> For clean Markdown of any page, append `.md` to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.sarvam.ai/llms.txt.
> For full documentation content in one file, see https://docs.sarvam.ai/llms-full.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.sarvam.ai/_mcp/server.

# Credits & Rate Limits

> Understand Sarvam AI rate limits by plan tier, per-API concurrency limits, and how to handle 429 and 503 errors gracefully. View your current limits on the dashboard.

## Credits

Sarvam offers **₹100 worth of free credits** for every user on signup. These credits can be used across any of our APIs, explore, prototype, and build without upfront cost.

Credits are universal and never expire. Once exhausted, add more credits or upgrade your plan from the [Sarvam Dashboard](https://dashboard.sarvam.ai/billing).

For commercial production rights when you ship generated audio (Bulbul v3, Content Studio exports, cloned voices), see [Commercial Licensing](/api/getting-started/commercial-licensing).

---

## How Rate Limits Work

Rate limits restrict the number of API requests your account can make within a given time window. Key points:

* **Per-account enforcement**: limits apply to your account as a whole, not individual API keys. All keys share the same rate limit pool.
* **Continuous replenishment**: capacity refills steadily over the window period rather than resetting all at once (token bucket model).
* **Per-API granularity**: each API has its own independent rate limits. WebSocket, Document AI, and LLM APIs have different limits from standard REST APIs. Check your specific API below.

---

## Per-API Rate Limits by Plan

Rate limits vary significantly by API type and plan. Review the limits for each API below before building your integration.

### Speech to Text

#### Real-time REST

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business      |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 req/min | 100 req/min | 4,000 req/min |

#### WebSocket Streaming

|                | Starter       | Pro            | Business       |
| -------------- | ------------- | -------------- | -------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 20 concurrent | 100 concurrent | 100 concurrent |

#### Batch

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business    |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ----------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 20 req/min | 100 req/min | 500 req/min |

> **Warning**
>
> For batch endpoints, avoid tight polling loops. Poll no faster than your plan's rate limit allows, for example every 3 seconds on Starter's 20 req/min.
>
> The SDK's `wait_until_complete()` uses safe defaults out of the box:
>
> * **Batch STT / Speech-to-Text-Translate:** 5-second poll interval. See [Polling Defaults](/api/api-guides-tutorials/speech-to-text/batch-api#polling-defaults).
> * **Document Digitization (legacy `document_intelligence`):** 2-second poll interval.
>
> [Document AI](/api/api-guides-tutorials/document-intelligence/overview) has no `wait_until_complete()` helper. You poll `get_status()` yourself, so pick your own interval (the examples use 5 seconds).
>
> If you poll manually instead of using the SDK helper, match or exceed these intervals.

---

### Text to Speech

#### Real-time REST

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business      |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 req/min | 200 req/min | 1,000 req/min |

> **Note**
>
> For `bulbul:v3` model specifically, Starter rate limit is **30 req/min**. Pro and Business limits are the same as the default above.

#### WebSocket Streaming

|                | Starter       | Pro            | Business         |
| -------------- | ------------- | -------------- | ---------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 concurrent | 200 concurrent | 1,000 concurrent |

> **Note**
>
> For `bulbul:v3` model specifically, Starter rate limit is **30 concurrent**. Pro and Business limits are the same as the default above.

### Voice Cloning

|               | Starter    | Pro        | Business    |
| ------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| **Sustained** | 10 req/min | 50 req/min | 500 req/min |
| **Burst**     | 50 req     | 100 req    | 600 req     |

> **Note**
>
> Voice Cloning limits are lower than Text to Speech because each request runs the full cloning pipeline (transcription, generation, quality control). The sustained figure is the steady-state rate; short spikes are allowed up to the burst figure before requests are rejected with a `429`. Limits are subject to change.

---

### Translation & Text Services

#### Text translation (`POST /translate`)

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business      |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 req/min | 200 req/min | 1,000 req/min |

#### Document Translation

Job lifecycle endpoints (`POST /translate/document/jobs`, `start`, `live-status`, `export`, `export/status`):

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business      |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 req/min | 200 req/min | 1,000 req/min |

> **Note**
>
> Document Translation is asynchronous. Poll `live-status` every **10–15 seconds** (see the [overview](/api/api-guides-tutorials/doc-translation/overview#how-it-works)) rather than tight loops that burn your per-minute quota.

---

### Chat Completion (LLM)

#### Default models

|                | Starter    | Pro         | Business      |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 60 req/min | 200 req/min | 1,000 req/min |

#### Sarvam-105B model

This large model has lower limits due to its compute requirements.

|                | Starter    | Pro        | Business    |
| -------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ----------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 40 req/min | 60 req/min | 120 req/min |

Applies to: `sarvam-105b`, `sarvam-105b-conversations`

---

### Document AI

> **Note**
>
> Document AI limits are **uniform across all plans** (Starter, Pro, and Business). Upgrading your plan does not increase Document AI limits.

