Overview

Each provider supported by Unipile (LinkedIn, Gmail, WhatsApp, etc.) applies its own rate limits to manage traffic and prevent abuse. If those limits are exceeded, the provider may temporarily block the account, flag it as suspicious, or restrict access — which can lead to degraded service or disconnections.

To avoid this and keep your integrations stable, Unipile enforces its own rate limiting at the Methods API level. Requests that exceed the allowed threshold are rejected by Unipile before they are sent to the provider. This:

• Protects your accounts from being throttled or banned by providers
• Keeps behavior consistent when calling external APIs
• Reduces the risk of errors caused by provider-side limits

For provider-specific quotas and recommendations, see Limits and Restrictions.

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Rate limit levels

Unipile can apply up to three levels of rate limiting at the same time. They help prevent abuse and keep usage within each provider’s constraints:

Limits are per account (linked provider account). Hitting a limit for one account does not affect other accounts.

Cached responses do not count toward rate limits. Requests served from cache are not forwarded to the provider. See Manage Cache for details.

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When you exceed the limits

API response

When you exceed Unipile’s configured rate limits, the API returns:

• HTTP status: 429 Too Many Requests
• Error type: api/too_many_requests

When the provider’s rate limiter is hit (e.g. stricter or different window), you get:

• HTTP status: 429 Too Many Requests
• Error type: provider/too_many_requests

The response body follows the standard error shape (RFC 7807), including type, title, detail, and req_id.

How to handle 429 errors

1. Identify the source
   Use the type field: api/too_many_requests vs provider/too_many_requests.

2. Back off and retry
   Implement retry logic with backoff (e.g. exponential). Avoid immediate retries.

3. Respect limits
   If you often hit api/too_many_requests, consider:

   • Using caching for GET requests so fewer calls hit the provider
   • Spreading requests over time
   • Checking your Rate Limits configuration in the Dashboard

4. Provider limits
   For provider/too_many_requests, refer to Limits and Restrictions and align your usage with the provider’s quotas.

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Configuring rate limits

Rate limits are configurable in the Unipile Dashboard under Rate Limits.

• Default: Unipile applies a recommended configuration based on each provider’s documented limits.
• Customization: You can change these values to match your usage. You can also revert to the default at any time.
• Updates: We track provider rate limit changes and update our recommended defaults so your integration stays aligned with upstream constraints.

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Related topics

• Manage Cache — Reduce provider calls and rate limit hits by using cached GET responses
• Error responses — Full list of error types and how to handle them
• Limits and Restrictions — Provider-specific quotas and best practices