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: SpotOn
providerId: spoton
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Restaurant
  - Point of Sale
  - Reservations
description: >-
  SpotOn's developer APIs are key-scoped. The Restaurant POS Export API enforces
  request shape constraints rather than a published per-second rate: order and
  time-clock queries are limited to a 26-hour date range, paid in/out queries to
  a 7-day range, only data from roughly the last 90 days is retrievable, and end
  timestamps must be at least 5 minutes in the past. The Reserve API (SeatNinja)
  documents that the sandbox environment enforces daily and hourly request
  quotas while production has no documented rate limit. Numeric per-second limits
  are not published, so this artifact is not reconciled to specific figures.
sources:
  - https://developers.spoton.com/restaurant/docs/api-access
  - https://developers.spoton.com/restaurant/docs/orders-1
  - https://developers.spoton.com/reserve/docs/getting-started
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  forbidden: 403
limits:
  - name: Restaurant POS Export API requests (production)
    scope: key/location
    metric: varies
    limit: 'no published per-second limit; constrained by date-range and lookback rules'
    notes: >-
      Order, time-clock, and cash-deposit ranges max 26 hours; paid in/out ranges
      max 7 days; only ~90 days of history available; end timestamps must be at
      least 5 minutes in the past.
  - name: Reserve API requests (sandbox)
    scope: key/restaurant
    metric: requests_per_hour
    limit: 'daily and hourly request quotas enforced; exact numbers not published'
    notes: Sandbox-only quotas intended to protect the test environment.
  - name: Reserve API requests (production)
    scope: key/restaurant
    metric: varies
    limit: 'no documented production rate limit'
policies:
  - name: Per-key scoping
    description: >-
      Each API key is scoped to specific locations (Restaurant API) or restaurants
      (Reserve API). Requests for resources outside the key's grant return 403
      Forbidden; contact SpotOn to extend access.
  - name: Date-range windowing
    description: >-
      Time-bounded export endpoints must be paged by walking the allowed window
      (26 hours for orders/time clock, 7 days for paid in/outs) across the ~90-day
      retention horizon rather than requesting a single large range.
  - name: Settlement delay
    description: >-
      End timestamps must be at least 5 minutes in the past, giving the POS time
      to settle close-to-realtime data before it is exported.
  - name: Sandbox-first testing
    description: >-
      Validate Reserve integrations against the sandbox (sandbox.seatninja.com),
      where hourly and daily quotas apply, before promoting to production.