name: PDFfiller API Rate Limits
description: Rate limiting policies for the PDFfiller REST API. PDFfiller does not
  publicly document specific numeric rate limits. Limits are enforced per API account
  and scale with plan tier. Developers should implement retry logic with exponential
  backoff when receiving 429 Too Many Requests responses. For specific rate limit
  details, consult the API dashboard at api.pdffiller.com/admin or contact PDFfiller
  developer support.
version: '0.1'
url: https://developers.pdffiller.com

policies:
  - name: Account-Level Throttling
    description: API requests are throttled at the account level. Rate limits vary
      by plan tier and are enforced server-side. Exceeding limits results in HTTP
      429 responses.
    scope: account
    enforcement: server-side
    response_code: 429
    headers:
      - name: X-RateLimit-Limit
        description: Maximum number of requests allowed in the current window
      - name: X-RateLimit-Remaining
        description: Number of requests remaining in the current window
      - name: X-RateLimit-Reset
        description: Unix timestamp when the current rate limit window resets
      - name: Retry-After
        description: Seconds to wait before retrying after a 429 response

  - name: Document Quota
    description: API plans enforce annual document quotas. The Enterprise plan includes
      10,000 documents per year at $375/month. Additional documents are billed at
      $0.45 per document. The Free Trial provides 250 document credits.
    scope: account
    period: annual
    tiers:
      - plan: Free Trial
        quota: 250
        unit: documents
      - plan: Enterprise
        quota: 10000
        unit: documents
        overage_rate: 0.45
        overage_currency: USD
      - plan: Volume
        quota: custom
        unit: documents

best_practices:
  - Implement exponential backoff when receiving 429 responses
  - Cache document IDs and template IDs to avoid redundant API calls
  - Use webhooks or polling to check document status rather than repeated GET requests
  - Batch operations where the API supports bulk endpoints
  - Monitor your document quota usage via the API dashboard at api.pdffiller.com/admin

notes:
  - Specific numeric rate limits (requests per minute/hour) are not publicly documented
  - Contact PDFfiller support at developers.pdffiller.com for current limit details
  - OAuth access tokens expire and must be refreshed; token refresh does not count
    toward document quotas
  - SSL/TLS encryption is required for all API calls; HTTP requests are rejected