API call limits

To maintain reliability and stability within our demo and production environments, Docusign operates with certain API call efficiency guidelines. To ensure effective load balance, we continually monitor the API calls to our back-end systems and we will contact developers who are putting unnecessary burden on the system.

Docusign has implemented API call rate limits to balance loads on the system:

• The demo environment (demo.docusign.net) is limited to a call rate of 3,000 API calls per hour per account by default.
• The production environment (www.docusign.net) is limited to a call rate of 3,000 API calls per hour per account by default.

If the API call rate limit is reached, you will receive an exception for each call until the start of the next hour (this can be up to 60 minutes). The exception message states: “The maximum number of hourly API invocations has been exceeded” (error number 207).

Note: A shorter, 30-second burst limit of 500 calls is also implemented that can prevent you from making large numbers of calls in very short periods of time.

Hourly API usage is tracked from the start of one hour to the start of the next hour.

Customers can monitor the number of API calls their applications make by checking the API limit headers that are returned in the response to SOAP API requests. The headers are returned in both the production and demo environments.

The headers are only returned in the response to SOAP API requests for calls that are subject to Docusign API limits. So the API limit headers will not be returned in all the API responses and your code should take this into consideration.

Instances where the API limit headers are not returned include:

• When an error is detected early in an API request. Usually this is due to errors in the request body or invalid query string parameters.
• API calls that historically have not been counted as part of the Docusign legacy API limits strategy.
• Any API calls that do not require user authentication and do not identify a specific account user.

For instances where the API limit headers are not returned, there is no change to the remaining calls available for the account.

The information in the API limit header shows the current API limit for the account (the number of calls that can be made per hour), the number of remaining calls for the current time period, and when the account API limit will reset. The reset time is shown in Unix epoch time.

Example API Limit Headers

X-RateLimit-Limit → 3000
X-RateLimit-Remaining → 996
X-RateLimit-Reset → 1425967200
X-BurstLimit-Limit → 500
X-BurstLimit-Remaining → 498

To prevent excessive calls, you are limited to one status request per unique envelope per 15 minutes for all GET and LIST calls. Repeatedly requesting information that are in a terminal state (Completed, Declined or Voided) is also restricted.

Instead of repeatedly requesting envelope status (also known as polling), use Docusign Connect webhooks to track status.

See API usage guidelines for details and a complete list of best practices and guidelines for working with Docusign APIs.

If you find your account still exceeds 3,000 calls per hour, you may be able to increase the limit using the API Usage Center limit management feature. You can also contact Docusign Support for assistance in working on a solution.

If you have any questions, please check our Developer Forum.