API rate limiting is a crucial mechanism used to control the number of API requests a seller can make in a given time period. This ensures the stability and reliability of the API service by preventing abuse and overuse.

Benefits

API rate limiting provides multiple advantages that enhance overall service efficiency and security.

Enhanced performance: By limiting the number of requests, APIs can maintain optimal performance levels, ensuring that all users experience consistent and reliable service.
Fair usage: Rate limits ensure that resources are distributed fairly among all users, preventing any single user from monopolizing the service.
Protection against abuse: Rate limiting helps protect the API from malicious attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS), where an attacker overwhelms the service with excessive requests.
Improved security: It acts as a layer of security by reducing the risk of automated scraping and other unauthorized activities.

By implementing API rate limiting, Walmart aims to offer a more secure, stable, and fair service to all users, enhancing the overall user experience.

API usage limits (Rate limits and throttling)

Walmart imposes limits on its API usage to ensure fair resource usage and protect platform stability. All Walmart API users are responsible for ensuring their API usage remains within these limits.

The API usage is restricted in two ways:

Rate limits

Definition: Limits the number of API requests allowed within a particular timeframe.
Variability: Rate limits vary by API.
Consequences: If rate limits are exceeded, then you will be throttled, receiving a 429 – Too Many Requests error code response.

Max file size limits

Definition: Limits the file size allowed for different API feed types.
Variability: File size limits vary by feed type.
Consequences: If file size limits are exceeded, then your request will be denied, receiving a 413 – Payload Too Large error code response.

Algorithm for rate limits

Walmart utilizes a token bucket algorithm to enforce rate limits. Imagine a bucket that holds a fixed number of tokens, each representing an API call. When there are tokens in the bucket, an API request is allowed, and a token is removed from the bucket. If there are no tokens left, the API request is denied. The bucket is continuously replenished with tokens at a fixed rate. For example, if the rate limit is 20 requests per hour, the limit may replenish one request every 3 minutes.

Finding your usage limits

Usage limits are posted on the Walmart Developer portal for your convenience.
When you call Walmart APIs, the response header includes two parameters indicating your current rate limit for the specific API you are calling.

Parameter	Description
x-current-token-count	Your current number of tokens available, which is your request limit for this API.
x-next-replenish-time	The next time at which your token count increases, allowing additional requests for this API.

API rate limits

The following table provides the default API call limit rates for individuals and smaller businesses.

