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: Fern
providerId: fern-api
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: false
tags:
- SDK Generation
- API Documentation
- Developer Tools
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
description: >-
  Fern does not publish fixed numeric HTTP rate limits for its hosted Ask Fern
  REST API. Practical usage is governed by plan-based AI credits rather than a
  per-minute request cap - the Hobby tier includes 250 AI credits per month and
  the Team tier 1,000, with Enterprise negotiated. SDK generation and docs
  generation run through the open-source `fern` CLI, so their throughput is
  bounded by your own CI/CD and local compute rather than by a Fern-imposed
  limit. Publishing generated SDKs is ultimately subject to the rate limits of
  the downstream registries (npm, PyPI, Maven) and of GitHub.
notes: >-
  Numeric per-endpoint request limits for the Ask Fern API are not documented as
  of the review date; the effective constraint is the monthly AI-credit
  allowance of your plan. Verify current allowances on the Fern pricing page and
  handle 429 responses with exponential backoff.
sources:
- https://buildwithfern.com/pricing
- https://buildwithfern.com/learn/docs/ai-features/ask-fern/api-reference/overview
- https://github.com/fern-api/fern
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Ask Fern API Requests
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: not published
  notes: No fixed numeric request-rate limit is documented for the hosted Ask Fern REST API.
- name: AI Credits
  scope: account
  metric: credits
  limit: per plan (Hobby 250/mo, Team 1000/mo, Enterprise custom)
  notes: AI-powered features (Ask Fern) consume monthly AI credits that vary by plan tier.
- name: CLI Generation Throughput
  scope: deployment
  metric: runs
  limit: compute-bound
  notes: SDK and docs generation run via the open-source CLI, bounded by your own CI/local compute.
- name: SDK Publishing
  scope: registry
  metric: publishes
  limit: downstream
  notes: Publishing generated SDKs is subject to npm, PyPI, Maven, and GitHub rate limits, not Fern's.
policies:
- name: Credit-Based Metering
  description: AI documentation features are metered by monthly AI credits per plan rather than by request-rate caps.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients of the Ask Fern API should implement exponential backoff with jitter and honor Retry-After on 429 responses.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com