Rate Limits

Understanding and managing API rate limits

The BaseVol API uses a sliding window rate limiting algorithm. Limits are applied per API key across three time windows: per second, per minute, and per day.

Tier Limits

Tier	Per Second	Per Minute	Per Day
Basic	2	60	10,000
Pro	10	300	100,000
Enterprise	50	1,500	Unlimited

Endpoint Weights

Each API request consumes a certain number of rate limit units based on the endpoint:

Endpoint	Weight
POST /orders/*, DELETE /orders/*, POST /orders/*/close-position	2
GET /orders/*, GET /account/*	1
GET /market/products	0.5
GET /market/time	0.1

Trading endpoints have a higher weight to protect system stability. Use market data endpoints for frequent polling.

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes rate limit information in the headers:

Header	Description
X-RateLimit-Limit	Maximum requests allowed in the current window
X-RateLimit-Remaining	Remaining requests in the current window
X-RateLimit-Reset	Unix timestamp when the rate limit resets
Retry-After	Seconds to wait before retrying (only on 429 responses)

Handling Rate Limits

When you exceed the rate limit, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded",
    "details": {
      "retryAfter": 2
    },
    "timestamp": "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
    "requestId": "abc123"
  }
}

Backoff Strategy

Implement exponential backoff to handle rate limits gracefully:

Python

import time
import requests

def make_request(url, headers, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

        if response.status_code == 429:
            retry_after = int(response.headers.get("Retry-After", 2))
            time.sleep(retry_after)
            continue

        return response

    raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")

JavaScript

Upgrading Your Tier

To upgrade from Basic to Pro or Enterprise, contact the BaseVol team via Telegram.