Rate Limits & Tiers

The Blocklens API uses rate limiting to ensure fair usage and high availability for all users. Rate limits are applied based on your subscription tier.

Subscription Tiers & API Access

Tier	API Access	Rate Limit
Demo Access	❌ Not Available	N/A
Free Account	❌ Not Available	N/A
Pro Account	✅ Full Access	10k calls/day
Enterprise	✅ Full Access	100k calls/day

Custom Limits

Custom rate limits are available for Enterprise clients with specific needs. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Hourly Breakdown

Rate limits are enforced on an hourly basis. The approximate hourly limits are:

• Pro Account: ~416 requests/hour
• Enterprise: ~4,166 requests/hour

How Rate Limiting Works

Rate limits are applied on a per-API-key basis. Each API key has its own independent counter. If you exceed the rate limit for your key, you will receive a 429 Too Many Requests HTTP status code.

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes headers to help you track your usage:

Header	Description
X-RateLimit-Limit	Total requests allowed in the current window
X-RateLimit-Remaining	Requests remaining in the current window
X-RateLimit-Reset	Unix timestamp when the current window resets

Handling Rate Limits

import requests
import time

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.blocklens.co/v1/prices",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your-api-key"}
)

if response.status_code == 429:
    # Rate limited - wait and retry
    reset_time = int(response.headers.get("X-RateLimit-Reset", 0))
    wait_seconds = max(1, reset_time - int(time.time()))
    print(f"Rate limited. Waiting {wait_seconds}s...")
    time.sleep(wait_seconds)

Best Practices

• Monitor headers: Check X-RateLimit-Remaining to proactively throttle requests
• Implement backoff: Use exponential backoff when hitting rate limits
• Cache responses: Cache data that doesn't change frequently to reduce API calls
• Use date ranges: Request specific date ranges instead of maximum limits to reduce load