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This page describes how Vast.ai public API errors and rate limits work, along with practical retry guidance.

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Error Responses

Error responses vary slightly by endpoint. The most common error response shape is: 
{
  "success": false,
  "error": "invalid_args",
  "msg": "Human-readable description of the problem."
}
Some endpoints omit the boolean success. Some omit error and return only msg or message.

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Rate Limits

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How rate limits are applied

Vast.ai applies rate limits per endpoint and per identity. This is enforced as a minimum interval between requests for a given endpoint and identity. The identity is determined by: bearer token + session user + api_key query param + client IP. Some endpoints also use method-specific limits (GET vs POST) and/or max-calls-per-period limits for short bursts.

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Rate limit response behavior

When you hit a rate limit, you will receive HTTP 429. The response body is often plain text (in certain cases JSON with success/error/msg like above) with one of the following messages: 
API requests too frequent
or 
API requests too frequent: endpoint threshold=...
The API does not currently set standard rate-limit headers (for example Retry-After), so clients should apply their own backoff strategy.

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How to reduce rate limit errors

  • Batch requests where supported, rather than calling many single-item endpoints.
  • Reduce polling: use longer polling intervals, or cache results client-side.
  • Spread traffic over time: avoid bursts; use a queue or scheduler.
If you need higher limits for legitimate production usage, contact support with the endpoint(s), your expected call rate, and your account details.