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: Pixabay
providerId: pixabay
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
- Videos
- Illustrations
- Free
- Search
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  Pixabay enforces a default limit of 100 requests per 60 seconds and requires 24-hour caching of
  results. Higher limits are available on request. The API returns standard rate-limit headers
  (X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset) and HTTP 429 when exceeded.
notes: 100 requests/minute default; cache at least 24h.
sources:
- https://pixabay.com/api/docs/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Default
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 100 per 60 seconds
  notes: Standard limit; higher available on request.
- name: Caching
  scope: client
  metric: hours
  limit: 24h minimum
  notes: Cache results for 24 hours minimum per Pixabay TOS.
policies:
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Honor 429 with exponential backoff; check X-RateLimit-Reset.
- name: Caching
  description: Cache responses at least 24 hours per TOS.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com