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: UserGems
providerId: usergems
generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
source: https://help.usergems.com/article/using-the-usergems-api
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-08-13'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Salesforce
description: |
  UserGems publishes one hard API rate limit — 20 requests per second, one record
  per request — in the Help Center article "Using the UserGems API". It is not in
  the Developer Hub reference, which lists only the 429 status code. Because
  there is no bulk endpoint, that limit is also the ceiling on ingestion
  throughput: 20 records/second is the maximum rate at which any first-party
  system can push contacts or accounts into UserGems.

  Separately, UserGems enforces a downstream Salesforce-side quota of 20,000 API
  calls per Salesforce instance per 24-hour rolling window across all UserGems
  products, with sync continuing the following day if reached. Custom caps above
  or below 20K are negotiable through a Customer Success Manager. Maximum
  platform throughput is approximately 1,000 job changes per day per customer.

  The runtime signal is the gap: UserGems documents no X-RateLimit-*/RateLimit-*
  response headers and no Retry-After, so a client that hits 429 has no published
  way to learn its remaining budget or its reset time and must back off blindly.
sources:
  - https://help.usergems.com/article/using-the-usergems-api
  - https://help.usergems.com/article/how-many-salesforce-api-calls-does-usergems-use
  - https://app.usergems.com/api/documentation
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
headers:
  documented: false
  rate_limit_headers: []
  retry_after: false
  note: >-
    Neither the Developer Hub nor the Help Center documents any rate-limit
    response header. Not observable anonymously either — every unauthenticated
    call to api.usergems.com 302s to /404 before reaching the API.
algorithm: rolling-window
limits:
  - scope: api-key
    surface: https://api.usergems.com/v1
    window: 1s
    requests: 20
    burst: null
    description: |
      Published API rate limit: 20 requests per second. One record per request —
      there is no bulk endpoint — so this doubles as the ingestion throughput
      ceiling. Applies to the single company-wide X-Api-Key; there is no
      per-integration key, so all of a customer's systems share this budget.
    source: https://help.usergems.com/article/using-the-usergems-api
  - scope: salesforce-instance
    window: 24h
    requests: 20000
    description: |
      Default Salesforce API call cap across all UserGems products per
      Salesforce instance per 24-hour rolling window.
  - scope: contact-tracking
    metric: salesforce-api-calls-per-job-change
    requests: 10
    range: '10-15'
    description: |
      Job-change batch consumption: typically 10-15 Salesforce API calls per
      individual job change delivered.
  - scope: account-tracking
    metric: salesforce-api-calls-per-contact
    requests: 1
    description: |
      Key Missing Contacts (account tracking): approximately 1 Salesforce API
      call per lead or contact delivered.
  - scope: throughput
    metric: job-changes-per-day
    requests: 1000
    description: Approximate maximum throughput of job changes per customer per day.
customCaps:
  available: true
  channel: Customer Success Manager
  notes: |
    Customers can request bespoke caps above or below the 20K Salesforce default
    by contacting their CSM. The 20 req/s API limit is not documented as
    negotiable.
limit_count: 5