Rate limits

Limits are per-route and per-IP. Most read endpoints are 60 requests per minute. Heavier endpoints (audio analysis, image generation, search) sit lower, and the exact number is listed on each endpoint page.

Response headers

Every successful response includes the current state of the limit:

cURL

X-RateLimit-Limit: 60
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 57
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1717000000

Reset is a Unix timestamp in seconds, telling you when the bucket refills.

What happens when you exceed a limit

The API returns 429 with a Retry-After header in seconds:

cURL

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 38

Back off until the timer expires, then resume. There is no penalty beyond the wait.

Cache aggressively

A surprising amount of traffic to this API is the same query repeated. Track and artist info is cached server-side forever, but a client-side cache on top still saves you round trips and rate-limit budget.

Need higher limits?

If your use case legitimately needs more headroom (a music client, a radio station, a research project), get in touch via the email on synkradio.co.uk and we will lift the limit on your IP range.