Usage & Rate Limits

ShipStation limits certain API usage to maximize stability and performance. Accounts that send too many requests in quick succession will receive a 429 Too Many Requests error response.

In addition, third-party APIs (such as carriers, insurance providers, or marketplaces) may impose their own rate limits. So if you get a rate limit error, be sure to check the error_source field to determine whether it's from ShipStation or from a third party.

Rate Limit

By default, ShipStation allows you to send up to 200 requests per minute. If you need a higher limit, please email our support team at apisupport@shipstation.com with the details of what you need. We may be able to increase your rate limit or we may be able to suggest alternative ways to achieve your goals with fewer or less-frequent requests.

Monitor Request Polling

ShipStation implements usage limits to ensure consistent performance and uptimes. When testing or planning your use of ShipStation, be sure to monitor the number of requests you are making. Effectively monitoring your requests will also help avoid unnecessary charges for using ShipStation.

Handling Limits Gracefully

Requests exceeding the rate limit will receive a 429 Too Many Requests error response. The response will also include a Retry-After header that specifies the number of seconds to wait until your next request can be processed. With this information you can implement retry logic as a way to gracefully handle rate limits.

Keep in mind that rate limits apply to all requests, so it would be wise to implement any retry logic at a global level. Otherwise, many requests sent around the same time will all be rate-limited and will all retry at the same time, which will cause many of them to be rate limited again.

Bulk Operations

The most common cause of rate limit errors is bulk processing, such as creating hundreds of labels or calculating rates for hundreds of shipments at the same time. Fortunately, ShipStation provides bulk API endpoints for these use cases, which allow you to perform hundreds or thousands of operations with a single request.

Learn more about bulk operations with the following:

• Batch label creation
• Calculate rates for multiple shipments

Automated Testing

If you have automated tests for your code and those tests make ShipStation API calls, then you may sporadically experience test failure due to rate limits.

Instead, we recommend building your ShipStation integration in such a way that you can substitute a mock for testing purposes. Using a mock gives you more reliable behavior and allows you to test for various error conditions as well as successful responses. Mocks can also make your tests faster since there won't be any network latency (unless you specifically simulate latency in the mock).