Here is an updated Help Center article that includes information on distributing rate limits across your user base:

API Best Practices: Avoiding Rate Limits and Optimizing Usage

To ensure a smooth integration experience and avoid disruptions, it's important to follow best practices when using our API. Here are some tips to help you stay within rate limits and optimize your API usage:

1. Understand Rate Limits: Familiarize yourself with our API documentation to understand the rate limits for each endpoint. We have limits in place to ensure fair usage and prevent abuse. Exceeding these limits may result in throttling or temporary blocking of your API access.
2. Implement Exponential Backoff: If you receive a rate limit error, implement an exponential backoff strategy. This means gradually increasing the time between retries after each failed attempt. For example, wait 1 second before the first retry, then 2 seconds, 4 seconds, and so on. This helps prevent overwhelming our servers with too many requests in a short period.
3. Cache API Responses: Whenever possible, cache the API responses on your end to avoid making repetitive requests for the same data. This not only reduces the number of API calls you make but also improves the performance of your application by providing faster response times.
4. Use Pagination: When dealing with large datasets, use pagination to retrieve data in smaller chunks instead of trying to fetch everything in a single request. Our API supports pagination for most endpoints, allowing you to specify the page size and number. This helps you manage the amount of data transferred in each request and prevents hitting rate limits.
5. Monitor API Usage: Regularly monitor your API usage and metrics to identify any unusual spikes or patterns. You can use our API Dashboard to view your usage statistics, including the number of calls made, average response times, and error rates. Set up alerts to notify you when you're approaching rate limits or if there's a sudden increase in errors.
6. Use Webhooks: Instead of constantly polling our API for updates or changes, consider using webhooks. Webhooks allow us to send real-time notifications to your designated URL when specific events occur. This reduces the need for frequent API calls and helps you stay within rate limits while still receiving timely updates.
7. Optimize Your Code: Review your code to identify any inefficiencies or unnecessary API calls. Optimize your code to make fewer requests and retrieve only the data you need. Avoid making multiple API calls in parallel when a single request can suffice.
8. Distribute Rate Limits: If you have a large user base accessing our API through your application, consider implementing strategies to distribute the rate limit across your users. This can include:
   • Assigning API keys to individual users or user groups to track and control their usage separately.
   • Implementing your own rate limiting and throttling mechanisms within your application to prevent a single user from consuming the entire allocated quota.
   • Balancing API requests across different servers or instances of your application to spread the load.
   By distributing the rate limit effectively, you can ensure that all your users have fair access to the API and prevent a small subset of users from overwhelming the allocated quota.

By following these best practices and implementing strategies to distribute rate limits, you can effectively manage your API usage, avoid exceeding limits, and ensure a smooth integration with our platform. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please refer to our API documentation or reach out to our support team.