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Rate Limiting

Your API rate limit depends on whether you have made a payment and your current balance.

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Free-Tier Users

If you haven’t recharged yet, a fixed rate limit applies:
TierRPM (Requests per Minute)
Free6 RPM
After your first recharge, your rate limit scales dynamically with your balance:
BalanceRPM Limit
1–1 – 1030
$2060
$200600
$600+1,800 (default max)
Formula: RPM = Balance × 3 (minimum 30, maximum 1,800) Need higher limits? Contact us at support@pipellm.ai.

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Balance Protection

To prevent unexpected overuse, the platform performs a real-time balance check before processing each request. If your balance is insufficient, the request will be rejected with a 402 status code.

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Insufficient Balance Response (402)

{
  "error": {
    "type": "insufficient_balance",
    "code": "balance_exceeded",
    "message": "Insufficient balance. Please recharge to continue."
  }
}

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Rate Limit Response (429)

{
  "error": {
    "type": "rate_limit_error",
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded",
    "message": "Request rate limit exceeded. Please slow down."
  }
}

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Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes rate limit information:
HeaderDescription
x-ratelimit-limit-requestsYour current RPM limit
x-ratelimit-remaining-requestsRemaining requests in this window
x-ratelimit-reset-requestsTime until the window resets