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: Alchemy
providerId: alchemy
created: '2026-05-08'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-08, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-08'
reconciled: true
tags:
- Web3
- Blockchain
- RPC
- NFT
- Indexing
- Account Abstraction
- Rate Limiting
description: Alchemy enforces per-second compute-unit throughput plus monthly CU caps.
  Different methods have different CU costs.
notes: Throughput limits scale with plan tier. 429 returned when the per-second CU
  rate is exceeded.
sources:
- https://www.alchemy.com/docs/reference/throughput
- https://www.alchemy.com/docs/reference/compute-units
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Free Throughput
  scope: api_key
  metric: compute_units_per_second
  limit: 330
  notes: Free plan default CU/sec.
- name: Growth Throughput
  scope: api_key
  metric: compute_units_per_second
  limit: 660
  notes: Growth plan CU/sec.
- name: Scale Throughput
  scope: api_key
  metric: compute_units_per_second
  limit: 1500
  notes: Scale plan CU/sec.
- name: Monthly CU Cap
  scope: account
  metric: compute_units
  limit: see plan
  notes: Monthly compute unit ceiling per plan.
policies:
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Exponential backoff with jitter on 429.
- name: CU Budgeting
  description: Track CU consumption per method using the Alchemy dashboard usage tab.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com