specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: 7shifts
providerId: 7shifts
created: '2026-06-02'
modified: '2026-06-02'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Restaurant
  - Scheduling
  - Workforce Management
description: >-
  The 7shifts API v2 throttles requests on a per-access-token basis. Public and
  third-party developer references describe a limit on the order of 10 requests
  per second per access token, after which the API returns HTTP 429 Too Many
  Requests. Limits apply regardless of subscription plan. Developers should
  implement retry with exponential backoff. These figures are drawn from
  third-party developer documentation and should be reconciled against the
  official 7shifts developer reference (developers.7shifts.com) before relying
  on exact numbers.
sources:
  - https://developers.7shifts.com/reference/introduction
  - https://developers.7shifts.com/reference/versioning
  - https://zuplo.com/learning-center/7shifts-api
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
  - name: Requests per access token
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_second
    limit: 10
    timeFrame: second
    notes: >-
      Reported limit of approximately 10 requests/second per access token;
      exceeding it returns HTTP 429. Confirm against official docs.
policies:
  - name: Exponential backoff
    description: >-
      On a 429 response, back off and retry with exponentially increasing
      delays rather than retrying immediately.
  - name: Per-token scoping
    description: >-
      Rate limits are bound to the access token, so distributing work across
      multiple tokens (where allowed by partner agreements) increases aggregate
      throughput.
  - name: Cursor pagination
    description: >-
      Collection endpoints use cursor-based pagination (cursor + limit, limit up
      to 500); page through results rather than requesting large unbounded sets.
  - name: Incremental sync
    description: >-
      Use modified_since filters on companies, users, shifts, and time punches
      to fetch only changed records and reduce request volume.