Managing API usage in your Zendesk account

Verified AI summary ◀▼
View your API usage to monitor API traffic and avoid rate limit issues. The API usage dashboard tracks requests, identifies potential breaches, and sends notifications when nearing limits. Optimize API calls by reducing unnecessary requests and consider purchasing the High Volume API add-on for increased limits. Stay informed with detailed insights and take proactive measures to maintain efficient API operations.



Location: Admin Center > Account > Usage > API

You can monitor the API usage in your account and increase your API usage limits if
needed. It’s important to monitor your API usage to prevent being rate limited. You must be
a Zendesk Support admin to view the API usage pages in Admin Center.
This article contains the following sections:
About the default limits for API usage
Monitoring API usage against your rate limit
About the API usage dashboard
API usage notifications
Reducing API usage
Increasing your API rate limit
Tracking ticketing API activity against your rate limit (Legacy)




About the default limits for API usage

The following Ticketing and Help Center API rate limits apply to your Zendesk Suite
and Support plans. In general, the rate limits for the Help Center API are the same
as for the Support ticketing system API, but requests to the Help Center API don’t
count against the rate limit of the Support API, and conversely. Rate limits also
depend on the endpoints used, CPU time, and so on. See Rate limits.





Plan
Requests per minute




Team
200


Growth
400


Professional
400


Enterprise
700


High Volume API add-on
2500



Enterprise Plus plans include the High Volume API add-on.



Monitoring API usage against your rate limit

To help you monitor API usage on your account, Zendesk provides an API usage summary.
You can use this summary to view your current usage and compare the activity with
the API against your rate limit.

Note: The API usage summary and dashboard are not available to customers with accounts that use more
than 2500 requests per minute and stand-alone accounts that don't include Support.
To track API usage

In Admin Center, click
Home in the sidebar. A summary of your API
usage appears on the Admin Center home page.

The summary shows your API usage (over the last 7 days) as compared
with your API rate limits. If you are over your limit, you’ll see a warning
symbol (!) in the summary.

To view more details about your API usage, click View details. You can
also follow these instructions to view API usage details:

In Admin Center, click
Account in the sidebar, then select Usage > API.

A detailed dashboard appears that shows API usage.

The dashboard shows an API usage summary supplemented by a
time-based usage chart and tables. See About the API usage dashboard below for
details





About the API usage dashboard


Note: Mobile SDK API traffic is not included on the API usage dashboard because it does
not count against your API usage capacity.
The dashboard covers API requests over time, while the tables provide a
breakdown of total requests by callers and endpoints. The content is refreshed
daily, but it can take up to 72 hours for your current usage to be reflected in the
dashboard.


7-day summary

The 7-day summary cards include the following information:


429 errors: The API rate limit violations (HTTP 429
responses) during the last seven days, expressed as a percentage of the
total number of requests during that period.

Limit near-breaches: The number of times API calls measured
between 90 and 99% of the plan limit during the last seven days.

Limit approaches: The number of times API calls measured
between 80 and 89% of the plan limit during the last seven days.

The Limit near-breaches and the Limit approaches cards
enable admins to take proactive action against 429 errors.



API requests breakdown

This dashboard shows the total number of API requests, 429 errors,
Limit near-breaches, and Limit approaches that occurred during the timeframe
specified.
The clients are identified by the authentication credentials used. The name (or
identity) shown in the table depends on the credential type.


Public (Marketplace) app: The table shows the app name.

Access token from a global OAuth client: The table shows the OAuth
client name.

Access token from a custom (private) OAuth client: The table shows
the Zendesk admin user associated with the token (the user who generated
it).

Basic authentication with an API token: The table shows the Zendesk
user whose credentials were used.

The dashboard includes drill-down options for time, caller, and
product.
The following requests are excluded from activity:

Requests using session authentication, such as requests by Zendesk
apps or client-side requests from JavaScript code in help center.
Anonymous requests requiring no authentication, except for the
Requests API if enabled.




Timeframe and granularity

You can use the drop-down menus to show the chart by time window and granularity.
Granularity options depend on the time window you select.







Time window
Granularity options
Notes




1 day
Hourly
24 hours with hourly intervals


7 days
Hourly, Daily
7 days with hourly, or daily intervals


30 days
Daily, Weekly, Monthly
30 days with daily, weekly, or monthly intervals


90 days
Daily, Weekly, Monthly
90 days with daily, weekly, or monthly intervals


Custom range
Varies depending on range
Maximum range is 90 days






Summary

The dashboard summary shows the total number of API requests, 429 errors, Limit
near-breaches, and Limit approaches for the timeframe specified.



Chart

The bar chart shows the number of API requests over time, based on the
timeframe and granularity you specified. You can set the chart to show API usage
data for the Number of requests or for the Peak rate (requests per
minute).

