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All rate limits apply per credential. Exceeding a limit returns an HTTP 429 Too Many Requests response.

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Per-Endpoint Limits

EndpointMethodRate Limit
/tokensPOST5 requests/hour per email address
/usersGET10 requests/second
/accountsGET10 requests/second
/definitionsGET10 requests/second
/qualificationsGET10 requests/second
/projectsGET10 requests/second
/projectsPOST10 requests/second
/projectsPATCH10 requests/second
/surveysGET10 requests/second
/surveysPOST10 requests/second
/surveysPATCH10 requests/second
/responsesGET6,000 requests/minute
/responsesPATCH6,000 requests/minute

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HTTP 429 Response

When you exceed a rate limit, the API returns: 
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests

{
  "message": "Too many requests. Please try again later."
}
Implement exponential backoff and retry logic in your integration to handle 429 responses gracefully.

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Best Practices

Cache tokens

Tokens are valid for 12 hours. Store the token and its expiration timestamp — do not re-authenticate on every API call.

Reuse lookup data

Definitions and Qualifications change infrequently. Cache this data at application startup or on a daily refresh rather than fetching per request.

Batch response polling

The /responses endpoint has a high limit (6,000/min) to support polling workflows. Use page and page_size parameters to paginate efficiently.

Use staging for load testing

Run all performance and load testing against the staging environment (https://stage-demand.researchdesk.com) to avoid impacting production limits.