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Overview

Electron Hub implements rate limiting to ensure fair usage and maintain service quality for all users. Rate limits are measured in Requests Per Minute (RPM) and vary by subscription plan.
You can check your current rate limits and usage anytime in the API Keys section of your dashboard.

Rate Limit Tiers

How Rate Limiting Works

Request Counting

  • Each API call counts as one request regardless of model or complexity
  • Both successful and failed requests count toward your limit
  • Streaming requests count as a single request when initiated

Time Windows

  • Rate limits are calculated using a sliding window of 60 seconds
  • If you exceed your limit, you’ll receive a 429 error
  • The limit resets continuously, not at fixed intervals
  • Important: When you exceed your rate limit, there’s a 3-minute cooldown period before you can make requests again
Cooldown Period: If you exceed your rate limit, you must wait 3 minutes (180 seconds) before making any new requests. This cooldown is enforced even if your normal rate limit window would have reset.

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes headers showing your current status:

Handling Rate Limits

Error Responses

When you encounter rate limits, you’ll receive different error codes depending on the type of limit: Rate Limit Exceeded (429)
IP Address Limit (403)
Insufficient Balance (402)
Proxy Key Limit Exceeded (402)

Coding Plan (DevPass) Keys

ek-dev- keys have no RPM limit. They allow a set number of parallel requests instead (2 on Lite, 5 on Turbo), plus daily/weekly fair-use headroom and optional low-interactivity / pause controls — see Coding Plan → Fair Use and Low-interactivity mode.

Special Model Limits

Some models have additional daily limits beyond the standard rate limits:

Google Models (Daily Limits)

Google experimental/preview/image models have daily usage limits that reset at 21:00 UTC:
Experimental/Preview/Image models include models with -exp, -preview, or -image in their names, such as:
  • gemini-1.5-flash-exp
  • gemini-2.0-flash-exp
  • gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp-1219
  • gemini-2.5-flash-preview-05-20
  • gemini-2.5-pro-preview-05-06
  • gemini-2.5-flash-image
  • gemini-3-pro-image-preview
Regular Google models (like gemini-1.5-flash, gemini-1.5-pro, gemma-3-27b-it) are not subject to these daily limits.

Anthropic Models (Daily + Monthly Limits)

Anthropic (Claude) models have two layers of rate limiting:

Daily Request Limits

  • Reset Time: 21:00 UTC daily
  • Applies to: All Claude model requests (via /chat/completions, /messages, or /responses)

Monthly Token Limits

In addition to daily request limits, Anthropic models have a monthly token budget that caps total input + output tokens:
  • Reset Time: 21:00 UTC on the 1st of each month
  • Applies to: Combined input + output tokens across all Claude models
Even if you haven’t hit your daily request limit, you can still be blocked if your monthly token budget is exhausted. Monitor both limits in your dashboard.

OpenAI Models (Monthly Token Limits)

OpenAI models have a monthly token budget that caps total input + output tokens. No separate daily request limit applies.
  • Reset Time: 21:00 UTC on the 1st of each month
  • Applies to: Combined input + output tokens across all OpenAI models

Midjourney Models (Daily Limits)

Midjourney image generation has a separate daily limit:
  • Daily Limit: 50 requests per day
  • Reset Time: 21:00 UTC
  • Applies to: All Midjourney image generation endpoints

Implementing Retry Logic

Request Queuing

For applications with variable load, implement a request queue:

Optimization Strategies

1. Batch Processing

Group multiple operations when possible:

2. Efficient Model Selection

Choose the right model for your task:
  • GPT-3.5-turbo: Fast and cost-effective for simple tasks
  • GPT-4o: Best for complex reasoning and analysis
  • Claude-3-haiku: Fastest for quick responses
  • Claude-3-5-sonnet: Balanced performance and capability

3. Request Optimization

Optimize your requests to reduce unnecessary calls:

4. Caching Results

Cache responses for repeated queries:

Monitoring Usage

Check Current Usage

Monitor your API usage programmatically:

Dashboard Monitoring

Use the dashboard to:
  • View real-time usage statistics
  • Set up usage alerts
  • Monitor trends over time
  • Identify peak usage periods

Upgrading Your Plan

When to Upgrade

Consider upgrading when you:
  • Consistently hit rate limits
  • Need higher throughput for production
  • Want to reduce latency from queuing
  • Require dedicated support

How to Upgrade

  1. Visit your dashboard
  2. Go to “Billing”
  3. Select your desired plan
  4. Complete the upgrade process
  5. New limits take effect immediately

Best Practices

Design your application to handle rate limits gracefully:
  • Show loading states during retries
  • Provide fallback responses when possible
  • Queue non-urgent requests for later processing
  • Inform users about temporary delays
Set up monitoring for rate limit issues:
  • Track 429 error rates
  • Alert when approaching limits
  • Monitor request patterns
  • Analyze peak usage times
Structure your requests efficiently:
  • Batch similar operations
  • Use appropriate models for tasks
  • Cache common responses
  • Implement smart retry logic
Prepare for scaling:
  • Start with higher limits before launch
  • Monitor usage trends
  • Have upgrade path ready
  • Consider enterprise plans for large scale

Next Steps

Error Handling

Learn how to handle and debug API errors effectively

Best Practices

Discover advanced optimization techniques