Rate Limiting

The Bitcompare API enforces per-endpoint rate limits to ensure fair usage.

Default limits

Rate limits depend on whether you include an API key with your requests.

Rate-limit headers

Every response includes standard rate-limit headers so you can monitor your usage:

X-RateLimit-Limit: 120
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 45
X-RateLimit-Reset: 2026-02-25T12:05:00.000Z
Retry-After: 12

Handling 429 responses

When you exceed the limit, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests status. Implement exponential backoff or respect the Retry-After header.

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Too many requests, please try again later",
    "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED"
  },
  "retryAfter": 12
}

Best practices

1. Cache responses — prices and rates update every few seconds; there's no need to poll more frequently.
2. Use WebSockets — for real-time price data, connect to the WebSocket endpoint instead of polling.
3. Batch requests — the symbol resolution endpoint supports batch resolution of up to 100 symbols in a single request.
4. Respect headers — check X-RateLimit-Remaining before making additional requests.