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: Steel
providerId: steel-dev
created: '2026-06-20'
modified: '2026-06-20'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Browser
- Web Automation
- Scraping
- AI Agents
- Open Source
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  Steel Cloud meters usage primarily by concurrent browser sessions and
  monthly browser hours rather than fixed requests-per-second limits, with
  bundled proxy bandwidth and CAPTCHA solve allotments per plan. Concurrency
  caps, monthly browser-hour allotments, proxy bandwidth, and CAPTCHA solves
  scale with the subscription tier (Hobby, Starter, Developers, Startups,
  Enterprise). Self-hosted steel-browser instances have no Steel-imposed
  limits beyond local hardware. Specific per-tier concurrency and request
  values are not reconciled in this artifact.
notes: >-
  Verify concurrency limits, browser-hour allotments, and any per-endpoint
  request throttling in the Steel dashboard / docs on reconciliation; values
  change as accounts move between tiers.
sources:
- https://steel.dev/pricing
- https://docs.steel.dev
- https://github.com/steel-dev/steel-browser
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Concurrent Sessions
  scope: account
  metric: sessions
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: Maximum simultaneous live browser sessions, varies by tier.
- name: Browser Hours
  scope: account
  metric: browser_hours
  limit: see plan allotment
  notes: Monthly included browser hours per tier (100 / 290 / 1238 / 9980 / custom).
- name: Proxy Bandwidth
  scope: account
  metric: gigabytes
  limit: see plan allotment
  notes: Monthly proxy bandwidth included per tier.
- name: CAPTCHA Solves
  scope: account
  metric: solves
  limit: see plan allotment
  notes: Monthly CAPTCHA solve allotment per tier.
- name: Quick Action Requests
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: Stateless scrape / screenshot / pdf / search requests.
policies:
- name: Tiered Limits
  description: Concurrency and monthly allotments raise as accounts move from Hobby to paid and Enterprise tiers.
- name: Self-Hosted Exemption
  description: Self-hosted steel-browser instances are not subject to Steel Cloud limits; throughput is bounded only by local resources.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter on 429 responses and honor Retry-After where present.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com