OpenAI Rate Limits by Tier
What are OpenAI's API rate limits?
OpenAI's entry tier (Free) allows 3 requests/min and 40,000 tokens/min for gpt-5.6 family. Limits scale up through Tier 3 as cumulative spend and account age increase — see the full table below, verified 2026-08-09.
Limits by tier
| Tier | Qualification | Model class | RPM | TPM | RPD | Concurrent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | No payment method on file | gpt-5.6 family | 3 | 40,000 | 200 | 1 |
| Tier 1 | $5 cumulative spend, 7 days since first payment | gpt-5.6 family | 500 | 200,000 | 10000 | 20 |
| Tier 3 | $100 cumulative spend, 14 days since first payment | gpt-5.6 family | 5000 | 2,000,000 | — | 100 |
— means not documented by OpenAI, never a guess.
Response headers
x-ratelimit-limit-requests | Requests allowed in the current window |
x-ratelimit-remaining-requests | Requests left in the current window |
x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens | Tokens left in the current window |
retry-after | Seconds to wait before retrying, sent only on a 429 |
When you exceed the limit
OpenAI returns HTTP 429.
Back off for the duration in retry-after, then retry with jittered exponential backoff. A 429 on the first call almost always means Free-tier caps, not an outage.
FAQ
What happens when I exceed OpenAI's rate limit?
OpenAI returns HTTP 429 with a retry-after header telling you how long to wait. Back off for the duration in retry-after, then retry with jittered exponential backoff. A 429 on the first call almost always means Free-tier caps, not an outage.
How do I request a rate limit increase on OpenAI?
Request one from the account dashboard: https://platform.openai.com/settings/organization/limits