API category	API name	Rate limit	Method	Endpoint
Assortment Recommendations	Get Recommendations	500/min	POST	/v3/growth/assortment/recommendations
	Get Variants	500/hour	GET	/v3/growth/assortment/recommendations/variants
	Get Recommendation Trends	500/hour	GET	/v3/growth/assortment/recommendations/trends
	Get Categorization	200/hour	POST	/v3/growth/assortment/recommendations/categorization/counts
	Reject Recommendations	20/hour	PUT	/v3/growth/assortment/recommendations/rejections
Disputes Management	Dispute status	10/min	POST	/v3/items/dispute/duplicates/status
	Dispute submission	10/min	POST	/v3/items/dispute/duplicates/contest
Feed Management	All feed statuses	5000/min	GET	/v3/feeds
	Feed item status	5000/min	GET	/v3/feeds/{feedId}
	Get feed error report	60/hour	GET	/v3/feeds/{feedId}/errorReport
Fulfillment Management (WFS)	Hazmat Items On Hold	30/hour	POST	/v3/items/onhold/search
	Update Shipment Tracking	2/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/shipment-tracking
	Create Inbound Shipment label	20/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/shipment-label
	Get Customer Return Orders status	60/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/return-orders
	Create Customer Return Order	60/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/return-orders
	Cancel Customer Return Order	60/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/return-orders/{orderId}/cancel
	Create Customer Order	600/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/orders-fulfillments
	Fetch Delivery Promise Details	20/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/orders-fulfillments/fetchOrderPromiseOptions
	Cancel Customer Order	600/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/orders-fulfillments/cancel
	Get Shipments	32/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-shipments
	Create Inbound Shipment	500/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-shipments
	Fetch Inbound Preview	60/hour	POST	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-preview
	Get Carrier Rate Quote	150/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/carrier-rate-quotes/{shipmentId}/{mode}
	Create Carrier Rate Quote	8/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/carrier-rate-quotes
	Confirm Carrier Rate Quote	8/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/carrier-rate-quote/confirm
	Print Carrier Label	30/min	POST	/v3/fulfillment/carrier-label/{shipmentId}
	Get WFS Inventory Health Report	5/min	GET	/v3/report/wfs/getInventoryHealthReport
	Get fulfillment orders status	20/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/orders-fulfillments/status
	Get Inventory Log for a WFS item	500/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/inventory-log
	Get Inbound Shipment Items	300/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-shipment-items
	Get Inbound Shipment errors	10/min	GET	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-shipment-errors
	Cancel Inbound Shipment	10/min	DELETE	/v3/fulfillment/inbound-shipments/{inboundOrderId}
Insights Management	Item Listing Quality Details	1/min	POST	/v3/insights/items/listingQuality/items
	Pro Seller Tier and Rewards Status	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/sellerIncentives
	Pro Seller Badge Status	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/prosellerbadge
	Valid Tracking Rate Performance Metrics	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/vtr/summary
	Get Valid tracking orders report in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/vtr/report
	Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - Ship-from Location accuracies	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/sfla/summary
	Get the report of Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - Ship-from location accury in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/sfla/report
	Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - On-time Shipment rate	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/ots/summary
	Get the report of Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - On-time shipment rate in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/ots/report
	Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - Carrier Method Accuracy	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/cma/summary
	Get the report of Simplified Shipping Settings Metrics - Carrier Method Accuracy in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/sss/cma/report
	Seller Response Rate Performance Metrics	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/srr/summary
	Get Seller Response Rate orders in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/srr/report
	Refund Performance Metrics	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/refunds/summary
	Get refunded orders report in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/refunds/report
	On Time Delivery Performance Metrics	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/otd/summary
	Get On Time Delivery Orders Report in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/otd/report
	Cancellations Performance Metrics	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/cancellations/summary
	Get cancelled orders report in Microsoft xlsx format	1/min	GET	/v3/insights/performance/cancellations/report
	Unpublished Items	100/min	GET	/v3/insights/items/unpublished/items
	Unpublished Item Counts	100/min	GET	/v3/insights/items/unpublished/counts
	Seller Listing Quality Score	10/hour	GET	/v3/insights/items/listingQuality/score
Inventory Management	Inventory	200/min	GET	/v3/inventory
	Update Inventory	200/min	PUT	/v3/inventory
	Single Item Inventory by Ship Node	200/min	GET	/v3/inventories/{sku}
	Update Item Inventory per Ship Node	200/min	PUT	/v3/inventories/{sku}
	Multiple Item Inventory for All Ship Notes	200/min	GET	/v3/inventories
Item Management	Get Spec	10/min	POST	/v3/items/spec
	Catalog Search	200/min	POST	/v3/items/catalog/search
	Get Item Associations	200/min	POST	/v3/items/associations
	All items	300/min	GET	/v3/items
	An item	900/min	GET	/v3/items/{id}
	Item Search	200/min	GET	/v3/items/walmart/search
	Taxonomy	200/min	GET	/v3/items/taxonomy
