name: PowerSchool API Rate Limits
description: >-
  PowerSchool's REST API enforces rate limiting to protect system performance
  across the multi-tenant SIS platform. Rate limit thresholds are not publicly
  documented and may vary by district deployment, server capacity, and
  integration plugin configuration. When rate limits are exceeded the API
  returns an HTTP 429 Too Many Requests response. Pagination is supported
  on collection endpoints via pagesize and page query parameters, and
  large result sets should be requested incrementally rather than in bulk.
  The Schoology Learning API (part of the PowerSchool product family) uses
  a credit-based throttle that refills every 5 seconds.
specificationVersion: "0.1"
rateLimits:
  - name: REST API General Rate Limit
    description: >-
      General rate limit applied to PowerSchool SIS REST API calls per
      integration plugin / access token. Specific thresholds are not
      publicly disclosed and are enforced server-side per district
      deployment.
    scope: per-token
    enforcedBy: server
    errorResponse:
      httpStatusCode: 429
      message: Rate Limit Exceeded. Please wait before making further requests.
      headers:
        - name: Retry-After
          description: Seconds to wait before retrying
    recommendations:
      - Implement exponential backoff on 429 responses
      - Use pagination (pagesize, page) to limit response size
      - Prefer incremental/delta queries over full-table exports
      - Cache retrieved data locally to reduce repeat API calls
      - Schedule bulk data pulls during off-peak hours
  - name: Schoology Learning API Credit-Based Throttle
    description: >-
      The Schoology Learning API (part of the PowerSchool ecosystem) uses
      a request credit system. Each user/application is granted a set of
      credits that refill every 5 seconds.
    scope: per-application
    window: 5 seconds
    creditRefillPeriod: 5 seconds
    creditCosts:
      - method: GET
        credits: 1
      - method: OPTIONS
        credits: 1
      - method: POST
        credits: 3
      - method: PUT
        credits: 3
      - method: DELETE
        credits: 3
    errorResponse:
      httpStatusCode: 429
      headers:
        - name: Retry-After
          description: Suggested wait time in seconds before retrying
pagination:
  type: page-based
  parameters:
    - name: pagesize
      description: Number of records per page
      location: query
    - name: page
      description: Page number (zero-indexed)
      location: query
  notes: >-
    Pagination is automatically handled by official client libraries.
    Manual pagination is supported for custom integrations.
url: https://support.powerschool.com/developer/