---
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: AT Protocol
providerId: atproto
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - XRPC
  - Bluesky
  - AT Protocol
description: >-
  AT Protocol enforces rate limits at multiple layers: content write operations
  use a points-based system per account, general API requests are throttled per
  IP, and specific sensitive operations (account creation, session creation,
  handle updates) have their own tighter limits. The Bluesky AppView offers
  generous limits for read-only access. The Relay (firehose relay) imposes
  per-second and daily throughput caps on repository stream consumers.
sources:
  - https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/rate-limits
  - https://atproto.com/specs/xrpc
headers:
  retryAfter: Retry-After
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
  - name: General API Requests (per IP)
    scope: ip
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 3000
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Content Write Points (per account, hourly)
    scope: user
    metric: write_points_per_hour
    limit: 5000
    timeFrame: hour
  - name: Content Write Points (per account, daily)
    scope: user
    metric: write_points_per_day
    limit: 35000
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Handle Updates (per account)
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 10
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Handle Updates Daily (per account)
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Account Creation (per IP)
    scope: ip
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 100
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Session Creation (per account)
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 30
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Session Creation Daily (per account)
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 300
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Account Deletion (per IP)
    scope: ip
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Password Reset (per IP)
    scope: ip
    metric: requests_per_5_minutes
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Blob Upload Max Size
    scope: user
    metric: bytes_per_upload
    limit: 52428800
    timeFrame: usage
  - name: Relay Repository Stream Events (per second)
    scope: org
    metric: events_per_second
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Relay Repository Stream Events (hourly)
    scope: org
    metric: events_per_hour
    limit: 2600
    timeFrame: hour
  - name: Relay Repository Stream Events (daily)
    scope: org
    metric: events_per_day
    limit: 21000
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Labeler Labels (per second)
    scope: user
    metric: labels_per_second
    limit: 5
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Labeler Labels (hourly)
    scope: user
    metric: labels_per_hour
    limit: 10000
    timeFrame: hour
  - name: Labeler Labels (daily)
    scope: user
    metric: labels_per_day
    limit: 100000
    timeFrame: day