Rate Limits
Each Blockspace product applies its own limits — the exact ceiling depends on the service and the tier you're on.
Per-service limits
- ShredStream — bandwidth/connection caps per tier; no per-message rate limit. Connection counts are listed in the dashboard.
- Direct Shreds — bandwidth-bound only; dedicated link to your IP, no shared-tenant caps.
- SWQOS — per-region RPS caps on transaction submission, scaling with the plan tier. Bursts above the ceiling get
429 Too Many Requests. - Relayer/TPU — bundle and tx-submission rate caps per searcher.
Plan-specific values are shown in the dashboard on the service page.
Burst behavior
Short bursts are absorbed by a leaky-bucket limiter on rate-limited services. Sustained traffic above the ceiling triggers 429 (HTTPS) or a flow-control signal (gRPC). Implement exponential backoff on retry.
Errors to watch for
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
401 | Missing/invalid token (or unrecognised source IP / signing pubkey on allowlist-based products) | Re-check credentials and transport per the product quickstart |
429 | RPS ceiling hit | Backoff + retry |
503 | Service temporarily unavailable | Backoff + retry; check the status page |