	Get item count by groups	100/min	GET	/v3/items/groups/count
	Get items count by status	200/min	GET	/v3/items/count
	Retire an item	900/min	DELETE	/v3/items/{sku}
Lag Time	Lag Time	20/hour	GET	/v3/lagtime
Notifications Management	Test Notification	10/min	POST	/v3/webhooks/test
	All Subscriptions	50/min	GET	/v3/webhooks/subscriptions
	Create Subscription	200/min	POST	/v3/webhooks/subscriptions
	Delete Subscription	10/min	DELETE	/v3/webhooks/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}
	Update Subscription	5/min	PATCH	/v3/webhooks/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}
	Event Types	5/min	GET	/v3/webhooks/eventTypes
On-Request Report Management	Get All Report Requests	200/min	GET	/v3/reports/reportRequests
	Report Request Status	20/hour	GET	/v3/reports/reportRequests/{requestId}
	Download Report URL	20/hour	GET	/v3/reports/downloadReport
Order Management	Ship Order Lines	60/min	POST	/v3/orders/{purchaseOrderId}/shipping
	Refund Order Lines	60/min	POST	/v3/orders/{purchaseOrderId}/refund
	Cancel Order Lines	60/min	POST	/v3/orders/{purchaseOrderId}/cancel
	Acknowledge Orders	60/min	POST	/v3/orders/{purchaseOrderId}/acknowledge
	All orders	5000/min	GET	/v3/orders
	An order	5000/min	GET	/v3/orders/{purchaseOrderId}
	All released orders	60/min	GET	/v3/orders/released
Pre-generated Reports Retiring on June 30, 2022	Recon Report (Legacy)	100/min	GET	/v3/report/reconreport/reconFile
	Payment Statement Report	15/min	GET	/v3/report/payment/statement
	Performance Report	15/min	GET	/v3/report/payment/performance
Price Management	Update Repricer Strategy	10/hour	PUT	/v3/repricer/strategy/{strategyCollectionId}
	Delete Repricer Strategy	10/hour	DELETE	/v3/repricer/strategy/{strategyCollectionId}
	Update a price	100/hour	PUT	/v3/price
	Assign/Unassign items to/from Repricer Strategy	6/hour	POST	/v3/repricerFeeds
	Create Repricer Strategy	20/hour	POST	/v3/repricer/strategy
	Set up CAP SKU All	30/min	POST	/v3/cppreference
	List of Repricer Strategies	50/hour	GET	/v3/repricer/strategies
	List of Price Incentive Items	60/min	GET	/v3/price/incentives
	Update the enrollment status of Walmart-funded incentive items	1/min	PUT	/v3/price/incentives/wfpreference
Promotion Management	Update a promotional price	100/hour	PUT	/v3/price
	Promotional prices	1000/min	GET	/v3/promo/sku/{sku}
Returns Management	Issue refund	60/min	POST	/v3/returns/{returnOrderId}/refund
	Returns	50/min	GET	/v3/returns
Reviews Acceleration	Bulk Update Item Status	100/hour	PUT	/v3/growth/reviews-accelerator/items/status
	Get RAP Post-Purchase Items	20/min	POST	/v3/growth/reviews-accelerator/items
	Get Categories	100/hour	POST	/v3/growth/reviews-accelerator/categories
Settings Management	Get Shipping Template Details	750/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/templates/{templateId}
	Update Shipping Templates	100/min	PUT	/v3/settings/shipping/templates/{templateId}
	Delete Shipping Template	100/min	DELETE	/v3/settings/shipping/templates/{templateId}
	Get all fulfillment centers	50/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/shipnodes
	Update fulfillment center	60/min	PUT	/v3/settings/shipping/shipnodes
	Create fulfillment center	10/min	POST	/v3/settings/shipping/shipnodes
	Get account level settings	50/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/account
	Update account level settings	100/min	PUT	/v3/settings/shipping/account
	Create account level settings	10/min	POST	/v3/settings/shipping/account
	Get All Shipping Templates	300/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/templates
	Create Shipping Templates	60/min	POST	/v3/settings/shipping/templates
	Third party fulfillment center association	10/min	POST	/v3/settings/shipping/3plshipnodes
	Get Shipping Configurations	100/min	GET	/v3/settings/shippingprofile
	Get Shipping Template Activation Status	10/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/templates/activationStatus
	Get coverage for fulfillment centers	100/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/shipnodes/coverage
	Get carrier methods	10/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/carriers
	Get all third party fulfillment providers	10/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/3plproviders
	Get Partner Configurations	50/min	GET	/v3/settings/partnerprofile
Ship With Walmart	Create label	100/min	POST	/v3/shipping/labels
	Shipping estimates	100/min	POST	/v3/shipping/labels/shipping-estimates
	Labels detail by purchase order id	100/min	GET	/v3/shipping/labels/purchase-orders/{purchaseOrderId}
	Supported carriers	100/min	GET	/v3/shipping/labels/carriers
	Download label	100/min	GET	/v3/shipping/labels/carriers/{carrierShortName}/trackings/{trackingNo}
	Discard label	100/min	DELETE	/v3/shipping/labels/carriers/{carrierShortName}/trackings/{trackingNo}
	Supported carrier package types	100/min	GET	/v3/shipping/labels/carriers/{carrierShortName}/package-types
Simplified Shipping Settings Management	Update FC Level Simplified Shipping Settings	25/min	PUT	/v3/settings/shipping/simplifiedshippingsettings/fulfillmentcenter
	Update Simplified Shipping Settings	25/min	PUT	/v3/settings/shipping/simplifiedshippingsettings/account
	Create Simplified Shipping Settings	5/min	POST	/v3/settings/shipping/simplifiedshippingsettings/account
	Get Simplified Shipping Settings	50/min	GET	/v3/settings/shipping/simplifiedshippingsettings
Utilities Management	Taxonomy by Spec	20/min	GET	/v3/utilities/taxonomy
	API Platform Status	100/min	GET	/v3/utilities/apiStatus

Feed type usage limits

Feed type	Maximum file size	Rate limit
inventory	5 MB	10/hour
mp_item_price_update	26 MB	20/hour
sku_template_map	10 MB	10/hour
dsv_inventory	10 MB	50/hour
mp_inventory	10 MB	50/hour
mp_item	26 MB	10/hour
mp_maintenance	26 MB	10/hour
lagtime	10 MB	6/hour
price	10 MB	10/hour
promo	10 MB	10/hour
mp_item_match	26 MB	20/hour
promo_price	10 MB	6/day
returns_overrides	0.4 MB	20/day
omni_dsv_item	26 MB	20/hour
omni_maintenance	26 MB	20/hour
cpt_seller_eligibility	10 MB	7/day
item	26 MB	10/hour
shipping_overrides	26 MB	10/hour
mp_wfs_item	26 MB	10/hour
omni_wfs	26 MB	10/hour
program_actions	25 MB	20/hour
mp_wfs_maintenance	26 MB	10/hour
split_and_merge	26 MB	10/hour