Handling Rate Limits

The GoCardless API has rate limits depending on the endpoint you are using. With most endpoints you shouldn't run into problems since these limits are usually high enough for most uses.

The Accounts endpoint has very tight limitations though. It currently has a limit of 10 requests a day per access scope. That means 10 requests to each of the details, balances and transactions endpoints. In the future this limit will be lowered to 4 per day (no date on this as of now).

Unsuccessful requests to the API will count towards the general rate limits but not the more stringent limits of the Accounts endpoint. Only successful requests will count towards those.

Checking API rate limits

You can check the rate limits as well as remaining requests with each request you make to the API. The property NordigenApiResponse.RateLimits will hold the returned information about the current API limits.

You can check the limits as follows:

// Execute the request you want to make:
var bankAccountDetailsResponse = await client.AccountsEndpoint.GetAccountDetails(accountId);

Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RequestLimit);
Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RemainingRequests);
Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RemainingSecondsInTimeWindow);
Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RequestLimitAccountsEndpoint);
Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RemainingRequestsAccountsEndpoint);
Console.WriteLine(bankAccountDetailsResponse.RateLimits.RemainingSecondsInTimeWindowAccountsEndpoint);

It's important to handle these limits so your applications user experience isn't degraded. Refreshing data from bank accounts should be handled consciously, so you don't use up all your requests in a short time frame and aren't able to update for the rest of the day.

If you are a company with a contract with GoCardless you can probably get in contact with their team about increasing these limits.