Hypixel · Rate Limits

Hypixel Rate Limits

Hypixel enforces per-API-key request limits across a rolling 5-minute window (with per-minute caps surfaced through the response headers). The exact numeric cap depends on the application class: a default "Personal" key is capped at 120 requests per 5 minutes (≈ 24 requests/minute / ~2 requests every 5 seconds in burst), while approved "Production" applications receive higher caps negotiated case-by-case via the Developer Dashboard. The Developer Policies additionally call out endpoint-specific behavior — e.g. rate limits on requesting the same player's data repeatedly within short windows. Hypixel also expects clients to implement caching and to back off on 429 responses.

Hypixel Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for Hypixel on the APIs.io network, conforming to the API Commons Rate Limits specification.

It captures 4 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests_per_window, requests_per_minute, varies, and requests_per_resource.

The profile also includes 5 backoff/retry policies defined and response codes documented for throttled and quotaExceeded.

Tagged areas include Rate Limiting, Gaming, Minecraft, and Public API.

4 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Rate LimitingGamingMinecraftPublic API

Limits

Default Personal Key — Per-5-Minute Window key
requests_per_window · 5_minutes
120
Default cap for Personal-tier keys. Surfaced via RateLimit-Limit / RateLimit-Remaining / RateLimit-Reset response headers. Concretely ≈ 24 req/min sustained.
Default Personal Key — Per-Minute (Derived) key
requests_per_minute · minute
24
Per-minute equivalent of the 120-per-5-minutes window. Hypixel surfaces per-minute remaining via RateLimit-Remaining.
Production Application Key key
varies
higher tier; case-by-case via Developer Dashboard application
Production-tier applications negotiate higher per-key throughput via the Developer Dashboard. There is no published self-serve number.
Same-Player Endpoint Throttling key/resource
requests_per_resource
reasonable intervals; e.g. once-per-hour for guild tracking
Per Hypixel Developer Policies, the API additionally throttles back-to-back identical requests (e.g. polling the same player) and expects consumers to cache.

Policies

Honor RateLimit headers
Read RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining, and RateLimit-Reset on every response and stop issuing further requests for the current window when RateLimit-Remaining reaches 0.
Back off on 429
On HTTP 429 the client must back off and respect the Retry-After header before retrying.
Cache aggressively
Hypixel explicitly recommends client-side caching to reduce request volume — especially for static reference resources (/resources/*) which change infrequently.
One key per application
Do not share API keys across applications or with third parties. Keys issued under the Developer Dashboard are tied to a single application.
Idle-key expiry
Applications that issue zero requests in 14 days, or that go inactive across any 28-day window, may have their key/application disabled or deleted.

Sources