Two limits apply to posting#
Two different things are called a rate limit when you post through an API:
- The platform's own limit. Some platforms publish a post count, others limit requests or speed, and some publish no number. The posting limits reference, linked under Related reading, lists each one with a link to the platform's own page.
- SkedCast's per-account pacing. SkedCast spreads posts out for each connected account, with a default you can change per account. The table below shows those defaults. They are not a platform-published limit.
Examples of platform-published limits#
| Platform | Published limit |
|---|---|
| TikTok | About 15 posts per creator in 24 hours |
| Threads | 250 posts in a 24-hour moving period |
| X | 50 original posts a day for an unverified account |
SkedCast's default posting pace, per connected account#
| Platform | Default daily cap | Default spacing between posts |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | 100 / day | 5 min |
| 100 / day | 10 min | |
| 80 / day | 15 min | |
| Facebook Pages | 50 / day | 1 min |
| TikTok | 15 / day | 1 hr |
| YouTube | 5 / day | 30 min |
| Threads | 200 / day | 5 min |
| 20 / day | 30 min | |
| Bluesky | 1,000 / day | 30 sec |
| Telegram | No daily cap | 30 sec |
| Google Business Profile | 10 / day | 1 hr |
Instagram#
Meta documents Instagram's API publishing limit as 100 posts per account in a 24-hour moving period in its Content Publishing guide, and as 50 in the reference for the content_publishing_limit endpoint, which reports an account's live usage. A carousel counts as one post.
SkedCast reads that usage before it publishes. On top of the platform's limit, SkedCast's own default is 80 / day per connected account, with at least 15 min between posts, adjustable per account.
Your API request budget#
This is a separate limit from posting pace: how many /v1 requests your API key or MCP connection can make per minute, whether or not they publish anything.
- Every response carries
RateLimit-Limit,RateLimit-RemainingandRateLimit-Resetheaders. - A throttled request returns
429 rate_limitedwithRetry-Afterin seconds. - MCP connections have their own request budget, listed per plan in the conventions reference. A throttled MCP call is retried after
Retry-After.
What each 429 code means#
| Code | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
rate_limited | Your key's or app's request budget, or your workspace's, is used up for this minute. Back off for Retry-After seconds. |
tenant_quota_exceeded | Your workspace has used its allowance for a platform. Wait for the window to reset, reduce volume, or upgrade your plan. |
platform_capacity_exhausted | Publishing to the platform is temporarily full. It is not caused by your request volume. Retry after Retry-After; upgrading your plan does not help. |
youtube_units_exhausted | YouTube publishing is temporarily at capacity. Wait the Retry-After seconds, then retry. |
rate limitsapireference
FAQ
- What is Instagram's API rate limit for posting?
- Meta's Content Publishing guide allows 100 API-published posts per account in a 24-hour moving period, and its content_publishing_limit reference says 50. SkedCast's own default is 80 / day per connected account, with at least 15 min between posts. You can change it per account, and it is not a platform ceiling.
- What happens if I hit a rate limit?
- You get a 429 with a Retry-After header and a machine-readable code (rate_limited, tenant_quota_exceeded, platform_capacity_exhausted or youtube_units_exhausted). The code says whose limit it was and whether retrying or upgrading helps.