The Movie Database · Rate Limits

Tmdb Rate Limits

TMDB enforces a soft request-rate ceiling around 40 requests per second to prevent excessive bulk scraping rather than as a strict per-user quota. The historical 40-requests-per-10-seconds limit was removed on 2019-12-16. Limits are scoped to your account/API key (no separate live vs sandbox tier). Responses use HTTP 429 when the limit is exceeded; the documented response also returns a TMDB-internal status_code 25 in the JSON body. Rate limit policy can change without notice — TMDB recommends building client back-off behavior rather than assuming a hard contract.

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

It captures 3 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests_per_second and requests_per_day.

The profile also includes 7 backoff/retry policies defined and response codes documented for throttled and quotaExceeded.

Tagged areas include Rate Limiting, Catalog, Movies, TV, and Video.

3 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Rate LimitingCatalogMoviesTVVideo

Limits

Request rate per API key api_key
requests_per_second · second
40
TMDB documents the ceiling as "somewhere in the 40 requests per second range" and explicitly warns that the exact threshold can shift. Treat 40 RPS as the practical maximum; back off on 429.
Daily ID export rate client
requests_per_day · day
-1
The /3/configuration and daily ID export files (https://files.tmdb.org/) are intended for batch download — fetch each export once per day and consume locally rather than polling.
Image CDN client
requests_per_second
-1
Image CDN traffic (image.tmdb.org) is not subject to the API rate limit; cache aggressively at your own edge.

Policies

Exponential back-off on 429
On 429 responses, pause the request stream and retry with an increasing back-off (e.g. 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s capped at 30s). Honor any Retry-After header when present.
Cache for up to 6 months
Per the TMDB API Terms of Use, you may cache responses for up to 6 months. Caching is the primary mechanism for staying well under the rate limit.
Use append_to_response
Combine related sub-resource fetches into one request using ?append_to_response=credits,images,videos on detail endpoints. This is the cheapest way to reduce request volume against a movie/TV/person.
Use daily ID exports for bulk discovery
Don't iterate /discover/* across the entire catalog. Use the daily ID export files to find new IDs, then call detail endpoints for the deltas.
Soft limit — subject to change
TMDB explicitly notes the rate-limit threshold can change without notice. Treat it as a soft policy rather than a contractual SLO.
No live/sandbox split
There is no separate sandbox tier. Use a test account/API key for development work but understand you share the same limit ceiling as production traffic.
Plan-level quotas — none
Non-commercial use has no monthly request cap. Commercial use rate limits, if any, are negotiated in the commercial agreement and not publicly documented.

Sources

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