What are the Scribble API rate limits?

For developers

120 requests a minute, per key. Going over returns 429 with a Retry-After header giving the seconds until the current minute window resets. The limit is per key, not per organisation, so two keys get two budgets. Ask us if you need it raised.

Rate limiting
Property	Value
Default limit	120 requests per minute
Scope	Per API key
Window	A fixed clock minute, not a rolling window
Response	`429` with body code `rate_limited`
Header	`Retry-After`, in seconds until the window resets
Counted	Every authenticated request, successful or not

A real 429 response

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "This key is limited to 120 requests a minute. Try again in 33s, or ask us to raise the limit.",
    "docs": "https://scribblecards.com/app/integrations"
  }
}

The accompanying header on that response was retry-after: 33.

#Planning around it

How long a bulk job takes at 120 requests a minute
Records	Time at the default limit
500	About 4 minutes
2,000	About 17 minutes
10,000	About 84 minutes

For a one-off bulk send, a campaign is usually the better tool than a loop over the API: it prices the whole run, previews the extremes and lets you cancel. Use the API for the steady drip of event-driven cards.

Honouring Retry-After

import time, requests

def post_card(session, body, key):
    while True:
        res = session.post(
            "https://scribblecards.com/api/v1/cards",
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {key}"},
            json=body,
            timeout=30,
        )
        if res.status_code != 429:
            return res
        # The header is authoritative. Do not guess, and do not
        # back off exponentially past it: the window is a clock minute.
        time.sleep(int(res.headers.get("Retry-After", "60")) + 1)

Last checked against the product on 2026-08-05. Something wrong or missing? Tell us.