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: Ally Invest
providerId: ally-invest
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
tags:
  - Brokerage
  - Investing
  - Trading
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Rate limit definitions for the Ally Invest REST and Streaming API surface. Ally Invest publishes
  rate-limiting documentation at ally.com/api/invest/documentation/rate-limiting/ but does not
  publicly disclose exact numeric thresholds. The values below reflect the general rate-limiting
  posture described in the official documentation and observed behavior reported in community
  libraries. Clients should implement exponential backoff and respect HTTP 429 responses.
headers:
  retryAfter: Retry-After
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - tier: authenticated
    name: REST API Default Rate Limit
    scope: oauth-token
    metric: requests_per_second
    limit: 1
    burst: 5
    timeFrame: second
    applies:
      - Ally Invest Accounts API
      - Ally Invest Orders API
      - Ally Invest Market Data API
      - Ally Invest Watchlists API
      - Ally Invest Member API
    notes: >-
      Ally Invest's documentation references rate limiting without publishing exact counts.
      Community wrappers and the Zorro plugin note that rapid successive requests result in
      throttling. A conservative safe rate of 1 request per second per OAuth token is
      recommended by community developers.
  - tier: authenticated
    name: Streaming API Connection Limit
    scope: oauth-token
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: 1
    timeFrame: session
    applies:
      - Ally Invest Streaming Market Data API
    notes: >-
      Each OAuth token may maintain a single active streaming connection. Opening a new streaming
      connection with the same credentials will terminate any existing connection.
  - tier: authenticated
    name: Market Data Quote Symbols Per Request
    scope: request
    metric: symbols_per_request
    limit: 325
    timeFrame: request
    applies:
      - Ally Invest Market Data API
    notes: >-
      The market/ext/quotes endpoint supports up to approximately 325 symbols per single request.
      For larger symbol universes, batch requests across multiple calls.
policies:
  - name: Exponential Backoff
    description: >-
      Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter when receiving HTTP 429 responses.
      Honor the Retry-After header when present before retrying requests.
  - name: Single Streaming Connection
    description: >-
      Only one streaming connection per OAuth token credential set is supported at a time.
      Attempting to open multiple streams with the same token will drop the prior connection.
  - name: Request Pacing
    description: >-
      Space requests to the REST API to avoid triggering rate limit responses. Community
      implementations recommend a minimum 500ms delay between successive calls during normal
      operation, and 1 second between calls during data intensive operations.
  - name: Attribution Requirement
    description: >-
      Applications displaying Ally Invest data via the API must include appropriate attribution
      per the Ally Invest Attribution Guidelines at
      https://www.ally.com/api/invest/documentation/attribution-guidelines/. Non-compliant
      usage may result in API access revocation.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com