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: CryptoCompare
providerId: cryptocompare
created: '2026-05-30'
modified: '2026-05-30'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Cryptocurrency
  - Market Data
description: >-
  CryptoCompare meters access using a monthly call credit budget on top of
  per-second / per-minute / per-hour / per-day request ceilings. Every REST
  call deducts one or more credits depending on the endpoint weight; WebSocket
  subscriptions are metered by subscription minute or per-channel volume.
  Current request and credit remaining are returned in the streamer Welcome
  envelope (TYPE 20) and on most REST responses via the RateLimit field. Above
  the budget a 429 / "Rate limit exceeded" envelope is returned. Enterprise
  tiers can negotiate custom ceilings.
sources:
  - https://developers.coindesk.com/pricing/
  - https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/documentation
  - https://developers.coindesk.com/documentation/legacy-websockets/HowToConnect
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  unauthorized: 401
limits:
  - name: Free tier — Monthly call credits
    scope: account
    metric: call_credits
    limit: 100000
    timeFrame: month
    notes: One credit per typical REST call; heavier endpoints (e.g. /pricemultifull with many pairs) deduct more credits.
  - name: Free tier — REST requests per second
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_second
    limit: 30
    timeFrame: second
    notes: Reflected as RATELIMIT_MAX_SECOND in streamer Welcome envelope.
  - name: Free tier — REST requests per minute
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 60
    timeFrame: minute
    notes: Reflected as RATELIMIT_MAX_MINUTE in streamer Welcome envelope.
  - name: Free tier — REST requests per hour
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_hour
    limit: 1200
    timeFrame: hour
  - name: Free tier — REST requests per day
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 10000
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Free tier — REST requests per month
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_month
    limit: 20000
    timeFrame: month
    notes: Free tier defaults; commercial tiers raise this and increase the call-credit budget.
  - name: Commercial Starter — Monthly call credits
    scope: account
    metric: call_credits
    limit: 5000000
    timeFrame: month
  - name: Commercial Professional — Monthly call credits
    scope: account
    metric: call_credits
    limit: 25000000
    timeFrame: month
  - name: Enterprise — Monthly call credits
    scope: account
    metric: call_credits
    limit: -1
    timeFrame: month
    notes: Negotiated per-contract; -1 indicates uncapped or custom.
  - name: WebSocket — Max sockets per client
    scope: account
    metric: connections
    limit: 5
    timeFrame: concurrent
    notes: Free tier opens 1 socket; commercial tiers open up to 5 concurrent sockets.
  - name: WebSocket — Max subscriptions per socket
    scope: socket
    metric: subscriptions
    limit: 200
    timeFrame: concurrent
    notes: Returned in TYPE 429 messages with MESSAGE TOO_MANY_SUBSCRIPTIONS_MAX_{X}_PER_SOCKET.
policies:
  - name: Backoff
    description: Honor 429 responses with exponential backoff and jitter; respect the RateLimit envelope returned with each REST response.
  - name: Credit-aware design
    description: Reuse pricemultifull bulk calls in place of N individual price calls; cache static data (coinlist, exchanges general).
  - name: Streaming preferred
    description: Subscribe to WebSocket channels (Trade, Ticker, CCCAGG, OHLC) for high-frequency monitoring instead of REST polling.
  - name: Heartbeat tracking
    description: Track the TYPE 999 heartbeat; reconnect after missing two heartbeats and wait at least 5 seconds before reconnecting.
  - name: Welcome envelope inspection
    description: Inspect the streamer Welcome envelope (TYPE 20) on each connect to learn current SOCKETS_REMAINING and RATELIMIT_REMAINING_* values.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com