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: CurrencyAPI
providerId: currencyapi
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: true
tags:
- Foreign Exchange
- Currency
- Exchange Rates
- FX
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
description: >-
  CurrencyAPI enforces two layers of limiting - a monthly request quota that
  varies by plan (300 on Free up to 1,700,000 on Large, custom on enterprise)
  and a per-minute rate limit on some plans (10 requests/minute on Free; paid
  plans advertise no per-minute limit). Exceeding either returns HTTP 429.
  Only successful calls count against quota - failed requests, server errors,
  and validation errors are not counted, and the /status endpoint is always
  free of quota and rate limiting. Every response carries four headers for
  real-time consumption monitoring.
notes: >-
  Grace quota (overage allowance) appears in the /status response alongside the
  monthly quota. Monitor the X-RateLimit-* response headers and implement
  backoff on 429s; on the Free plan pace requests to stay under 10 per minute.
sources:
- https://currencyapi.com/docs/rate-limit
- https://currencyapi.com/docs/status
- https://currencyapi.com/pricing
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
headers:
- name: X-RateLimit-Limit-Quota-Minute
  description: Your per-minute request ceiling.
- name: X-RateLimit-Limit-Quota-Month
  description: Your monthly request ceiling.
- name: X-RateLimit-Remaining-Quota-Minute
  description: Remaining requests this minute.
- name: X-RateLimit-Remaining-Quota-Month
  description: Remaining requests this month.
limits:
- name: Free Plan Monthly Quota
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 300 per month
  notes: Free plan monthly allowance; resets monthly.
- name: Free Plan Minute Limit
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 10 per minute
  notes: Per-minute rate limit on the Free plan; 429 until the minute resets.
- name: Small Plan Monthly Quota
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 15000 per month
  notes: No per-minute limit advertised on paid plans.
- name: Medium Plan Monthly Quota
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 600000 per month
  notes: No per-minute limit advertised on paid plans.
- name: Large Plan Monthly Quota
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 1700000 per month
  notes: Overages supported; no per-minute limit advertised.
- name: Status Endpoint
  scope: endpoint
  metric: requests
  limit: not counted
  notes: Requests to /status never count against quota or rate limit.
policies:
- name: Successful Calls Only
  description: Only successful calls count against quota - failed requests, server errors, and validation errors do not consume the monthly or minute allowance.
- name: Quota Exceeded Behavior
  description: Exceeding the monthly quota returns 429 until you upgrade or the month resets; exceeding the minute limit returns 429 until the minute resets.
- name: Grace Quota
  description: A grace (overage) quota is reported by the /status endpoint alongside the monthly quota, giving bounded headroom past the plan allowance.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should watch the X-RateLimit-Remaining-Quota-* headers and apply exponential backoff with jitter on 429 responses.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com