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: fatsecret
providerId: fatsecret
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-12'
generated: '2026-08-12'
method: searched
source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/api-editions
docs:
  editions: https://platform.fatsecret.com/api-editions
  error_codes: https://platform.fatsecret.com/docs/guides/error-codes
limit_count: 2
note: >-
  Replaced the 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep scaffold, which invented X-RateLimit-* headers, HTTP 429
  responses, per-minute limits and burst ceilings that fatsecret does not publish or emit. What the
  provider actually publishes is a single daily call quota on the free Basic edition and "Unlimited"
  on both Premier editions, with exhaustion signalled ONLY as a numeric error code inside the
  response body.
tags:
  - Barcode Scanning
  - Calories
  - Nutrition
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Published rate limits for the fatsecret Platform API. The runtime signal is the weak point for
  agents: there are no rate-limit response headers of any kind, no Retry-After, and no distinct HTTP
  status. A client only learns it is over quota by parsing error.code == 11 out of a body that
  otherwise looks like a normal response.
headers:
  limit: null
  remaining: null
  reset: null
  retryAfter: null
  policy: null
  observed: false
  note: >-
    No X-RateLimit-*, no RateLimit-* (RFC 9331 draft), and no Retry-After are documented in the
    guides or referenced anywhere in the editions page.
responseCodes:
  throttled: null
  quotaExceeded: null
  note: >-
    Rate limiting is not signalled by HTTP status. The signal is the vendor error envelope:
    {"error":{"code":11,"message":"Application request limit reached: '<details>'"}}
signals:
  - code: 11
    scope: application
    meaning: Application request limit reached — the edition's call quota is exhausted
    source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/docs/guides/error-codes
  - code: 12
    scope: profile
    meaning: User is performing too many actions — a per-member throttle, independent of the app quota
    source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/docs/guides/error-codes
limits:
  - tier: Basic
    name: Basic edition daily quota
    scope: api-key
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 5000
    burst: null
    timeFrame: day
    published: '"5,000 API calls/day"'
    source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/api-editions
    applies:
      - fatsecret Platform API
  - tier: Premier Free
    name: Premier Free edition
    scope: api-key
    metric: requests
    limit: -1
    timeFrame: none
    published: '"Unlimited"'
    source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/api-editions
    applies:
      - fatsecret Platform API
  - tier: Premier
    name: Premier edition
    scope: contract
    metric: requests
    limit: -1
    timeFrame: none
    published: '"Unlimited"'
    source: https://platform.fatsecret.com/api-editions
    applies:
      - fatsecret Platform API
policies:
  - name: Per-profile throttle
    description: >-
      Error code 12 is scoped to one member, not the application. Back off for that profile only;
      other members are unaffected.
  - name: Backoff strategy
    description: >-
      With no Retry-After and no reset header, a client cannot compute a wait. On error 11 the only
      safe behaviour is to stop calling for that key and resume on the next day boundary; on error 12
      use exponential backoff with jitter for that member.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com