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: iStock
providerId: istock
created: '2026-05-08'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-08, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-08'
reconciled: true
tags:
- Stock Media
- Images
- Video
- Illustrations
- Royalty-Free
- Getty
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  iStock partner API requests run on Getty's platform and inherit Getty's per-API-key QPS limits.
  Specific thresholds are contract-defined; HTTP 429 indicates 'Account Over Queries Per Second
  Limit.'
notes: Inherits Getty's per-key QPS limits; not separately documented for iStock.
sources:
- https://developer.gettyimages.com/docs/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Per API key
  scope: account
  metric: requests-per-second
  limit: contract-defined
  notes: Returns 'Account Over Queries Per Second Limit' on overage.
policies:
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: On 429, apply exponential backoff with jitter.
- name: Caching
  description: Cache search/metadata responses to minimize repeat traffic.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com