How a 3-requests-per-hour API limit teaches smarter development practices

A developer working with The Coin Analysis public price API's strict free tier — capped at three requests per hour — documented key lessons in efficient API usage. The core insight was to batch requests rather than loop through individual items, using pagination parameters to fetch up to 220 tokens in a single call. Caching responses on a server or edge function and reading from that cache instead of hitting the API repeatedly helps stay within tight rate limits. The developer also implemented per-route cooldown logic to handle 429 rate-limit errors without wasting remaining quota. The experience highlighted that constraints like minimal free tiers can enforce good engineering habits around batching, caching, and key security.