August 7, 2025 1 min read
OpenAI API Integration: Rate Limits and Fallbacks
Build Log
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Building resilient AI features that gracefully handle API limits and failures.
OpenAI API Integration: Rate Limits and Fallbacks
AI APIs fail. Rate limits hit. Here's how to build features that degrade gracefully.
The Problem
OpenAI has rate limits on tokens per minute and requests per minute. Hit them, and your feature breaks for all users.
Solution: Request Queue with Backoff
Fallback Strategy
When AI fails, show cached results or a graceful message. Never let an AI failure break core functionality.