SilentAPI
Rate Limits
Request limits and how they work
SilentAPI applies rate limits to protect the platform. The limit depends on your balance or action.
API Request Limits
AI model endpoints use an account limit based on your credit balance:
| Balance | Requests per Minute |
|---|---|
| 0 to 100 credits | 1,000 |
| More than 100, up to 10,000 credits | 10,000 |
| More than 10,000, up to 100,000 credits | 100,000 |
| More than 100,000 credits | No account API minute limit |
When you exceed this limit, the API returns 429:
{
"error": "This account has reached its internal safety limit. Please contact contact@silentapi.com if you need this raised."
}Media Operation Limits
Image compression, image conversion, metadata removal, OCR, and moderation share these limits per account. All windows apply at the same time. These limits do not increase with your balance.
| Window | Requests |
|---|---|
| 10 seconds | 20 |
| 1 minute | 300 |
| 1 hour | 5,000 |
The account API minute limit also applies. A media operation limit returns 429 with Please wait before trying again.
Mistral OCR and Mistral Moderation also have shared service limits:
| Service | Requests per second | Requests per minute | Estimated input tokens per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral OCR | 20 | 1,250 | No token limit |
| Mistral Moderation | 8 | 500 | 2,000,000 |
A shared limit returns 429 with The service is busy. Try again shortly. and a Retry-After header.
Status Endpoint Limits
GET /status and GET /status/history allow 60 requests per minute for each address. More requests return 429 with Retry-After: 60. See Overview for the status endpoints.
Account Action Limits
Account changes have separate limits per user. Some action limits are reduced when your balance is below 1 credit. Two-factor management, challenge, and verification limits do not depend on your balance.
Handling Rate Limits
When the API returns 429, retry with backoff:
- Use the wait time in
Retry-Afterwhen it is present - If the header is absent, wait 1 second before retrying
- If still limited, wait 2 seconds
- If still limited, wait 4 seconds
- Continue doubling up to 60 seconds.
- Contact contact@silentapi.com if you need a higher limit.
Streaming requests have the same rate limits as other requests. Each streaming request counts as one request against your per-minute limit. The time that the stream stays open does not change this.