Rate Limiting

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

Default limits

Rate limits scale with your plan. Unauthenticated requests use the Free tier by IP address; authenticated requests use the plan attached to your API key.

Plan	Requests / minute	Requests / month
Free (no key, per IP)	30	10,000
Starter	60	50,000
Growth	120	200,000
Pro	300	1,000,000
Enterprise	Custom	Custom

Chart endpoints are additionally capped at 30 req/min on the Free tier; paid plans use their standard per-minute limit. See pricing for the full feature comparison.

Rate-limit headers

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

Rate-limit response headers

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

Name
X-RateLimit-Limit
Type
integer
Description
The maximum number of requests allowed in the current window.
Name
X-RateLimit-Remaining
Type
integer
Description
The number of requests remaining in the current window.
Name
X-RateLimit-Reset
Type
string
Description
ISO 8601 timestamp when the current window resets.
Name
Retry-After
Type
integer
Description
Number of seconds to wait before retrying (only present on 429 responses).

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.

429 response body

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

The retryAfter field in the response body mirrors the Retry-After header value (in seconds).

Best practices

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