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: Brandwatch
providerId: brandwatch
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-13'
generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/rate-limiting
docs:
  - https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/rate-limiting
  - https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/best-practices
tags:
  - Analytics
  - Social Media
  - Consumer Intelligence
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Published rate limits for the Brandwatch Consumer Research API, harvested from
  the provider's own rate-limiting page. This replaces a 2026-05-04 scaffold
  whose tier numbers (10/min free, 100/min professional) were invented; the real
  limit is a single flat 30 requests per rolling 10 minutes, applied per Client
  rather than per user or per key, with no published tier variation.
headers:
  limit: x-rate-limit
  limit_format: <limit>/<period>m
  used: x-rate-limit-used
  remaining: null
  reset: null
  retryAfter: null
  policy: null
  note: >-
    Brandwatch returns a non-standard pair. `x-rate-limit` carries the policy
    ("30/10m"), `x-rate-limit-used` carries consumption to date in the window.
    There is no RateLimit-Remaining, no reset timestamp and no Retry-After, so a
    client cannot compute when it is safe to retry — it can only subtract used
    from limit and back off blind. Neither header is the RFC 9239 / RateLimit-*
    draft form.
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
example_response_headers: |
  x-rate-limit: 30/10m
  x-rate-limit-used: 5
limits:
  - name: Consumer Research API default
    scope: client
    scope_note: >-
      Applied at the Client (account) level, not per user and not per API key —
      every integration and every user under one Brandwatch Client shares the
      same 30 calls.
    metric: requests
    limit: 30
    window: 10
    windowUnit: minute
    windowType: rolling
    burst: null
    applies:
      - Brandwatch Consumer Research API
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/rate-limiting
policies:
  - name: Rolling window
    description: >-
      For a request to be inside the limit there must have been fewer than 30
      other API requests for the same Client in the preceding 10 minutes.
      Requests beyond the limit are rejected with HTTP 429 Too Many Requests.
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/rate-limiting
  - name: Serialize, do not parallelize
    description: >-
      Brandwatch recommends queuing requests client-side and executing them
      linearly. Parallel requests may be throttled and take longer to return
      than the same requests issued in sequence.
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/best-practices
  - name: Cache reference data
    description: >-
      Brandwatch recommends caching Categories, Tags and Lists locally rather
      than re-fetching them alongside every Mentions call — direct guidance for
      staying inside 30 calls per 10 minutes.
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/best-practices
  - name: Choose polling intervals by data volatility
    description: >-
      Poll a Mentions stream roughly every 30 seconds; poll a weekly volume
      chart far less often.
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/best-practices
  - name: Raising the limit is a sales conversation
    description: >-
      "If you have a use case that doesn't fit within these rate limits, then
      please get in touch with your account manager." There is no published
      higher tier and no self-service increase.
    source: https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/best-practices
undocumented:
  - api: Brandwatch Analysis API
    note: >-
      Metered by query quota rather than request rate (see
      GET /analysis/usage, which returns total / totalActive / remaining quota),
      but no request-rate limit is published.
  - api: Brandwatch Data Upload API
    note: no published rate limit
  - api: Brandwatch Measure API
    note: no public developer documentation, so no published rate limit
  - api: Brandwatch Publish API
    note: no public developer documentation, so no published rate limit
  - api: Brandwatch Engage API
    note: no public developer documentation, so no published rate limit
limit_count: 1
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: info@apievangelist.com