Docs

Limits

Per-tool daily caps and pay-per-call

These limits start on 15 November 2026. Until then each account keeps one daily total of 1,000 / 2,000 / 4,000 calls (Starter / Professional / Ultimate), unless it switches early on the limits page. An account can switch back once before 15 November.

Every tool has its own cap per account per 24 hours (the window starts at your first call). The cap is twice what comparable tools allow elsewhere. When a cap is reached the call returns 429 with "code": "tool_daily_cap" and "limit": "<tool>".

Repeats are free. A one-channel tool (daily analytics, channel stats, audience, CMS lookup, channel title formats, a transcript) counts each channel or video once per 24 hours, whatever the other parameters. Any other tool counts an identical request (same path, same parameters, same page) once per 24 hours. A repeat uses none of your limit and is never charged. Calls that fail, or find no data (an audience estimate not made yet), use none either.

Pay-per-call is off by default. Turn it on in Settings > API ("Keep going past my daily limits"). With it on, a call past the cap on a tool with a price above is paid from your credits (the same balance images and videos use; 1 credit = $0.03) and goes through. The response carries X-Algrow-Overage: 1 and X-Algrow-Overage-Cost. A paid call that fails or finds nothing (not found, bad input, our error, no data yet) is refunded, with its extra call for the day. Past the day's extra calls you get 429 with "code": "overage_ceiling"; with too few credits, 402 with "code": "insufficient_credits". Pay-per-call works on the new limits only (from 15 November, or once you switch early), and not on the $1 trial or without a plan. The tools without a price never charge: they pause.

Daily spending cap. Pay-per-call never spends more than the cap you pick in Settings > API: $5 (the default), $20, $50, $100 or no cap. It is counted in money, not calls, over 24 hours from the day's first paid call, so with $4.90 spent on a $5 cap a $0.20 call is refused while a $0.05 one still fits. Demonetized channel searches count toward it too. Refunds give their spend back. At the cap you get 429 with "code": "spending_cap" and when it resets; every tool still works inside its own daily limit.

Live lookups (YouTube search, channel videos, shorts, about, playlists, video data, comments, thumbnail downloads, handle and URL lookups, monetization checks, what YouTube recommends) have no per-tool caps. They share one allowance: 3,000 / 6,000 / 12,000 a day on Starter / Professional / Ultimate. Past it they return 429 until the window resets; every other tool keeps working.

Demonetized channel search (demonetized=yes on /api/longform-channels/search, demonetized=True on the MCP tool search_longform_channels): long-form channels that lost ad monetization and have not got it back, newest first, each with demonetized_at. Every other filter still applies; within=N keeps losses from the last N days. $0.20 a search from credits, every search, refunded if it fails, up to 40 / 60 / 120 searches a day. Not on the $1 trial.

Near a limit: once you pass 80% of a tool's cap or the live lookups allowance, responses carry limit_notice (and the X-Algrow-Limit-Notice header): how much is used, when it resets, and what more costs. The same field says when pay-per-call starts for the day, at 80% of your spending cap, and when your credits run low; you also get those three as notifications in the app.

Per key or per account? The per-minute buckets are counted per API key, so a second key gives you a second burst allowance. The 24h caps (each tool's cap and the live lookups allowance) and the concurrent-job caps are counted per account and are shared by every key you own — minting more keys does not raise them. The extension's bulk data calls (channel briefs, bulk stats, Shorts baselines, video changes, performance trends, stats history, monetization profile, niche overview) share one limit of 30 a minute per account across all your keys; the desktop app has its own.

Hitting 429? The error message tells you which limit you hit. Rate-limit 429s read "Rate limit exceeded (30 requests/min). Try again in Xs." — back off for the suggested seconds. Daily 429s carry a code: tool_daily_cap (one tool's limit, with limit naming it), overage_ceiling (that tool's extra paid calls for the day), spending_cap (your pay-per-call cap) or none for live lookups and, until 15 November, the old daily total. Each window is a rolling 24h from the first call that counted, so wait for the reset, turn on pay-per-call, or move up a plan. Concurrent-job 429s read "Concurrent job limit reached" — wait for an existing job to finish before submitting another.

Search query required on channel endpoints: Channel search endpoints (/api/channels/search, /api/longform-channels/search, /api/terminated-channels/search) require a q parameter. /api/viral-videos/search is the exception — q / video_id / video_url are all optional; omit them to browse by filters alone.

Credits & Billing

Algrow uses two credit systems: TTS credits (character-based) for voice generation, and studio credits for media generation and video processing. Credits are checked before each job and only deducted after successful completion — you are never charged for failed jobs.

TTS Credits

Studio Credits

Studio credits are separate from TTS credits. They are deducted upfront and automatically refunded if a job fails.

Insufficient credits? The API returns 402 Payment Required with the exact number of credits available and needed. Purchase more credits from your Algrow dashboard.