Free-answer limit

A few answers are free even though they are answers:

• profile videos, followers or following of an account that does not exist (404);
• following of an account that hides whom it follows (200, following_hidden: true);
• a user_id we have not indexed yet (400 unsupported_parameter);
• a user_id whose handle has changed since we indexed it (400 unsupported_parameter).

Each API key gets 100 free answers per 10 minutes, in a sliding window. Past that, an answer that would have been free becomes 429 rate_limited with Retry-After. That is free too.

Charged answers are never limited. The limit only stops a key from probing made-up handles at no cost.

If you hit itCopy Anchor Link

• Check the handles you send. A list with many dead or mistyped handles hits this limit first.
• Prefer handle over user_id. A user_id works only for accounts in our index.
• Wait Retry-After seconds and continue.