topic Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response in Spotify for Developers

Low number of requests leading to 429 response

thn6tv_u-yda — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:01:44 GMT

I've been working with the Web API for the past few months and have never hit 429 responses. Today I opted to migrate my app early to force myself to adapt to the new API changes. Incredibly low rate limits are preventing me from accomplishing anything, though. Most endpoints I'm using respond with a 429 after 10-20 requests, even if I spread requests out over a few minutes. The 429 response gives me no `Retry-After` information, so adding an accurate request backoff is impossible anyways.

Is this a permanent change, or is it just tied to greater API activity over the past day? This rate-limit is so low that the API is practically useless. I understand that the API team is looking to prevent individuals from scraping and stealing tons of data, but there has to be a better solution than this. It's already frustrating that old endpoints for bulk data retrieval (GET Artists, for instance) were deprecated, but any use of the API is pretty much impossible with such a low rate-limit.

Please let me know if you have any more information. Thanks!

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

kurtisebear — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:39:37 GMT

I am having the same issues, created a very simple script to like a currently playing song, so it only refreshes my token and then makes a request to PUT "https://api.spotify.com/v1/me/tracks?ids=$TRACK_ID".

It will work once and then just give 429 errors with between a 6 and 24 hour retry header. It is literally unusable.

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

Inzanity — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:45:17 GMT

Yup I also managed to get myself locked out for 20 hours....

What works for testing is just to delete the app and make a new one but doesn't feel right.

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

JoaoAranha — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 23:39:29 GMT

Same here... Two days, two consecutive time outs of 12 and 23 hours... Shame

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

gabagoolnation — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:39:17 GMT

I'm experiencing the same - heavy rate limit after roughly 100/200 requests at 1/2 requests per second

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

LambertSpot — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 14:07:59 GMT

We hear you, and we are reviewing the rate limits and quotas now. They definitely need some adjustments. I hope to have an update on this next week - I will write again in this thread when I have something to share.

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

LambertSpot — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:34:11 GMT

I actually have an update now already. We have tweaked the limits and quotas, made them less restrictive. Let me know how they feel.

Additionally we will continue to discuss how we can improve transparency around the rate limits and quotas. We understand the frustration of trying to develop something, and suddenly hitting a limit you could not account for.

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

JoaoAranha — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:39:43 GMT

Huge thanks, and this is really a great demonstration that we are heard...

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

gabagoolnation — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:40:41 GMT

Will do, are there any rough guidelines around limits? I'm aware of previous responses to that question, but with the multiple items endpoints being deprecated we do in general need to make more cumulative requests than before and would like to not overdo it

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

thn6tv_u-yda — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 03:48:44 GMT

@LambertSpot wrote:
I actually have an update now already. We have tweaked the limits and quotas, made them less restrictive. Let me know how they feel.

Additionally we will continue to discuss how we can improve transparency around the rate limits and quotas. We understand the frustration of trying to develop something, and suddenly hitting a limit you could not account for.

Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate the help, especially with so many other comments about the changes.

I've seen relatively similar rate limiting on the `/playlists/{playlistId}/items` endpoint. I'm only sending ~30 requests, is there a better approach you'd recommend to avoid hitting 429s? I've considered setting a sleep between each requests, but it's hard to find an optimal value when I only get 1 attempt / day.

Thanks again for the help!

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

gabagoolnation — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:59:14 GMT

rate limiting still seems to be fairly strict

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

JoaoAranha — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:52:17 GMT

Sorry, but still something not useful and we are not talking about some newbie errors in developing, we are talking about the level of restriction where even adding the double of waiting time and the half of the values in the max itens calls (were 50, now 40, I'm using 20) it reach 429 and after just dog house for 24 hours. Again, not trying to be rude, but Spotify really wants us to keep developing ? Because at the moment, still looking like a ban. I'm a 50 years old guy that is working with IT for the last 30, i commit errors doing code ? for sure, but nothing so drastic that could lead me to the lever of restrictions that are over simple codes as now... Please we as a community are just asking for fairness not to the need of loose security that could lead to harm anyone !

Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

WXRIW — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

My app has granted quota extension. This app needs to fetch the user’s currently playing track in real-time, which means it requests /v1/me/player every 2–3 seconds. Other API endpoints are used much less frequently. However, this high-frequency request to /v1/me/player causes my app to encounter 429 errors almost constantly, forcing users to wait 15–30 seconds, which significantly impacts the user experience.

Out of necessity, I tried having users create their own Clients, and surprisingly, this approach avoids the 429 errors. It seems the 429 limit heavily weights total request volume and does not consider the number of users, nor does it adjust the request limit accordingly.

Before the API changes earlier this year, letting users create their own Clients worked reasonably well. But with this year’s updates, many endpoints were removed, including external_id (isrc), which my app relies on heavily. This makes user-created Clients almost unusable, and users are forced to face 429 errors whether starting the app or switching tracks, resulting in several seconds or even tens of seconds of waiting, which severely affects usability.

I understand the need for rate limits, but could Spotify consider relaxing or removing the limits for certain endpoints? For example, /v1/me/player and /v1/player/currently-playing only return the user’s current playback information. They do not involve large amounts of data and do not pose a security risk.

Allowing these endpoints to avoid 429 errors would greatly improve the experience of my app. This would benefit both users and Spotify’s ecosystem. I hope Spotify can consider this issue.

Thank you for your time and attention!

Re: Low number of requests leading to 429 response

tawmae — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 09:18:58 GMT

It also appears to be fairly random it seems. Just to monitor rate-limits, I did poll `/me/player` once a second. Worked fine for a couple of hours and then suddenly runs into a rate limit. Is there a new approach other than requests within a 30 minute window? Would be nice to know to actually avoid running into that.

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

However — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

Je suis d'accord avec l'auteur.Ces restrictions ne font que causer des désagréments.

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

UtWuSong — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

Strongly support this. These new restrictions from Spotify are severely impacting the listeners' experience.

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

EunoiaCody — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

I'm a user of this app. The app is extremely useful and helpful with lyric. But with the growth of the users, the error 429 pop up frequently and frequently, which is a quite pity, also, it ruins the experience of using the app. I hope Spotify can lift restrictions, so that we users can easily use both Spotify and Lyricify app.

Thanks

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

SuzumiKanade — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

I am also using this easy-to-use software. The 429 error seriously affects the use experience. I hope Spotify you can open the limits to make it more comfortable for users.

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

OneGuy985 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

Have the exact issue. Hope it gets improved.

Re: Severe 429 Errors in Apps with Granted Quota Extension

wlaina — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:47:56 GMT

I'm a user of Lyricify app.I wanna say that this App improves my experiences of Spotify.It is the best partner of Spotify.All in all,this App is a power of using Spotify .The change of API decrease the experience.The wrong of 429，it seriously affects the use.I hope you can change it back or make this experience better.