Overview

On August 31 2022 Amazon will lower the request‑rate caps for several single‑item operations in the Selling Partner API (SP‑API). The Catalog Items, Product Fees and Product Pricing services are affected, meaning that scripts that query one SKU at a time will encounter throttling sooner than before. Sellers who depend on high‑frequency, item‑by‑item calls need to migrate to the batch equivalents to keep their workflows running smoothly.

Key Points

• Reduced per‑second ceiling — The maximum number of calls allowed each second for one‑by‑one endpoints is being cut, so fewer requests can be sent before Amazon returns a 429 error.
• Batch endpoints stay generous — Corresponding bulk‑request APIs keep a much higher allowance, letting dozens or hundreds of identifiers be processed in a single call.
• Effective August 31 — The new limits go live at the end of the month, giving sellers only a few weeks to modify their integrations.
• High‑volume use cases at risk — Any automation that polls pricing, fees or catalog data for thousands of SKUs every few minutes will exceed the tightened caps unless it switches to batch calls.
• No data‑shape changes — The shape of the responses and the underlying business logic remain unchanged; only the speed at which calls may be issued is altered.
• Amazon’s recommendation — The platform advises developers to replace all single‑item requests with their bulk counterparts wherever feasible to preserve performance.

How the Throttling Adjustments Work

1. Identify the impacted calls — Pinpoint every endpoint that belongs to the one‑item family, such as GET /catalog/v0/items/{asin}, GET /products/fees/v0/fees, and GET /products/pricing/v0/price.

   • Example: A routine that pulls the fee for each ASIN by repeatedly calling GET /products/fees/v0/fees will now be stopped after fewer iterations.