Rate limits and request volume on the Detrack API

How to keep request volume low on the Detrack API v2 with bulk endpoints and sensible polling, and how to handle a 429 response if you receive one.

The Detrack API doesn’t publish a fixed per-key request quota. Even so, design your integration to keep request volume low. Fewer requests make your integration faster and more reliable.

Keeping request volume low

• Use bulk endpoints. Use Bulk create, Bulk update, or Bulk delete instead of one call per job. Each accepts up to 100 jobs in a single request.
• Poll sparingly. When you poll for status changes (for example with Get export status), wait a few seconds between requests rather than polling every second.
• Queue exports. For proof-of-delivery and shipping label exports across many jobs, use Bulk export. It generates the documents in the background and returns a status URL, instead of one download request per job.

Handling 429 Too Many Requests

If you receive 429, stop sending requests, wait, and retry with exponential backoff. If the response includes a Retry-After header, wait at least that many seconds before retrying.