> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.qoory.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits and rate limits

> Understand shared credits, the API free allowance, operation costs, and throughput.

API requests use the same paid and subscription credit balance as the Qoory
app. They do not create a separate paid currency. The Developer API has its own
daily free allowance so API experiments do not consume the app's daily free
search allowance. Developer API and remote MCP are still limited-beta surfaces
and are not publicly available.

## Cost classes

| Cost class | Credits | Typical work                                                 |
| ---------- | ------: | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `light`    |       1 | Search, resolve, curated lists, and direct identity lookups. |
| `standard` |       2 | Richer entity subresources and joined research records.      |
| `heavy`    |       4 | Broader derived or multi-source research responses.          |

The OpenAPI operation carries its exact `x-qoory-cost-class` and
`x-qoory-credits` values. Cost is based on expected work, not response byte
size.

## Daily API allowance

Each authenticated account receives 100 free API credits per UTC day. REST and
remote MCP spend from this same API allowance. After it is exhausted,
requests draw from the user's shared paid or subscription balance. A response
can report both credits used and the remaining combined balance.

The free tier also applies independent anti-enumeration controls. Search and
selector operations each allow up to 100 distinct targets per rolling 24-hour
window per authenticated account. Repeating a target does not consume another
distinct-target slot. These budgets are separate from credits and throughput;
they prevent filter rotation or selector fan-out from becoming a bulk export.

## Throughput tiers

| Tier       | Requests/minute | Burst per 10 seconds |
| ---------- | --------------: | -------------------: |
| `free`     |              30 |                   10 |
| `pro`      |              60 |                   20 |
| `pro_plus` |             120 |                   40 |
| `team`     |             300 |                  100 |

Rate limits and credits are independent. A user can have credits remaining and
still receive `RATE_LIMITED`, or have available throughput and receive
`INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS`.

Use `meta.rate_limit`, `x-qoory-rate-limit`, and `Retry-After` to schedule work.
Do not retry a throttled request in a tight loop.