Hunter · Rate Limits

Hunter Rate Limits

Hunter applies per-endpoint rate limits enforced per API key, distinct from monthly credit quotas. Most endpoints are limited to 15 requests/second and 500 requests/minute, with Email Verifier (10/sec, 300/min) and Discover (5/sec, 50/min) operating at lower limits. Throttling uses 403 (rate limit reached) and 429 (usage limit / plan exceeded). Credits are tracked separately via the Account Information endpoint.

15 Limits
Rate LimitingEmailSales Intelligence

Limits

Domain Search API api-key
requests_per_second · second
15
Domain Search API (per minute) api-key
requests_per_minute · minute
500
Email Finder API api-key
requests_per_second · second
15
Email Finder API (per minute) api-key
requests_per_minute · minute
500
Email Verifier API api-key
requests_per_second · second
10
Email Verifier API (per minute) api-key
requests_per_minute · minute
300
Enrichment endpoints (Email / Company / Combined) api-key
requests_per_second · second
15
Enrichment endpoints (per minute) api-key
requests_per_minute · minute
500
Email Count API api-key
requests_per_second · second
15
Discover API api-key
requests_per_second · second
5
Discover API (per minute) api-key
requests_per_minute · minute
50
Free plan monthly credits account
credits_per_month · month
50
Starter plan monthly credits account
credits_per_month · month
2000
Growth plan monthly credits account
credits_per_month · month
10000
Scale plan monthly credits account
credits_per_month · month
25000

Policies

403 vs 429 distinction
403 indicates the per-second/per-minute rate limit was hit and clients should slow down. 429 indicates the monthly usage / credit allotment is exhausted and requires a plan upgrade or waiting until the next billing cycle.
Backoff Strategy
Use exponential backoff on 403 responses. Hunter does not document Retry-After or X-RateLimit headers; pace clients to stay under documented per-endpoint limits.
Failed lookups are free
When emails cannot be found or verifications fail, no credits are consumed.
Account usage tracking
Use the GET /v2/account endpoint to track remaining credits, searches, and verifications programmatically rather than relying on response headers.

Sources