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: Adafruit IO
providerId: adafruit-io
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
sources:
  - https://io.adafruit.com/api/docs/#rate-limiting
  - https://io.adafruit.com/api/docs/mqtt.html#rate-limiting
description: |
  Adafruit IO enforces a per-account "data points per minute" rate limit that applies across both the HTTP REST
  API and the MQTT broker. The rate is the same regardless of transport; concurrent HTTP and MQTT clients share
  the same per-minute budget. Free accounts get 30 data points per minute; Plus accounts get 60. When throttled,
  the broker publishes a notification to the `{username}/throttle` MQTT topic, and the REST API returns
  HTTP 429.
limits:
  - id: free-tier-data-rate
    plan: adafruit-io-free
    scope: account
    metric: data-points
    window: minute
    limit: 30
    description: Free accounts can publish up to 30 data points per minute across HTTP + MQTT combined.
  - id: plus-tier-data-rate
    plan: adafruit-io-plus
    scope: account
    metric: data-points
    window: minute
    limit: 60
    description: Plus accounts can publish up to 60 data points per minute across HTTP + MQTT combined.
  - id: pagination
    plan: all
    scope: request
    metric: records
    window: per-page
    limit: 1000
    description: The REST API returns at most 1000 records per page. Use the Link header (rel="next") to paginate.
  - id: mqtt-qos
    plan: all
    scope: protocol
    metric: qos
    description: |
      MQTT broker supports QoS 0 (at most once) and QoS 1 (at least once). QoS 2 is not supported. MQTT retain
      flag is not honored — use the /get topic modifier instead.
signals:
  - kind: HttpHeader
    name: X-Pagination-Total
    description: Total record count for the current paged query.
  - kind: HttpHeader
    name: X-Pagination-Limit
    description: Maximum number of records per page (capped at 1000).
  - kind: HttpHeader
    name: Link
    description: Pagination link header, including the `rel="next"` URL when more pages are available.
  - kind: MqttTopic
    name: '{username}/throttle'
    description: Per-account throttle notification topic. Subscribe to receive notice when data rate is exceeded.
  - kind: HttpStatus
    name: '429'
    description: Returned when the per-minute data rate has been exceeded.