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We are developing an indexer that will be used to store and serve up questions/answers related to our products. The indexer uses a key (and soon an access_token) to retrieve the data from Stack Exchange's API.

We are currently under the 10,000 limit by running the indexer every hour; however, we would like to run it at least every 10 minutes so that our users have a real-time experience.

Is there a way that we can increase the quota or is there a better way to do this?

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See How API Keys Work. It's six years old, but a leading API developer said:

... If you can demonstrate a need for a higher request quota, contact us.

However, the Key limit should be sufficient for development, so please only request an increased quota when your application is live and has a non-trivial number of users.

(Emphasis and contact link added)

Update: At least one app (SmokeDetector) has done this. Earning a quota limit over 10K.

Meanwhile, you state that your app "store(s) and serve(s) up questions/answers related to our products." It is difficult to see how this would need so much quota.

  • You can get every question asked each day on Stack Overflow with only 78 API calls‡.
  • Polling every 10 minutes only takes 144 API calls.
  • A certain app theoretically scans every single post on all Stack Exchange sites (not all through the API though) and it only uses up to about 9K API calls per day.

Intelligent: caching, API filters, and use of the "Last activity" tools can really cut down on the need for API calls and allow more frequent polling of "hot" questions and answers.


‡ There are currently 7.8K questions asked each day, at 100 questions returned per API call (pagesize set to max of 100). Use something like the /questions route with fromdate set to the last 24 hours.

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  • Brock, you say "You can get every question asked each day on Stack Overflow with only 82 API calls." Can you elaborate on this or provide a source? Thanks!
    – johnnyRose
    Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 22:27
  • @johnnyRose, see the updated answer. (PS: Activity has dropped on SO.)
    – Brock Adams
    Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 22:44
  • I see, that number is lower than I expected. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
    – johnnyRose
    Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 22:46

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