API Limits using /2/files/download

[deeuu]

Hello,

I'm developing a single-user app (1 access token), via the Python AP I, to share many files (~200K totally approx 1TB) from a Business account.

As such, the plan is to use Dropbox.files_download_to_file

1. Would Rate Limiting cause issues here, e.g. what if `files_download_to_file` was used to download the entire content of a business account?

2. Business account traffic is limited to 200GB per day, but apparently this does not apply to authenticated access, such as in this application.

I'd really appreciate any input on these two points.

Many thanks

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

1.  The Dropbox API does have a rate limiting system, but we don't have any specific numbers documented, so I can't say off hand if you would or wouldn't hit the limits. Also note that not all 429s and 503s indicate explicit rate limiting, but in any case that you get a 429 or 503 the best practice is to retry the request, respecting the Retry-After header if given in the response, or using an exponential back-off, if not.

2. That's correct, the 200 GB traffic limit is for shared link traffic, not authenticated API traffic.

[deeuu]

Great, thanks Greg!

[Nouredin]

Hi Greg,

Do paid accounts also have limits on api traffic?
And am I going to receive a warning of reaching the limit before the service stops (in both free and paid)?

Thanks

[Greg-DB]

@Nouredin The general Dropbox API rate limiting system applies to all account types, including both free and paid. If you hit the limit, the API call(s) will fail with a 429 or 503 as described earlier. There isn't a warning ahead of when you hit the limit, but the period for which you are blocked is generally relatively short and can be found in the Retry-After header.

(You didn't mention what particular functionality you're using, but note that there is an additional limit specifically for uploading to certain Dropbox Business teams that works differently. You can find information on that here.)