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: Nutritionix
providerId: nutritionix
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Nutrition
  - Food
description: >-
  Nutritionix throttles the Track API per application credential pair
  (x-app-id / x-app-key). Daily request quotas are scaled by plan tier, with the
  free/trial tier capped at a small daily allowance and paid tiers receiving
  substantially higher quotas. Exceeding the quota returns HTTP 429. Exact
  per-tier numbers are not published on the open documentation and depend on the
  negotiated plan, so the values below reference the docs and are flagged
  unreconciled until confirmed for a specific key.
sources:
  - https://developer.nutritionix.com/docs/v2
  - https://www.nutritionix.com/api
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  unauthorized: 401
limits:
  - name: Daily request quota (free / trial tier)
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 'small per-day allowance; see plan terms'
    notes: Free/trial credentials are capped at a low daily request count to deter misuse.
  - name: Daily request quota (paid tiers)
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 'tier-dependent; see negotiated plan'
    notes: Paid plans scale the daily quota with the subscription tier.
  - name: Request rate
    scope: key
    metric: varies
    limit: 'not publicly published'
    notes: Short-term burst throttling applies per credential pair; specific RPS is not documented openly.
policies:
  - name: Per-credential scoping
    description: Quotas and throttling are bound to the x-app-id / x-app-key pair, not per-IP.
  - name: Retry on 429
    description: On a 429, back off and retry; reduce request frequency or upgrade the plan for a higher quota.
  - name: Quota reset
    description: Daily quotas reset on a rolling or calendar-day basis depending on plan terms.
  - name: Raise via sales
    description: Higher quotas and rate ceilings are obtained by upgrading the commercial plan through Nutritionix sales.