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: Duffel
providerId: duffel
created: '2026-06-25'
modified: '2026-06-25'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Travel
- Flights
- Hotels
- Booking
- Payments
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  The Duffel API applies per-endpoint rate limits and returns HTTP 429 with a
  rate_limit_exceeded error when they are exceeded. Responses expose
  RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining, and RateLimit-Reset headers describing
  the window. Limits vary by endpoint and account; in addition, a commercial
  search-to-book ratio (1500:1) governs how many searches are included before
  excess search fees apply. Specific per-endpoint numeric limits are not
  reconciled in this artifact.
notes: >-
  Verify current per-endpoint limits and header names against the Duffel API
  reference and rate-limiting documentation on reconciliation; the 1500:1
  search-to-book ratio is a commercial limit from the pricing page rather than
  a hard request throttle.
sources:
- https://duffel.com/docs/api/overview/rate-limits
- https://duffel.com/pricing
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Per-Endpoint Request Limit
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: Limits vary by endpoint; reported via RateLimit-Limit / RateLimit-Remaining / RateLimit-Reset headers.
- name: Search-to-Book Ratio
  scope: account
  metric: searches_per_order
  limit: 1500:1
  notes: Commercial ratio; searches beyond 1500 per confirmed order incur a $0.005 per-search excess fee.
policies:
- name: Rate Limit Headers
  description: Clients should read RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining, and RateLimit-Reset to pace requests.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: On HTTP 429, implement exponential backoff with jitter and retry after the reset window.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com