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: Polygon
providerId: polygon
created: '2026-05-29'
modified: '2026-05-29'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Fintech
  - Market Data
  - Stocks
  - Options
  - Crypto
  - Forex
  - Indices
  - Rate Limiting
description: >-
  The Polygon Basic (Free) plan is hard-capped at 5 API requests per minute. Paid Stocks, Options,
  Indices, Forex, Crypto, and Futures plans (Starter, Developer, Advanced) advertise unlimited API
  requests subject to soft fair-use. WebSocket cluster connections are tier-gated; the Free plan
  permits a single concurrent connection per asset cluster. Throttled responses return HTTP 429
  with a Retry-After header.
sources:
  - https://polygon.io/docs/getting-started
  - https://polygon.io/pricing
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
  - name: Basic (Free) REST plan
    scope: api_key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 5
    notes: Hard cap on Free tier across REST.
  - name: Paid plans (Starter/Developer/Advanced)
    scope: api_key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: -1
    notes: Advertised as unlimited; soft fair-use applies.
  - name: WebSocket connections (Free / Starter)
    scope: api_key
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: 1
    notes: Free and Starter tiers limited to a single WebSocket cluster connection per asset class.
  - name: WebSocket connections (Developer)
    scope: api_key
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: 1
    notes: Developer tier still typically capped at 1 concurrent cluster connection.
  - name: WebSocket connections (Advanced / Business)
    scope: api_key
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: -1
    notes: Higher tiers permit multiple cluster connections.
  - name: WebSocket subscription channels per connection
    scope: connection
    metric: subscribed_channels
    limit: -1
    notes: No hard documented cap; subscribers should avoid wildcard explosion (e.g. T.*) on Free tier.
policies:
  - name: Backoff Strategy
    description: On 429, honor Retry-After and apply exponential backoff with jitter.
  - name: Connection Reuse
    description: Reuse WebSocket connections; do not open per-message connections.
  - name: Pagination
    description: Use next_url cursor for large result sets rather than tightening limit and re-polling.
  - name: Flat Files For Bulk
    description: For historical bulk loads, prefer the S3-style flat files product over high-rate REST polling.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com