Throttling
As discussed in the Authentication and Authorization Overview, every request for data must have a valid access token in its headers.
A throttling system, which is designed to have very low overhead, counts the number of requests made with the token in the throttling time period and compares this with the allowed number of requests.
If an access token is throttled, requests using it are denied access until a full throttling period passes, after which it can begin accessing the API again with zero throttling count.
The period for aggregating usage and the period which must elapse before the quota can be used again are currently the same, and are set to five minutes. InsideView may unbundle and/or adjust these periods to make additional protection of its systems and to help protect customers from over-utilization of their API quotas.
If an access token is throttled, it locks out the other tokens issued for the same account. This policy may be relaxed in the future.
Developers should be aware of and respond correctly to HTTP code 429 that signals that a throttling limit has been reached.
Quota Monitoring
Quotas are somewhat similar to throttling although they apply to longer time periods, typically one month. The allowed quota can vary by endpoint. For example, the quota for an account for the enrich endpoint will typically be set lower than the social version of the contacts endpoint.
Quotas are aggregated across all access tokens associated with an account.
Consult your API License Agreement or associated exhibits to find your account-specific quota limits.
InsideView has developed an alert system for the approach to quota limits to help customers avoid exceedances. Direct alerts to customers are not available. Instead, these are monitored internally and the customer will be contacted by a technical support person or by a customer account success manager to address approach to and exceedance of quota limits.
InsideView API includes an administrative endpoint that allows you to retrieve usage details. The retrieved information includes the quota associated with your API key as well as the consumption for the current period. Where, the period is either monthly or yearly depending on your InsideView API contract, and the period start date is calculated from the contract start date.
Please see the endpoint documentation for more details.