Rate Limiting
Rate limiting is a control websites and APIs use to cap how many requests a single visitor can make in a given window — say, 60 requests a minute, or 1,000 an hour. Go over the cap and the server starts refusing you: it returns an error (often HTTP 429, "Too Many Requests"), makes you wait, or temporarily blocks your address.
Sites rate-limit for good reasons. It protects their servers from overload, keeps one heavy user from degrading the experience for everyone else, and slows down abuse. Almost every large platform enforces some form of it, whether or not they publish the exact numbers.
For anyone collecting data at scale, rate limiting is the main obstacle. Send requests too fast from one address and you hit the ceiling quickly. The workarounds are to slow down, to spread requests across many IPs so no single one exceeds the limit, or both — which is exactly what proxy pools and rotation are for. The exact thresholds are rarely published, so a well-built collector also watches for the warning signs — slower responses, a spike in errors — and eases off before it gets blocked.
How it relates to scraping
A scraper has to respect rate limits or it comes back with errors instead of data. Pull too aggressively from one IP and the source starts returning nothing. 1Scrape manages request pacing and IP rotation for you, so a large run stays under the limits and finishes complete — you just set a cap and watch the count climb, without tuning any timings yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Does rate limiting mean scraping does not work?
No — it just means requests have to be paced and distributed sensibly. Spread across a proxy pool at a reasonable speed, a large scrape stays within limits and finishes. 1Scrape handles that pacing automatically, so it is not something you deal with.
What is an HTTP 429 error?
It is the standard "Too Many Requests" response a server sends when you have exceeded its rate limit. It is a signal to slow down or spread requests across more addresses, not a permanent ban.