I built a cross-API rate limit reference because I was tired of guessing

Api-Ceilings — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 07:34:12 +0000

I kept hitting 429s on APIs I use daily. Every time, I'd search "Stripe rate limit" or "OpenAI rate limit" and land on a docs page that told me about one API, in one tier, with no error shape and no retry logic.

So I started writing down what I actually needed:

The RPM and TPM by usage tier
The exact JSON the 429 returns
Retry logic that actually reads the Retry-After header
One escape hatch if I'm stuck

The first page covers OpenAI's 2026 limits — Build / Launch / Grow tiers, the difference between slow_down (429) and server_is_overloaded (503), and a Python retry wrapper that respects Retry-After instead of blindly backing off. Every number is dated.

It's here if it's useful: https://api-ceilings.github.io/theceiling/

No signup. No tracking. Just the numbers and the sources. I'll be adding more APIs one at a time — if there's a specific API whose limits you keep hitting, tell me and I'll prioritize it.

DEV Community: Api-Ceilings

I built a cross-API rate limit reference because I was tired of guessing