Getting HTTP 429: Too Many Requests

[Pawel-Roman]

Hi,

We're getting HTTP 429: Too Many Requests when making calls to the Web API. Indeed, we made a significant number of API calls in a short period of time when testing the integration.

We'd like to know

1) What's the quota? The documentation only says: "The application hit the rate limiting quota for the client or for the viewer." 

2) We're integrating our own app and our server side is going to pull data on behalf of all users (potentially there may be thousands). All API calls are going to be from our server but access_token is going to be per-user. How does that affect quota? Is the limit per user or is it global? 

[Gordon-C]

Hi @Pawel-Roman 

I moved your post to the Web API forums.  The rate limit is 150 API calls per user per hour.  And, the rate limit resets at the top of the hour.   We have designed the Web APIs so developers rarely hit the rate limit unless they are polling our data services.   This sounds like what you're doing.  Our Web APIs were not designed to be polled or return data in real-time. 

Instead, I recommend you use Subscriptions.  The Subscription API allows your application be notified when a user syncs their device with the Fitbit mobile application.   The sync automatically occurs every 15 minutes.  Otherwise, the sync occurs once the user opens the application.  Again, the rate limit is per user.   Even if you pulled data every 15 minutes, you likely won't hit the rate limit over the course of the hour.

Gordon