Errors & limits

HTTP status codes, rate limits, and payload caps for the HTMLDrop API.

Last updated June 2, 2026

Status codes

CodeMeaning
200Success
400Invalid JSON or validation error
401Missing or invalid auth
403Plan limit or feature gate
404Page not found
422Content blocked by moderation
429Rate or quota limit exceeded
500Server error
503Feature not enabled

Errors return JSON: { "error": "Human-readable message" }.

Rate limits

Response headers on v1 routes:

  • X-RateLimit-Limit
  • X-RateLimit-Remaining
  • Retry-After (when limited)
ScopeLimit
Publish (IP)20 / hour
API publish (per key)100 / hour
API read (per key)300 / hour

Payload caps

HTML and Markdown payloads must pass the same size and structure validation as the web editor. Oversized or malformed content returns 400.

Moderation

All publish and update paths run scanContent() on compiled HTML. Blocked content returns 422.