Implement Exa rate limiting, backoff, and idempotency patterns.
Use when handling rate limit errors, implementing retry logic,
or optimizing API request throughput for Exa.
Trigger with phrases like "exa rate limit", "exa throttling",
"exa 429", "exa retry", "exa backoff".
Handle Exa API rate limits gracefully. Default limit is 10 QPS (queries per second) across all endpoints. Rate limit errors return HTTP 429 with a simple { "error": "rate limit exceeded" } response. For higher limits, contact [email protected] for Enterprise plans.
Rate Limit Structure
Endpoint
Default QPS
Notes
/search
10
Most endpoints share this limit
/find-similar
10
Same pool as search
/contents
10
Same pool
/answer
10
Same pool
Research API
Concurrent task limit
Long-running operations
Prerequisites
exa-js SDK installed
Understanding of async/await patterns
Instructions
Step 1: Exponential Backoff with Jitter
import Exa from "exa-js";
const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);
async function withBackoff<T>(
operation: () => Promise<T>,
config = { maxRetries: 5, baseDelayMs: 1000, maxDelayMs: 32000 }
): Promise<T> {
for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
try {
return await operation();
} catch (err: any) {
const status = err.status || err.response?.status;
// Only retry on 429 (rate limit) and 5xx (server errors)
if (status !== 429 && (status < 500 || status >= 600)) throw err;
if (attempt === config.maxRetries) throw err;
// Exponential delay with random jitter to prevent thundering herd
const exponentialDelay = config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
const jitter = Math.random() * 500;
const delay = Math.min(exponentialDelay + jitter, config.maxDelayMs);
console.log(`[Exa] ${status} — retry ${attempt + 1}/${config.maxRetries} in ${delay.toFixed(0)}ms`);
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
}
}
throw new Error("Unreachable");
}
// Usage
const results = await withBackoff(() =>
exa.searchAndContents("AI research", { numResults: 5, text: true })
);
Step 2: Request Queue with Concurrency Control
import PQueue from "p-queue";
// Limit to 8 concurrent requests (under the 10 QPS limit)
const exaQueue = new PQueue({
concurrency: 8,
interval: 1000, // per second
intervalCap: 10, // max 10 per interval (matches Exa's QPS limit)
});
async function queuedSearch(query: string, opts: any = {}) {
return exaQueue.add(() => exa.searchAndContents(query, opts));
}
// Batch many queries safely
async function batchSearch(queries: string[]) {
const results = await Promise.all(
queries.map(q => queuedSearch(q, { numResults: 5, text: true }))
);
return results;
}
Step 3: Adaptive Rate Limiter
class AdaptiveRateLimiter {
private currentDelay = 100; // ms between requests
private minDelay = 50;
private maxDelay = 5000;
private consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
private lastRequestTime = 0;
async execute<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
const now = Date.now();
const elapsed = now - this.lastRequestTime;
if (elapsed < this.currentDelay) {
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, this.currentDelay - elapsed));
}
try {
this.lastRequestTime = Date.now();
const result = await fn();
this.consecutiveSuccesses++;
// Speed up after 10 consecutive successes
if (this.consecutiveSuccesses >= 10) {
this.currentDelay = Math.max(this.minDelay, this.currentDelay * 0.8);
this.consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
}
return result;
} catch (err: any) {
if (err.status === 429) {
// Slow down on rate limit
this.currentDelay = Math.min(this.maxDelay, this.currentDelay * 2);
this.consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
console.log(`[Exa] Rate limited. New delay: ${this.currentDelay}ms`);
}
throw err;
}
}
}
const limiter = new AdaptiveRateLimiter();
// Combine with backoff
const results = await withBackoff(() =>
limiter.execute(() => exa.search("query", { numResults: 5 }))
);
Step 4: Batch Processing with Rate Awareness
async function processBatch(
queries: string[],
batchSize = 5,
delayBetweenBatches = 1000
) {
const allResults = [];
for (let i = 0; i < queries.length; i += batchSize) {
const batch = queries.slice(i, i + batchSize);
// Process batch concurrently
const batchResults = await Promise.all(
batch.map(q => withBackoff(() =>
exa.searchAndContents(q, { numResults: 3, text: true })
))
);
allResults.push(...batchResults);
// Pause between batches to stay under rate limit
if (i + batchSize < queries.length) {
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delayBetweenBatches));
}
console.log(`Processed ${Math.min(i + batchSize, queries.length)}/${queries.length}`);
}
return allResults;
}
Error Handling
Issue
Cause
Solution
429 errors
Exceeding 10 QPS
Implement backoff + queue
Burst rejected
Too many simultaneous requests
Use p-queue with intervalCap
Batch job failures
No delay between batches
Add delayBetweenBatches
Inconsistent throttling
No jitter in retry
Add random jitter to prevent thundering herd
Examples
Simple Retry Wrapper
async function retrySearch(query: string, maxRetries = 3) {
for (let i = 0; i <= maxRetries; i++) {
try {
return await exa.search(query, { numResults: 5 });
} catch (err: any) {
if (err.status !== 429 || i === maxRetries) throw err;
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * Math.pow(2, i)));
}
}
}