Nobody gets excited about rate limits until a bot they built stops working at the worst possible moment. This is the part of bot-building that doesn't show up in tutorials but decides whether a project survives contact with real usage.
Read the limit before you build around it
Every API documents its rate limit somewhere, usually as requests per minute or per day. Read it before writing a single line of the bot's logic — it changes how you structure the whole loop, from batching to retry behavior.
Key rotation isn't cheating, it's architecture
Using multiple API keys and rotating between them isn't a workaround — for any bot doing sustained, ongoing work, it's a legitimate architectural choice, as long as it stays within each provider's actual terms of service. Build the rotation logic as a first-class part of the system, not a patch bolted on after the first rate-limit error.
Backoff, don't retry immediately
When a request fails due to a rate limit, retrying instantly just extends the problem. An exponential backoff — waiting longer after each consecutive failure — recovers gracefully and avoids getting a key flagged for abusive behavior.
Log everything, quietly
A bot that fails silently is the worst kind of bot. Logging every request outcome — even successful ones, at a low verbosity — turns a mysterious failure three weeks from now into a five-minute diagnosis.
Rate limits aren't an obstacle to work around once. They're a constraint to design for permanently.