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: Teachworks
providerId: teachworks
created: '2026-07-03'
modified: '2026-07-03'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Education
- Tutoring
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Pagination
description: >-
  The Teachworks API publishes a fixed per-token rate limit of 4 requests per
  second. Rate limiting is scoped to the API token, so all integrations sharing
  a token share the budget. List endpoints are paginated - 20 records per page
  by default, configurable with the per_page parameter up to a maximum of 80,
  and navigated with a 1-based page parameter. The published usage policy also
  prohibits excessive requests and retrieving records in a continuous loop, and
  states the API is not intended for bulk backups (use the in-app Excel download
  feature for that). All requests must be made over HTTPS.
notes: >-
  The documented hard limit is 4 requests/second per API token. Clients should
  paginate (per_page up to 80), use the id range filters (id[gt], id[lt],
  id[gte], id[lte]) to page through large datasets efficiently, and back off on
  throttling rather than polling in a tight loop.
sources:
- https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/10096149/SWTABydD
- https://teachworks.com/addons/api
- https://teachworks.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038657531-Zapier-Integration
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Requests Per Token
  scope: token
  metric: requests
  limit: 4 per second
  notes: Documented hard limit; the API is rate limited by API token at 4 requests per second.
- name: Default Page Size
  scope: request
  metric: records
  limit: 20 per page
  notes: List endpoints return 20 records per page by default.
- name: Maximum Page Size
  scope: request
  metric: records
  limit: 80 per page
  notes: The per_page parameter can raise the page size to a maximum of 80 records.
policies:
- name: No Continuous Looping
  description: The usage policy prohibits excessive requests and retrieving records in a continuous loop.
- name: Not For Backups
  description: The API is not intended for backing up records; account backups should use the in-app Excel download feature.
- name: HTTPS Only
  description: All API requests must be made over HTTPS; plain HTTP calls fail.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should honor 429 responses with exponential backoff and stay within the 4 requests/second per-token budget.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com