# Rate Limits

To prevent abuse, Gemini imposes rate limits on incoming requests as described in the [Gemini API Agreement](https://www.gemini.com/legal/api-agreement).

For public API entry points, we limit requests to 120 requests per minute, and recommend that you do not exceed 1 request per second.

For private API entry points, we limit requests to 600 requests per minute, and recommend that you not exceed 5 requests per second.

### How are rate limits applied?
When requests are received at a rate exceeding X requests per minute, we offer a "burst" rate of five additional requests that are queued but their processing is delayed until the request rate falls below the defined rate.

When you exceed the rate limit for a group of endpoints, you will receive a `429` [Too Many Requests](https://www.webfx.com/web-development/glossary/http-status-codes/what-is-a-429-status-code/) HTTP status response until your request rate drops back under the required limit.

**Example**: 600 requests per minute is ten requests per second, meaning one request every 0.1 second.

If you send 20 requests in close succession over two seconds, then you could expect:

- the first ten requests are processed
- the next five requests are queued
- the next five requests receive a 429 response, meaning the rate limit for this group of endpoints has been exceeded
- any further incoming request immediately receive a 429 response
- after a short period of inactivity, the five queued requests are processed
- following that, incoming requests begin to be processed at the normal rate again