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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.backquant.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Rate limits are enforced per API key based on your subscription tier. Exceeding your limit returns a 429 response with the RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED error code and a Retry-After header.

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Limits by tier

TierRequests per minuteAnnual savings
Monthly60—
Yearly120~15% off monthly × 12
EnterpriseUnlimitedCustom
Get or upgrade your key at backquant.com/api-access.

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Rate limit headers

Every response — success or error — includes:
HeaderDescription
X-RateLimit-LimitYour per-minute cap
X-RateLimit-RemainingCalls left in the current window
X-RateLimit-ResetUnix timestamp when the window resets
Retry-AfterSeconds until safe to retry (on 429 only)
The same triple is also echoed inside meta.rate_limit in the response body, so browser-based dashboards can read it without inspecting headers. 
curl -I "https://api.backquant.com/v2/gex/levels?symbol=BTCUSDT" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

HTTP/2 200
X-RateLimit-Limit: 120
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 87
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1714478160

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What happens at the limit

  1. The 121st request in a minute (on the Yearly tier) returns: 
    {
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Try again in 32 seconds.",
    "details": {
      "retry_after_seconds": 32,
      "limit": "120 per 1 minute"
    }
  },
  "meta": { ... }
}
  2. HTTP status is 429.
  3. Retry-After: 32 header tells you exactly how long to wait.
  4. X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0 confirms you’re out for the window.

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Strategy: how to think about throttling

Cache aggressively at your end. The data refreshes every 30s server-side anyway. If you’re showing GEX levels in a dashboard, polling once every 30 seconds (= 2 req/min per panel) gives you the freshest possible data without burning quota. Polling every second is wasted — you’d see the same computed_at 30 times in a row. Use multi-symbol bundling. Hitting /v2/multi/gex/levels once for all four symbols counts as one request, not four. For desk dashboards watching the universe, this is the difference between 240/min (4 symbols × 60s) and 60/min on the Monthly tier. Use composable ?include=. /v2/gex/levels?include=ranked,max_pain, expected_move,zones returns four blocks of data in one request that would otherwise take four separate calls. Project payloads with ?fields and ?include. Heavy endpoints like /v2/options/chain support both top-level (?fields=contracts) and per-row (?include=oi,iv) projection. Lighter responses = faster parsing client-side and lower egress on our side. Implement exponential backoff on 429. Wait Retry-After seconds, then if you 429 again, wait 2× as long. Don’t hammer. 
import time, requests

def call_with_backoff(url, headers, max_attempts=4):
    for i in range(max_attempts):
        r = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
        if r.status_code != 429:
            return r
        delay = int(r.headers.get("Retry-After", 60))
        time.sleep(delay * (2 ** i))   # 60s, 120s, 240s, 480s
    raise RuntimeError("rate-limit retries exhausted")
Monitor X-RateLimit-Remaining. When it drops below ~10% of your limit, throttle yourself rather than waiting for a 429. Better to slow down voluntarily than to handle errors after the fact.

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Endpoint cost notes

Most endpoints are pure cache reads (~1ms server-side). A handful do on-the-fly computation:
  • /v2/options/chain with novel filter combos — first call computes, subsequent calls (same filters) hit a 30s cache
  • /v2/gex/max-pain?expiry=all — computes per-expiry max-pain across the chain, cached 30s
  • /v2/options/greeks/{greek}?dte_max=N — recomputes from raw chain for the DTE-filtered slice, cached 30s
  • /v2/options/greeks/3d/surface — strike × expiry matrix per greek, cached 30s
All four count as one request against your rate limit, regardless of whether they hit cold or warm cache.

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Need more throughput?

If 120 req/min isn’t enough — typically when you’re powering a paid product downstream, or running >100 concurrent dashboards — contact dev@backquant.com about Enterprise. Enterprise removes the per-minute limit and includes:
  • Dedicated capacity
  • Custom symbol additions (e.g. SUI, AVAX)
  • Historical bulk export (CSV / Parquet)
  • SLA + priority support

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See also

Errors

Full error code list with recommended retry strategies.

Multi-symbol bundle

The cheapest way to watch the universe.

Data freshness

Why polling faster than 30s wastes quota.