Reference

Rate limits and quotas

Each API key can run 3 jobs at a time, create 500 jobs a day and upload 20 GB a day, with days counted in UTC. Over a limit, the API answers 429 RATE_LIMITED with a Retry-After header that says how many seconds to wait.

Files, durations and request fields have fixed limits too, all listed below.

Running at once: 3 jobs; per key
Jobs a day: 500; resets at midnight UTC
Uploads a day: 20 GB; resets at midnight UTC

Rate limits#

Limits apply per API key. Each one answers 429 with its own message and Retry-After value.

Limit	error.message	Retry-After
3 jobs running	`this key already has 3 jobs running`	10 seconds
500 jobs a day	`this key reached its 500 jobs per day`	Until midnight UTC
20 GB of uploads a day	`this key reached its 20 GB of uploads per day`	Until midnight UTC
30 bad keys a minute from one IP	`too many failed auth attempts from your IP, retry in a minute`	60 seconds

A job holds one of its key's 3 slots from the create call until it succeeds or fails, including the time it waits in the queue.
Every job that starts counts toward the 500, including jobs that fail. Requests rejected with a 4xx don't count.
The upload budget counts the bytes of every POST /v1/uploads. Remote URLs you pass as inputs don't count.

Handling 429#

Wait the number of seconds in Retry-After, then send the same request again. To stay under the limit in the first place, queue work on your side and run at most 3 jobs per key at once.

429 Too Many Requests

{
  "error": {
    "code": "RATE_LIMITED",
    "message": "this key already has 3 jobs running"
  }
}

async function createJob(path, body) {
  while (true) {
    const res = await fetch(`https://api.reelsdk.com${path}`, {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.REELSDK_KEY}`,
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(body),
    });
    const json = await res.json();
    if (res.status !== 429) return json;

    // We only wait out short limits, a daily limit can take hours
    const seconds = Number(res.headers.get("Retry-After") ?? "10");
    if (seconds > 60) throw new Error(json.error.message);
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, seconds * 1000));
  }
}

Sizes and durations#

Limit	Value
JSON request body	2 MB
Upload with `POST /v1/uploads`	100 MB
Input file, uploaded or remote	500 MB
All inputs of one job	1,000 MB
Video or audio input length	15 minutes
Slideshow length	15 minutes
Short length	15 to 90 seconds
Job run time	10 minutes
Files a job writes while it runs	8 GB
Outputs of one job	2 GB
Slideshow width and height	240 to 2160 px
Image input	100 megapixels
Wait on one request	300 seconds
File retention	7 days

Request fields#

Field	Limit
Slideshow `images`	1 to 100
Slideshow `voiceover.text`	10,000 characters
Captions `words`	50,000 words
Captions `prompt`	500 characters
Shorts `topic`	500 characters
Shorts `script`	3,000 characters and 90 seconds of narration
FFmpeg `inputs`	50 files
FFmpeg `outputs`	20 files
FFmpeg `args`	1,000 arguments of 8,192 characters, or one 65,536 character string
FFmpeg `timeout_s`	600 seconds
Any URL	4,096 characters

Higher limits#

The defaults fit most apps, and limits can be raised per key. Email kevin@bitgate.com with what you're building and the numbers you need: jobs at once, jobs a day or upload volume.

Last updated 26 October 2026