Rate limits are provider rules that limit usage over time. An API may cap requests per minute, tokens per minute, requests per day, concurrent jobs, or spend.
In practice
Rate limits protect shared infrastructure and prevent runaway usage. Apps often need queues, retries, backoff, caching, or smaller batches to stay within limits.
What to watch
A rate limit error is not the same as a model failure. It usually means the app needs to slow down, wait, or upgrade capacity.