Rate limits
Authenticated per-key limits, pre-authentication safeguards, backoff headers, and the AI-search daily ceiling.
Authenticated requests are limited per API key, over a trailing 60 seconds. The limit is on requests, not on credits — the two ceilings are independent and you meet whichever you reach first.
The gate also runs before authentication, so a 401 still consumes its applicable bucket. A request with no credential to an authenticated route uses a 10-per-minute source-IP bucket. An unknown or otherwise unusable Boardwalk-shaped key uses its own 10-per-minute credential-digest bucket. Neither case consumes a valid key's allowance.
| Caller | Requests per minute |
|---|---|
| Any paid plan | 60 |
| Free-trial key | 10 |
| Unauthenticated health check (per source IP) | 120 |
| Missing credential (per source IP) | 10 |
| Unknown/unusable Boardwalk key (per credential digest) | 10 |
The headers
| Header | On | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
X-RateLimit-Limit | Every response | Your ceiling for the window. |
X-RateLimit-Remaining | Every response | What is left in it. |
X-RateLimit-Reset | Every response | When the window rolls. |
Retry-After | 429 only | Seconds to wait. |
A well-behaved client reads X-RateLimit-Remaining and paces itself, and never sees a 429. If you do get one, back off for Retry-After seconds — do not retry immediately, and do not fan out.
Separate ceilings worth knowing about
| Ceiling | What it bounds |
|---|---|
| Page size | Records per search page. |
| Candidate scan | How many candidates one request will consider — see pagination. |
| AI-search candidates reviewed | How much reading one AI search will do. |
| AI-search confirmed matches | The largest result set one AI search can return. |
| Active alerts per account | How many standing searches you can hold at once. |
| Manual alert runs per day | How often you can trigger a run by hand, per alert. |
Ready to make a call?
A free Boardwalk trial includes API access, 50 record-export credits (search, CSV, MCP), and 5 Find Contact Info lookups. Counting, taxonomy, location lookups and the analytics plane cost nothing, so you can evaluate the data before you spend a credit.