Pinterest API and Rate Limiting

Question

I have a question about the Pinterest API and it's rate limiting. On Pinterest's Site it states:

Each app (with a unique app ID) is allowed 1000 calls per endpoint per hour for each unique user token. The 60-minute window is a sliding window based on when you make your first request. If you hit your rate limit, you’ll only have to wait a max of 1 hour to get a few more requests.

I've never worked with Pinterest API, but based on what that says, I could authenticate a user and then that user is allowed up to 1000 calls to the API per 1 hour - correct?

I've gotten many requests from a community of users on Facebook to build a web based application utilizing the API. But in order for me to do so, I have to be able to balance the API calls some. So clarifications as to the rate limits for Pinterest would help.

Answer 1

I wanted to provide an update to this question in relation to V3 of the Pinterest API. According to the documentation here (https://developers.pinterest.com/docs/redoc/pinner_app/#section/Client-Authorization/Make-API-requests), the rate limit varies depending on the endpoint you are using and possibly the type of access you have been given.

I have pasted the pertinent documentation below:

Ads Rate Limits The Ads endpoints (e.g /ads/v3/* listed under ENDPOINTS - ADS(V3)) adhere to any one of 4 Rate Limit categories.

• READ - 500 queries per second. • READ HIGH - 1000 queries per minute. • WRITE - 400 queries per minute. • METRICS - 1000 queries per minute.

You can find this info by viewing an Ads endpoint spec. For example, Get delivery metrics' definitions has a rate limit category of READ.

Note: API calls to the same rate limit category are accumulative even if those calls are spread across different endpoints.

Ads API response header You can inspect the response header to determine the limit and remaining number of calls.

• x-userendpoint-ratelimit-limit - The rate limit • x-userendpoint-ratelimit-remaining - The remaining number of calls • x-userendpoint-ratelimit-reset-seconds - The amount of seconds until remaining value gets reset.

For example, the latest response header will denote a limit of 1000, remaining of 997, and reset-seconds of 40 if you make 3 API calls to any endpoint with a READ HIGH category in the last 20 seconds.

Organic Rate Limits The Organic endpoints (e.g /v3/* listed under ENDPOINTS - ORGANIC(V3)) adhere to a more general rate limit.

Organic API response header You can inspect the response header to determine the limit and remaining number of calls.

• x-userendpoint-ratelimit-limit - The rate limit • x-userendpoint-ratelimit-remaining - The remaining number of calls you have left in a 60-minute window.

For example, the latest response header will denote a limit of 100000 and remaining of 99997 if you make 3 API calls to any Organic endpoint in the last 60 minutes.

Note: Your rate limit may vary depending on the type of integration you currently have. We recommend you inspect the response header for the organic endpoint calls to determine which rate limit applies to your App.

Exceeding rate limits If you exceed your rate limit, you’ll get a 429: Too many requests error code.

Answer 2

I have develop an app with Pinterest and constantly maintaining that app. As the doc says, for any giving app you should be able to make 1000 calls (per endpoint) (per hour). Pinterest has many different endpoints so it you should be able to make 1000 calls for each different endpoint per hour, not just 1000 calls.

you can see the many different endpoints here Pinterest API Tool

For each distinct user you can, within 1 hour:

1. make 1000 pins to endpoint > /v1/pins/
2. make another 1000 calls to /v1/boards/ to create boards
3. and yet another 1000 calls to /v1/me/following/boards// to unfollow up to 1000 followers

and so on...

Joy Breaker Follow: At first my app works just as I described above, then out of the blue the app seems to be getting 1000 calls total for all endpoint. And every time I contact their support, some I get an automated response that copy the exact text you reference in your question from the doc. So I'm not sure if Pinterest understand their own doc or it's poor programming skills or bugs in their api So brace for impact!