#### Digitise

|                | Starter    | Pro        | Business   |
| -------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 10 req/min | 10 req/min | 10 req/min |

#### Extract

|                | Starter    | Pro        | Business   |
| -------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| **Rate Limit** | 10 req/min | 10 req/min | 10 req/min |

---

## Exceeding Your Limits

### REST rate limits (429 / 503)

When your account exceeds a rate limit, the API returns a `429 Too Many Requests` response:

```json
{
  "error": {
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded",
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded_error"
  }
}
```

A `503 Service Unavailable` can also occur under high backend load. Retry it the same way you would a 429, using a fixed exponential backoff. See [Retry with exponential backoff](/api/getting-started/errors-troubleshooting#retry-with-exponential-backoff) for a reference implementation.

### WebSocket connection limits

The limiter reacts to how fast new connections are opened, not how many are held open at once:

* Connections opened in a fast burst can be rejected well below the concurrent ceilings listed above.
* The same number of connections opened gradually (for example, 300ms apart) and held open simultaneously can succeed past those ceilings.

A rejected connection is closed, not queued. The close code is `1003`, with this reason text:

```
Rate limit exceeded. Visit the API Dashboard to review and manage your subscription.
```

This differs from the `4xxx` range described elsewhere on this site for application-specific closures.

> **Note**
>
> The burst threshold is not a fixed number and can vary between runs at the same burst size. Space out new connections rather than relying on a specific count.

---

## Plan Overview

|                   | Starter               | Pro             | Business             | Enterprise        |
| ----------------- | --------------------- | --------------- | -------------------- | ----------------- |
| **Price**         | Pay as you go         | ₹10,000         | ₹50,000              | Custom            |
| **Bonus Credits** | —                     | ₹100            | ₹7,500               | Custom            |
| **Support**       | Community             | Email           | Email                | Dedicated         |
| **Best For**      | Prototyping & testing | Startups & POCs | Production workloads | Scale deployments |

> **Note**
>
> Rate limits are measured per account, not per API key. All keys under an account share the same limit pool. Your current limits are visible on the [Dashboard → Rate Limits](https://dashboard.sarvam.ai/rate-limits) page.

---

## Upgrading Your Limits

### Check your current limits

Visit the [Dashboard → Rate Limits](https://dashboard.sarvam.ai/rate-limits) to see your exact per-API limits.

### Upgrade your plan

Purchase a higher plan directly from the dashboard. Your rate limits increase immediately after upgrade, no downtime.

### Need custom limits?

For limits beyond Business tier, contact our team for an Enterprise arrangement.

#### [Upgrade Plan](https://dashboard.sarvam.ai/pricing)

View plans and upgrade directly from the dashboard. Rate limits update instantly.

#### [Enterprise & Custom Limits](/api/getting-started/help)

Need higher rate limits, dedicated infrastructure, or custom SLAs? Talk to our team.

---

## Managing Your Credits

If your credits are exhausted, API requests will return errors. You can add credits at any time, adding credits does **not** change your plan or rate limits.

1. **Add Credits**: Top up from the [Billing page](https://dashboard.sarvam.ai/billing) at any time. Credits never expire.
2. **Upgrade Your Plan**: Higher plans include bonus credits and increased rate limits.
3. **Enterprise**: For volume discounts and custom billing arrangements, email [support@sarvam.ai](mailto:support@sarvam.ai?subject=Enterprise%20API%20Access%20Request\&body=Hi%20Sarvam%20Team%2C%0A%0AI'm%20reaching%20out%20from%20%5BYour%20Company%20Name%5D%20to%20explore%20enterprise%20access%20to%20Sarvam%20AI%20APIs.%0A%0ACompany%20Details%3A%0A-%20Company%20Name%3A%20%5BYour%20Company%5D%0A-%20Industry%3A%20%5BYour%20Industry%5D%0A-%20Website%3A%20%5BYour%20Website%5D%0A%0AUse%20Case%3A%0A%5BDescribe%20your%20use%20case%20and%20how%20you%20plan%20to%20use%20our%20APIs%5D%0A%0AAPIs%20of%20Interest%3A%0A%5B%5D%20Speech-to-Text%0A%5B%5D%20Text-to-Speech%0A%5B%5D%20Translation%0A%5B%5D%20Chat%20Completion%0A%5B%5D%20Other%20\(please%20specify\)%0A%0AExpected%20Usage%3A%0A-%20Estimated%20API%20calls%20per%20month%3A%20%5BNumber%5D%0A-%20Expected%20audio%20duration%2Ftext%20volume%3A%20%5BDetails%5D%0A-%20Languages%20needed%3A%20%5BList%20languages%5D%0A%0ASpecific%20Requirements%3A%0A%5BShare%20any%20specific%20features%2C%20SLAs%2C%20or%20support%20needs%5D%0A%0ATimeline%3A%0A%5BWhen%20do%20you%20plan%20to%20start%20testing%2Fdeployment%3F%5D%0A%0ALooking%20forward%20to%20discussing%20this%20further.%0A%0ABest%20regards%2C%0A%5BYour%20Name%5D%0A%5BYour%20Title%5D%0A%5BContact%20Information%5D).