Successful requests are shown in blue and 429 errors are shown in
red.
The gray line shows the API rate limit (requests per minute) for
your account.
You can hover your mouse over each data point to get more
information.

The horizontal time scale is set to your local time, with the right-most mark the
most recent. Peak rate shows the highest number of requests per minute within
the time interval. Number of requests is the average number of requests
per minute within the time interval.

The chart scales based on the amount of activity, which can hide the rate limit
line. With enough activity in the example, a horizontal line representing the
rate limit would appear at the rate limit for your plan.

Note: The chart doesn't address any end-point-specific rate limits such as those for
Incremental Exports.



Tables

The tables below the chart show the following information:

Top five callers with the highest number of API requests
Top five most frequently called endpoints, based on total
calls
Top five most frequently called endpoints, based on a count of 429
errors

Callers are identified by the authentication credentials used. Depending on the
credential type, the caller is shown as an app name, OAuth client name, or
Zendesk user name. For more information, see API requests breakdown.





API usage notifications

When you’re approaching your API usage limit, you’ll see in-product warning or error
messages. These messages appear on the Admin Center home page and on the API usage
page.
When you’re approaching your API usage limit, you’ll see an in-product warning
message first. See example below. The default warning threshold amount is 80% of the
plan limit.

If you go near or over your rate limit, you’ll receive an in-product critical
threshold message. See example below. The critical threshold amount is 90% of the
plan limit.




Reducing API usage

If you are approaching your rate limit, make sure you make only the
requests that you need. Here are areas to explore for reducing the number of
requests:

Optimize your code to eliminate any unnecessary API calls.
Cache frequently-used data.
Sideload related data.
Use bulk and batch endpoints.

For more information, see Best practices for avoiding rate limiting.
If you still have rate limit issues, you may be able to increase your API
rate limit by purchasing the High-volume API add-on. See Increasing your API rate limit in
this article.

Note: Ultimately, Zendesk always reserves the right to enforce product limits, including
charging for additional usage or curtailing usage if the limits are
surpassed.



Increasing your API rate limit


Only certain plan types can increase their API rate limit by
purchasing the High Volume API add-on. You need a Suite Growth plan or above (or a
Support Professional plan or above) with 10 or more agent seats to purchase
it.
If you are nearing your API rate limit or if you’re expecting a steep
increase in API activity, you may be able to purchase an add-on to increase the API
usage limits for your account. If you want to purchase the High Volume API add-on,
contact your account representative or Zendesk Sales to increase your API rate
limit. Also, customers with eligible sales-assisted and self-service accounts can
buy the add-on directly from their Subscription page. See Buying the High Volume API add-on. You must be the account owner or a
billing admin to purchase the add-on.
The High Volume API add-on increases the number of permitted API calls to a
higher volume of 2,500 requests per minute. This add-on is already included with
Suite Enterprise Plus.
The High Volume API add-on increases a qualifying plan's limit to 2500
requests per minute to the Ticketing and Help Center APIs. It doesn't add an
additional 2500 requests to the overall plan's limit.

Note: Subject to Zendesk’s prior written consent, Zendesk may allow you to increase API
usage limits beyond 2500 requests per minute for an additional fee.


Buying the High Volume API add-on

If you have an eligible sales-assisted or
self-service account, you can buy the High Volume API add-on directly
from the Subscription page in your account.

Tip: You can also increase your rate limit directly from the API usage
dashboard by clicking the notification to Request limit increase.
To buy the High Volume API add-on


In Admin Center, click
Account in the sidebar, then select Billing > Subscription. A summary of your current plan appears.

Click Manage. If you don't see a Manage button on the
Subscription page, then you don't have permission to make changes. If
there are additional products you can buy, you’ll see a More products
tab.

Click More products. A list of products you can add to
your account appears, including the High Volume API add-on. The High
Volume API add-on is listed only if your account is eligible to purchase
the add-on from the shopping cart.

To learn more about the add-on, click Find out more.



Click Add to subscription. Your subscription summary is updated to
reflect the purchase price.

Click Update subscription to complete your purchase.





Tracking ticketing API activity against your rate limit (Legacy)


This section describes a legacy dashboard. Zendesk recommends
using the API usage summary
instead.
In addition to the API usage
summary, you can also track Ticketing API activity in the Apps and
integrations section of the Admin Center.
To track ticketing API activity



In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select APIs > API
analytics. The API analytics page appears.
The page shows Ticketing API activity in the past 24 hours. The
table provides a breakdown of total requests by client, while the graph
measures the following metrics for requesrs over time:

Peak requests: The highest number of requests in a single
minute in the hour.

Average request/min: The average number of requests per
minute during the hour.

Rate limit: The API rate limit configured
for your account.








//
const fast_path_style = document.createElement('style');
fast_path_style.innerHTML = `#article-body .fastpath{font-size:.9em;background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 8px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body .fastpath::before{content:none!important}`;
document.head.appendChild(fast_path_style);
//

//
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//