X-RateLimit-Remaining header before making requests
Implement exponential backoff when you receive a 429 response
Cache API responses to avoid duplicate requests for the same URL
Monitor your usage in the dashboard to prevent hitting limits

Billing Cycle Details

30-Day Billing Cycles

Your rate limits reset every 30 days from your subscription start date, not on calendar months.

Example: Subscribed on January 15th → Resets on February 14th, March 16th, etc.

Check your exact reset date in the dashboard or via API headers