Rate Limits

Rate limits are shared across all 25+ sports APIs. Your daily quota applies to your combined usage of Football, Basketball, Tennis, and every other sport.

Plan Limits

Plan	Daily Requests	Price
Free	100	$0
Pro	7,500	$45/mo
Ultra	75,000	$89/mo
Mega	150,000	$179/mo

All daily quotas reset at midnight UTC (00:00 UTC). The reset timestamp is included in every response via the X-RateLimit-Reset header.

Need more? Contact us for custom enterprise plans with higher limits, dedicated servers, and SLA guarantees.

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes rate limit headers:

Header	Description
`X-RateLimit-Limit`	Your daily request limit
`X-RateLimit-Remaining`	Requests remaining today
`X-RateLimit-Reset`	ISO 8601 timestamp when quota resets

Example Response Headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 7500
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 7255
X-RateLimit-Reset: 2026-04-13T00:00:00.000Z
Content-Type: application/json

Checking Your Usage

Use the /status endpoint on any sport’s API:

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.sportsapipro.com/v2/football/status"

{
  "success": true,
  "api": "SportsAPI Pro - Football V2 (Enhanced)",
  "version": "v2",
  "account": {
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "name": "Your Name",
    "plan": "Pro",
    "member_since": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
  },
  "usage": {
    "daily_limit": 7500,
    "remaining": 7255,
    "requests_today": 245,
    "reset_at": "2026-04-13T00:00:00.000Z"
  }
}

Rate Limit Exceeded

When you exceed your daily quota, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
    "message": "Daily quota exceeded. Resets at midnight UTC."
  }
}

Best Practices

Use Built-In TTL Caching

Every API response includes a ttl field (seconds). Respect this value — the data won’t change before the TTL expires.

Data Type	Typical TTL
Live scores	5s
Player stats	60s
Standings	300s
Countries list	300s

const response = await fetch(url, { headers });
const data = await response.json();

// Cache for the recommended duration
const cacheDuration = data.ttl || 300; // seconds
cache.set(url, data, cacheDuration);

Monitor Usage in Code

Check rate limit headers in every response:

function checkRateLimit(response) {
  const remaining = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining'));
  const limit = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Limit'));
  const usagePercent = ((limit - remaining) / limit) * 100;
  
  if (usagePercent > 80) {
    console.warn(`Warning: ${usagePercent.toFixed(1)}% of daily quota used`);
  }
}

Implement Retry with Backoff

For 429 errors, wait and retry:

async function fetchWithRetry(url, options, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) {
    const response = await fetch(url, options);
    if (response.status !== 429) return response;
    
    const waitTime = Math.pow(2, i) * 1000;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, waitTime));
  }
  throw new Error('Rate limit exceeded — max retries reached');
}

Prioritize Live Data

During peak usage, prioritize live score updates over less time-sensitive data like standings or historical stats. Different sports have different update frequencies — NBA games have more scoring events than football matches.

What Counts as a Request?

Each API call counts as 1 request, regardless of sport
V2 image endpoint calls (/images/...) count as requests. V1 image endpoints are free and do not count
/status endpoint calls count as requests
WebSocket traffic is unmetered. Neither the connection handshake nor any frame you receive counts against your quota — subscriptions, snapshots, and all real-time updates are free. The internal NATS-triggered fetches behind match:{matchId}:odds, :incidents, and :stats run server-side and are never billed to your key. Only REST calls are metered

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Updates

Plan Limits

Rate Limit Headers

Example Response Headers

Checking Your Usage

Rate Limit Exceeded

Best Practices

What Counts as a Request?

Upgrading Your Plan

View Plans

Contact Sales

​Plan Limits

​Rate Limit Headers

​Example Response Headers

​Checking Your Usage

​Rate Limit Exceeded

​Best Practices

​What Counts as a Request?

​Upgrading Your Plan

View Plans

Contact Sales

Plan Limits

Rate Limit Headers

Example Response Headers

Checking Your Usage

Rate Limit Exceeded

Best Practices

What Counts as a Request?

Upgrading Your Plan