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: ELSA
providerId: elsa
created: '2026-06-21'
modified: '2026-06-21'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Speech Assessment
- Pronunciation
- Speech Recognition
- Language Learning
- AI
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  The ELSA API is partner/B2B and gated behind an issued API token. ELSA's
  public documentation describes constraints on maximum audio duration per
  request (which vary by plan — roughly 20s on Standard and up to 45s scripted
  / 150s unscripted on Premium) but does not publish account-level request or
  concurrency rate-limit numbers. Specific throttling thresholds are not
  reconciled in this artifact and are governed by partner agreements.
notes: >-
  Per-account request and concurrency limits are not published; confirm with
  ELSA during partner onboarding. The clearest documented constraint is the
  per-request maximum audio length, which is plan-dependent.
sources:
- https://api-external-doc.elsanow.co/
- https://api-external-doc.elsanow.co/faq
- https://elsaspeak.com/en/elsa-api/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Max Audio Duration Per Request (Standard)
  scope: request
  metric: audio_seconds
  limit: ~20s scripted / ~20s unscripted
  notes: Plan-dependent maximum recording length accepted per scoring call.
- name: Max Audio Duration Per Request (Premium)
  scope: request
  metric: audio_seconds
  limit: ~45s scripted / ~150s unscripted
  notes: Plan-dependent maximum recording length accepted per scoring call.
- name: Requests Per Minute
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: see partner agreement
  notes: No public per-account RPM published; governed by partner contract.
- name: Concurrent Streams
  scope: account
  metric: connections
  limit: see partner agreement
  notes: WebSocket realtime concurrency is not publicly documented.
policies:
- name: Token-Gated Access
  description: Access requires an ELSA-issued API token; quotas are tied to the partner account.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should implement retry with backoff and honor any throttling responses.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com