Rate Limits

To ensure stability and fair use of the platform, the Pinger API enforces rate limits on all incoming requests. These limits are determined by your workspace's current subscription plan.

Plan Allowances

API access is measured in requests per month and active API keys:

• Free Plan: 500 API calls / month • 1 active API key • 5 monitors max • 3-min (180s) min interval • Basic monitors only (Website, REST API, Supabase).
• Pro Plan: 50,000 API calls / month • 10 active API keys • 50 monitors max • 1-min (60s) min interval • Advanced monitors included (TCP, DNS, SSL).
• Business Plan: Unlimited API calls • Unlimited API keys • 250 monitors max • 1-min (60s) min interval • All monitor types.
• Enterprise Plan: Unlimited API calls • Unlimited API keys • 1,000+ monitors max • 30-sec (30s) min interval • All monitor types • Custom SLA.

Your monthly API quota resets automatically on a rolling 30-day billing cycle. If you hit your quota, you will need to wait for the reset or upgrade your plan.

Rate Limit Response Headers

Every response from the REST API includes standard rate limit headers to help you track your quota in real time:

• X-RateLimit-Limit — The total requests allowed in your billing cycle (e.g. 500, 50000, or Unlimited).
• X-RateLimit-Remaining — The number of requests remaining in your current cycle.
• X-RateLimit-Plan — Your current workspace subscription plan tier.

Handling Rate Limits

If your workspace exceeds its monthly API quota, the API will respond with a 429 Too Many Requests HTTP status code along with a Retry-After header:

{
  "error": "Too Many Requests",
  "message": "API Rate Limit Exceeded: Monthly quota of 500 requests exhausted for the Free plan. Upgrade your plan at /dashboard/billing to increase your quota.",
  "limit": 500,
  "remaining": 0,
  "plan": "Free"
}

Plan Tier Constraints on Monitors API

When creating or updating monitors via POST /api/v1/monitors or PATCH /api/v1/monitors/:id:

• Max Monitors (402 Payment Required): Exceeding your plan's monitor allowance (5 on Free, 50 on Pro, 250 on Business, 1000 on Enterprise) returns HTTP 402.
• Advanced Monitor Types (402 Payment Required): Protocols like tcp, dns, and ssl are advanced features requiring Pro or higher.
• Minimum Check Interval (400 Bad Request): The Free plan has a minimum check interval of 180s (3 minutes). Pro and Business support down to 60s (1 minute). Enterprise supports down to 30s.

Heartbeat Rate Limits

Note that Heartbeat Monitors have a separate, concurrency-based rate limit to prevent accidental infinite-loops from hitting the endpoint. The heartbeat endpoint (/api/heartbeat/:secret) guarantees a minimum 1-second gap between pings. If a ping arrives sooner than 1 second after the last one, it is rejected with a 429. This prevents accidental DDoS of your own monitors.

Best Practices

To avoid hitting your API limits prematurely, consider the following:

• Cache responses on your end if you are frequently querying the GET /api/v1/monitors endpoint.
• Rely on Webhooks for state-change alerts rather than polling the API.
• Keep your Heartbeat intervals to reasonable durations (e.g. 1 minute or higher).