API Rate Limits

The Site Search API is rate limited to prevent abuse. Every API request is recorded. If more requests are made during a time period than allowed, requests will be rate limited until the end of the time period. The limits are high enough that typical use should rarely, if ever, be rate limited.

JSONP and rate limiting

Most Site Search customers use JSONP for autocomplete and search results. JSONP requests originate from your users and as a result it is unlikely they will be affected by rate limiting, unless one of your users is abusing the service.

Rate limiting example

Requests that have been rate limited will respond with HTTP 429 Too Many Requests. HTTP 429 is a new - but very useful - status code proposed by RFC 6585.

If the request was for a JSON resource, the response body will be JSON as well.

curl -i -XGET 'https://search-api.swiftype.com/api/v1/public/engines/suggest.json?callback=foo&q=search&engine_key=your_engine_key'

HTTP/1.1 429
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 32

{ "error": "Rate limit exceeded." }

Rate limit mitigation

If your application is being negatively affected by rate limiting, please contact support@swiftype.com with details and we will help address the issue.

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