> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbitsearch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rate limits

> Understand the token-bucket limits for v3 Search, Enrich, status polling, and profile reads.

Orbit applies rate limits per API key. Limits use token buckets: short bursts are allowed up to the bucket capacity, and capacity refills continuously.

## Default limits

| Operation                                |        Refill rate | Burst capacity |
| ---------------------------------------- | -----------------: | -------------: |
| Start a standard Search                  | 25 requests/second |            100 |
| Start candidate discovery or Enrich work |  5 requests/second |             25 |
| Get Search status                        | 25 requests/second |            150 |
| Get Enrich status                        | 25 requests/second |            150 |
| Read an enriched profile                 | 50 requests/second |            250 |

These are platform defaults, not a throughput guarantee. Account-specific configuration may differ, and one Search can use more than one bucket when it starts additional discovery or profile work.

## Rate-limit responses

When a bucket is empty, Orbit returns `429 Too Many Requests`, the error code `developer_api_key_rate_limited`, and a `Retry-After` header measured in seconds.

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "status": "failed",
  "error": {
    "code": "developer_api_key_rate_limited",
    "message": "Developer API key rate limit exceeded. Please retry later."
  }
}
```

Honor `Retry-After` before retrying. Add exponential backoff and jitter when repeated retries are possible.

```javascript theme={"dark"}
const retryAfter = Number(response.headers.get("retry-after") ?? "1");
await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, retryAfter * 1000));
```

<Tip>
  Poll only while an operation is running. Stop immediately on a terminal status to conserve status capacity.
</Tip>

## Credits

v3 Search and Enrich do not consume API credits. Rate limits still protect platform capacity, so a free request can still return `429`.