Data transport limit

Introduction

Calls to certain API endpoints will count as data transport calls for any Dropbox Business teams with a limit on the number of data transport calls allowed per month. This applies only to certain Dropbox Business plans, and not other types of accounts.

The description of each relevant endpoint in the documentation contains a note indicating that calls to the endpoint will consume the team's data transport calls.

Error Handling

If a data transport call is made for a Business team which is over its limit for the month, the API call will fail. The response will have a 403 status code with the invalid_account_type/feature error, and a user_message that can be displayed to the user. The response body will look like this:

{
  "error_summary": "invalid_account_type/feature/.",
  "error": {
    ".tag": "invalid_account_type",
    "invalid_account_type": {
      ".tag": "feature"
    }
  },
  "user_message": {
    "locale": "en",
    "text": "Your team has used all of its data transport API calls for the month. Your monthly limit will reset on the 1st day of every month. If you'd like to move to a plan with unlimited API calls, please contact sales."
  }
}

Dropbox Business API apps can check if a connected team has a data transport limit using the /2/team/features/get_values endpoint, by checking the upload_api_rate_limit feature. Refer to the /2/team/features/get_values documentation for more information.

Best Practices

The limit on the number of data transport calls that can be made per month applies per team, and is not app-specific. That means that if an app uses a large amount of data transport calls, it can prevent other apps from making further data transport calls for that team.

API apps should avoid making unnecessary data transport calls. If using upload sessions, do not use an unnecessarily small chunk size. Using a small chunk size, i.e., the amount of data sent per call, will increase the number of data transport calls used.

User Experience

When authorizing an API app that may use their team's data transport calls, users will be presented with a message on the OAuth app authorization page.

Dropbox Business team admins are also automatically emailed when their team's data transport call usage is nearing their limit, as well as when the limit is reached.

Dropbox Business team admins can monitor usage on the Admin console.