Rate Limits

Routeway applies rate limits to ensure fair resource allocation and service stability. Rate limit policies depend on whether you are using free models or Pay-As-You-Go models.

Rate Limit Tiers

1. Free Models (Model IDs ending in `:free`)

Free models (e.g., deepseek-r1:free) are subject to the following rate limits:

5 Requests Per Minute (RPM)
200 Requests Per Day (RPD)

Once exceeded, requests to free models will return a 429 status code.

2. Pay-As-You-Go Models

For Pay-As-You-Go models (all model IDs without the :free suffix), Routeway does not enforce API-level rate limits.

To protect service availability and prevent abuse, standard rate limits and DDoS protection are active at the network edge.

Rate Limit Response Schema

When you exceed a rate limit, the API returns an HTTP 429 Too Many Requests status code with the following JSON payload:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "API key per-minute rate limit exceeded (60 RPM).",
    "type": "rate_limit_error",
    "param": null,
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded",
    "status_code": 429,
    "id": "b3fca8a1",
    "docs": "https://docs.routeway.ai",
    "support": "https://discord.gg/RjX2CpdPpd"
  }
}

Field	Description
`message`	Human-readable explanation of which limit was hit.
`type`	Always `rate_limit_error`.
`code`	Machine-readable error code (`rate_limit_exceeded`).
`status_code`	HTTP status code (`429`).
`id`	Unique trace/request identifier for debugging.
`docs`	Link to this documentation.
`support`	Link to our Discord support server.

Rate Limit Headers

Rate-limited responses include headers to help you manage retry timing.

All Rate-Limited Responses

Header	Description
`Retry-After`	Seconds the client must wait before making another request.

Minute-based Limits

Header	Description
`X-RateLimit-Limit-Minute`	Total requests allowed per minute window.
`X-RateLimit-Remaining-Minute`	Remaining requests in the current minute window.
`X-RateLimit-Reset-Minute`	Seconds until the minute window resets.

Day-based Limits

Header	Description
`X-RateLimit-Limit-Day`	Total requests allowed per day.
`X-RateLimit-Remaining-Day`	Remaining requests in the current day.
`X-RateLimit-Reset-Day`	Seconds until the daily window resets (UTC midnight).

Best Practices: Handling 429 Errors

We recommend implementing client-side retry logic using exponential backoff with jitter to handle rate limits gracefully.

Node.js
Python

async function fetchWithRetry(fn, retries = 5, delay = 1000) {
  try {
    return await fn();
  } catch (error) {
    if (error.status === 429 && retries > 0) {
      // Use Retry-After header if available, otherwise exponential backoff
      const retryAfter = error.headers?.get('Retry-After');
      const waitMs = retryAfter
        ? parseInt(retryAfter, 10) * 1000
        : delay * 2 + Math.random() * 200;

      console.warn(`Rate limited. Retrying in ${Math.round(waitMs)}ms...`);
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, waitMs));
      return fetchWithRetry(fn, retries - 1, delay * 2);
    }
    throw error;
  }
}

import time
import random

def call_with_retry(api_func, retries=5, delay=1.0):
    for attempt in range(retries):
        try:
            return api_func()
        except Exception as e:
            if hasattr(e, 'status_code') and e.status_code == 429 and attempt < retries - 1:
                # Use Retry-After header if available, otherwise exponential backoff
                retry_after = getattr(e, 'headers', {}).get('Retry-After')
                if retry_after:
                    sleep_time = int(retry_after)
                else:
                    jitter = random.uniform(0, 0.2)
                    sleep_time = (delay * (2 ** attempt)) + jitter

                print(f"Rate limited. Retrying in {sleep_time:.2f}s...")
                time.sleep(sleep_time)
            else:
                raise e

Get Started

Platform Details

Help & Resources

Core Concepts

Account Management

Guides

Rate Limit Tiers

1. Free Models (Model IDs ending in `:free`)

2. Pay-As-You-Go Models

Rate Limit Response Schema

Rate Limit Headers

All Rate-Limited Responses

Minute-based Limits

Day-based Limits

Best Practices: Handling 429 Errors

​Rate Limit Tiers

​1. Free Models (Model IDs ending in :free)

​2. Pay-As-You-Go Models

​Rate Limit Response Schema

​Rate Limit Headers

​All Rate-Limited Responses

​Minute-based Limits

​Day-based Limits

​Best Practices: Handling 429 Errors

Rate Limit Tiers

1. Free Models (Model IDs ending in `:free`)

2. Pay-As-You-Go Models

Rate Limit Response Schema

Rate Limit Headers

All Rate-Limited Responses

Minute-based Limits

Day-based Limits

Best Practices: Handling 429 Errors