Descript · Rate Limits

Descript Rate Limits

Descript's REST API enforces rate limits per API token (token is scoped to a Drive). When a client exceeds a limit, the API returns 429 with a Retry-After header along with X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Consumed for client-side budgeting. Most documented limits are operational ceilings rather than per-second numbers — the only published numeric ceiling at this time is 1,000 requests/hour per user against the published-projects metadata endpoint. The API is in early access and exact per-token quotas may scale with the Descript plan tier (Hobbyist / Creator / Business / Enterprise) and the underlying media-minute and AI-credit budgets. reconciled false because per-second/per-minute thresholds are not publicly enumerated for the core endpoints.

Descript Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for Descript on the APIs.io network, in the API Commons Rate Limits shape.

It captures 5 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests_per_hour, varies, concurrent_jobs, and minutes.

Limit state is signalled in the retryAfter, remaining, and consumed response headers, and an exhausted limit returns HTTP 429.

This profile was written by API Evangelist and has not been verified against a page the provider published; treat every limit as unconfirmed until a dated transcription replaces it.

The profile also includes 6 backoff/retry policies defined and response codes documented for throttled and insufficientCredits.

Tagged areas include Rate Limiting, Video Editing, Audio Editing, and AI.

5 Limits Exhausted: HTTP 429 retryAfterremainingconsumed
Method: generated, dated 2026-05-06.
Written by API Evangelist on 2026-05-06 and not verified against a page the provider published. Treat every limit as unconfirmed until a dated transcription replaces it.
View Source
Rate LimitingVideo EditingAudio EditingAI

Limits

Published project metadata reads user
requests_per_hour · hour
1000
Documented hard cap on GET /v1/published_projects/{slug}; other endpoints share an undocumented per-token rate budget.
Core REST API requests (per token) token
varies
see Retry-After / X-RateLimit-Remaining headers
Per-token allowances are not published as fixed RPS / RPM. Clients should respect Retry-After and back off when 429 is returned.
Asynchronous job execution drive
concurrent_jobs
governed by drive plan and AI credit budget
Import / agent / publish jobs are queued and executed asynchronously. Parallelism and throughput are bounded by the plan's media-minute and AI-credit budgets rather than a fixed concurrency number.
Direct upload signed URL TTL upload_url
minutes · minute
180
Upload URLs returned by /v1/jobs/import/project_media expire 3 hours after issuance.
Edit-in-Descript import URL TTL import_url
minutes · minute
180
Partner import URLs from /v1/edit_in_descript/schema expire 3 hours after issuance.

Policies

Bearer authentication
All requests require an Authorization Bearer token created via Settings > API tokens. Tokens are scoped to a single Drive and inherit that user's permissions on the Drive.
Retry-After honoring
When the API returns 429, clients must read Retry-After and wait at least that many seconds before retrying. Use exponential backoff if multiple 429s occur in a row.
Header-driven budgeting
Use X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Consumed to pre-emptively throttle client behavior; do not assume fixed per-minute caps.
Asynchronous job model
Long-running operations (import / agent / publish) return a job_id immediately. Poll GET /v1/jobs/{job_id} or supply a callback_url for webhook delivery instead of holding HTTP connections open.
Credit-based usage
402 Insufficient Credits indicates the Drive's media-minute or AI-credit balance is exhausted; the limit is a plan budget, not a transient rate limit.
Early access scope
The API is in early access (v1.2). Endpoints, request shapes, and limits may evolve; review the docs and changelog before relying on undocumented quotas.

Sources

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