How does Twitter Search API rate limit work?

Question

I am not clear about what the Twitter rate limit, "350 requests per hour per access token/user", means. How they are limiting the request? In 1 request how much data i can get?

Answer 1

The rate limits are based on request, not the amount of data (e.g. bytes) you receive. With that in mind, you can maximize requests by using the available parameters of the particular endpoint you're calling. I'll give you a couple examples to explain what I mean:

1. One way is to set count, if supported, to the highest available value. On statuses/home_timeline, you can max out count at 200. If you aren't using it now, you're getting the default of 20, which means that you would (theoretically) need to do 10 more queries the get the same amount of data. More queries mean you eat up rate limit.

2. Using statuses/home_timeline again, notice that you can page through data using since_id and max_id, as described in Working with Timelines. Essentially, you keep track of the tweets you already requested so you can save on requests by only getting the newest tweets.

3. Rate limits are in 15 minute windows, so you can pace your requests to minimize the chance of running out in any give time window.

4. Use a combination of Streams and requests, which increases your rate limit.

There are more optimizations like this that help you save request limit, some more subtle than others. Looking at the rate limits per API, studying parameters, and thinking about how the API is used can help you minimize rate limit usage.