Hi,
I’m hitting 429 rate limits when calling the Figma REST API (Images endpoint, Tier 1) in a way that doesn’t match the documented behavior for my plan and seat.
My setup
- Plan: Professional (Pro)
- Seat: Full (editor on the files I’m calling the API for)
- Use case: Plugin that exports frame images via GET /v1/images/:file_key (Tier 1) for UX audits
What I’m seeing
Response: 429 Too Many Requests
Headers:
X-Figma-Plan-Tier: pro
X-Figma-Rate-Limit-Type: low
Retry-After: 396749 (~4.5 days)
According to your rate limits documentation, X-Figma-Rate-Limit-Type: low is for Viewer/Collab seats (e.g. Tier 1 “up to 6/month”), while Full/Dev should get high (e.g. 15/min on Pro). So with a Pro Full seat I would expect high and per-minute limits, not low and a multi-day Retry-After.
What I’ve already checked
The files I’m requesting are in my own Pro team/workspace where I have full editing access.
I’ve seen the same pattern reported by others, e.g. in this forum thread.
What I’m asking
- Why does the API return X-Figma-Rate-Limit-Type: low for a Pro Full seat on files in my own Pro workspace?
- Is there a known issue or delay in applying the correct tier after plan/seat changes, or a per-file/per-resource limit that overrides the plan table?
- Is there an official workaround or recommended pattern (e.g. batching, caching, or specific usage) to avoid these long lockouts while we rely on the API?
- I’m trying to align our plugin with the documented limits and would appreciate any clarification or next steps you can share.
Thanks
