Guides
Rate limits & fair use
Mock APIs is a shared, free service. Rate limits keep it responsive for everyone learning and testing with it.
Default limits
Limits are applied per client IP address over a rolling 60-second window. Operators can configure different values, so always read the headers.
| Scope | Default limit |
|---|---|
All /api/v1 requests | 100 requests / 60 s |
Requests using ?delay or /test/delay | 20 requests / 60 s (in addition) |
/health, /ready, /openapi.json | Not rate limited |
Rate-limit headers
Every API response tells you where you stand:
Response headers
RateLimit-Policy: 100;w=60
RateLimit-Limit: 100
RateLimit-Remaining: 97
RateLimit-Reset: 42RateLimit-Reset is the number of seconds until the window resets. When you exceed the limit you get 429 RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED with a Retry-After header. Wait that many seconds before retrying.
Fair use
- Use the API for learning, demos, prototypes, and functional tests.
- Do not run load tests, benchmarks, or scrapers against the public instance. Run your own copy instead (it is open source and ships with Docker files).
- Cache responses in your app where it makes sense; the data is deterministic.
- Never send real personal data, passwords, or secrets. The echo endpoint redacts common secrets, but the safest secret is the one you never send.
No uptime guarantee
The public instance is provided as-is, without guaranteed availability or unlimited capacity, and hosting arrangements may change. For CI pipelines that must be reliable, run Mock APIs locally or in your own infrastructure.