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Troublor merged 5 commits into from
Jul 24, 2026
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doc: update public RPC rate-limit tiers and 429 error code #83

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8d06413
doc: update public RPC rate-limit tiers and 429 error code
Troublor Jul 24, 2026
8a93918
address review feedback: fix read RPC rate-limit categories
mega-putin[bot] Jul 24, 2026
af29e1c
address review feedback: clarify eth_callAfter rate-limit tier
mega-putin[bot] Jul 24, 2026
c6f0088
address review feedback: clarify rate-limit behavior
mega-putin[bot] Jul 24, 2026
16b25c8
address review feedback: fix error code table
mega-putin[bot] Jul 24, 2026
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3 changes: 2 additions & 1 deletion docs/dev/faq.md
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Expand Up @@ -257,9 +257,10 @@ let _ = rustls::crypto::ring::default_provider().install_default();
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

### What does "rabbit hole is full. Please try again later" mean?
### What does `Rate limit exceeded` mean?

It means you are hitting a rate limit.
Older clients or outdated docs may still refer to `rabbit hole is full. Please try again later`, but the public gateway now returns `Rate limit exceeded` with RPC error `-32005`.

### What does "rpc method is not whitelisted" mean?

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23 changes: 17 additions & 6 deletions docs/dev/read/overview.md
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Expand Up @@ -110,12 +110,23 @@ See [Debugging Transactions](../send-tx/debugging.md) for usage of debug methods

## Rate Limiting

All available methods are subject to rate limiting based on two criteria:

- **Compute Unit (CU) Limiting** — limits the computational cost of requests based on their complexity.
- **Network Bandwidth Limiting** — limits the network traffic based on response sizes.

User limits are dynamically updated in response to individual behavior.
Read methods on the public RPC endpoint are rate-limited **per IP address** in **fixed 10-second windows**.
Each method belongs to one of four categories, and each category has its own request budget:

| Category | Limit (per 10 s) | Methods |
| -------- | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Instant | 2,000 | `eth_chainId`, `eth_blockNumber`, `net_version`, `eth_accounts`, `web3_clientVersion`, `eth_getBalance`, `eth_getStorageAt` |
| Simple | 500 | Block/transaction queries, `eth_callAfter`, and all other read methods not listed in another category |
| Compute | 200 | `eth_call`, `eth_callMany`, `eth_estimateGas`, `eth_createAccessList`, `debug_trace*`, `trace_*` |
| IO-heavy | 200 | `eth_getLogs`, `eth_getBlockReceipts` |

Comment thread
claude[bot] marked this conversation as resolved.
Additional notes:

- Transaction submission methods (`eth_sendRawTransaction`, `realtime_sendRawTransaction`) are not subject to these read rate limits.
- Cache hits still consume the method's per-category budget.
- `eth_callMany` consumes one Compute-category request per inner transaction, not one per HTTP request.
- `eth_callAfter` uses the Simple-category budget even though it shares `eth_call`'s 60,000,000 compute-gas cap.
- A rate-limited request is rejected with HTTP `429` and RPC error `-32005` (`Rate limit exceeded`) — see [Error Codes](rpc/error-codes.md). Reduce request frequency, or use batching or WebSocket subscriptions to lower the request count.

## Request Body Limits

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22 changes: 12 additions & 10 deletions docs/dev/read/rpc/error-codes.md
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Expand Up @@ -4,16 +4,18 @@ description: MegaETH JSON-RPC error codes — HTTP status codes, RPC error codes

# Error Codes

| HTTP Error Code | RPC Error Code | Error Message | Explanation | Mitigation |
| --------------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 400 | -32700 | `parse error` | The request body contains invalid JSON. | Check the request format and ensure valid JSON syntax. |
| 413 | -32099 | `payload too large` | The request body exceeds the size limit for the method being called. | Stay within the body-size limit for the method class. See [Request Body Limits](../overview.md#request-body-limits). |
| 403 | -32601 | `rpc method is not whitelisted` | The requested RPC method is not allowed by the proxy configuration. | Use only whitelisted RPC methods. Contact MegaETH if you need access to additional methods. |
| 400 | -32019 | `block is out of range` | The requested block number is out of range. | Check the block number and ensure it's within the valid range. |
| 500 | -32020 | `backend response too large` | The backend response is too large. | Reduce the scope of the request or contact MegaETH for assistance. |
| 429 | -32021 | `over network traffic limit, retry in X seconds` | The user is incurring too much network traffic. | Wait for the specified number of seconds before retrying. Reduce the number of requests sent per second. |
| 429 | -32022 | `over compute unit limit, retry in X seconds` | The user is incurring too much computation on the backend RPC server. | Wait for the specified number of seconds before retrying. Reduce the number of requests sent per second. |
| 200 | -32000 | `permanent error forwarding request context deadline exceeded` | The API proxy cannot connect to the backend RPC server. | Pause for a while and retry. Notify MegaETH if the error persists. |
| HTTP Error Code | RPC Error Code | Error Message | Explanation | Mitigation |
| --------------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 400 | -32700 | `parse error` | The request body contains invalid JSON. | Check the request format and ensure valid JSON syntax. |
| 413 | -32099 | `payload too large` | The request body exceeds the size limit for the method being called. | Stay within the body-size limit for the method class. See [Request Body Limits](../overview.md#request-body-limits). |
| 403 | -32601 | `rpc method is not whitelisted` | The requested RPC method is not allowed by the proxy configuration. | Use only whitelisted RPC methods. Contact MegaETH if you need access to additional methods. |
| 400 | -32019 | `block is out of range` | The requested block number is out of range. | Check the block number and ensure it's within the valid range. |
| 500 | -32020 | `backend response too large` | The backend response is too large. | Reduce the scope of the request or contact MegaETH for assistance. |
| 429 | -32005 | `Rate limit exceeded` | The request exceeds the rate limit for its method category. | Reduce request frequency, or use batching or WebSocket subscriptions. See [Rate Limiting](../overview.md#rate-limiting). |
| 200 | -32000 | `permanent error forwarding request context deadline exceeded` | The API proxy cannot connect to the backend RPC server. | Pause for a while and retry. Notify MegaETH if the error persists. |

Older references to `-32021` or `-32022` refer to the previous rate-limit codes.
The public gateway now returns `-32005` for rate-limited requests.

## Related Pages

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