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Question

REST API rate limits – Pro plan with Full seat still getting X-Figma-Rate-Limit-Type: low and multi-day Retry-After

  • February 26, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 255 views
alce

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

    5 replies

    SobaNoodl
    • SobaNoodl
    • New Member
    • February 26, 2026

    Curious to know too. I have the same problem basically.

      Trey
      • Trey
      • New Member
      • February 27, 2026

      Same issue

        Igor Lopasovsky

        Same issue here. Can someone from Figma reply to this? I haven’t touched the project for 2-3 days, then started getting 429 right from the beginning. Same setup - Professional plan, full seat, rate limit returned by Figma is low. It also says I should come back in 85 hours (?)

        djv
        Figmate
        • djv
        • Community Support
        • March 12, 2026

        Hey All, thanks for reaching out about this and apologies for the lack of acknowledgement here! 

        The most common reason we see for users not being able to access Professional REST API rate limits is that the file they’re working in isn’t located within the team they upgraded.
         
        Could you please confirm that the file you’re currently working on is under your Professional plan? If you’re not sure where the file is located, feel free to share your file URL link, and we can check for you.
         
        If the file is currently located in a Starter team, you can move the file and/or project to the team you upgraded to access the appropriate rate limit.
         
        If your file is currently located in a Professional plan team, can you please also share:

        • The file_key (or a sample one)
        • Whether you're using a personal access token or OAuth
        • The approximate request rate (requests per minute)
        • The time the 429 responses started
        • Your team/workspace name

         In the meantime, to reduce the risk of long lockouts, we recommend:

        • Caching image results where possible
        • Avoiding repeated exports of the same node IDs
        • Spreading requests over time rather than issuing bursts
        • Using batching (multiple ids in a single /images call) where applicable


        It looks like ​@alce is already in touch with support on ticket #1766604. Once I receive additional details from the rest of you, I can connect you with support as well to investigate whether this is a seat-context issue or something else specific to your workspace.

        Igor Lopasovsky

        Thank you very much for the reply ​@djv. Just yesterday I figured out what was the real issue. After I import .fig file to my Professional account with Full seat into Drafts folder, Figma asks me to move it somewhere else (can’t remember where exactly). As soon as I do it, file is moved under my Free account. When I leave it in Drafts, everything works fine, rate limit high.

        Apologise again for my previous message. The problem is that response 429 Too many requests doesn’t contain much information so it was impossible to know what was really happening.

        Thank you again for your help.

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