How can I programmatically check my OpenAI API rate limits without using the account page?

Below is an explanation and a sample approach to check your current rate limits programmatically without having to visit the account page.

Why Your Current Code Doesn’t Work:
The code snippet you provided uses openai.Engine.list(), which only lists the available engines (models) and doesn’t return any information about your rate limits. The engine list endpoint is not designed to inform about API usage or rate limit details.

How to Check Your Rate Limits Programmatically:
OpenAI’s API offers a specific endpoint that returns rate limit information for a given project. You need to make an authenticated GET request to the rate limits endpoint for your project. For example, the API endpoint URL is in the following format:

https://api.openai.com/v1/organization/projects/{PROJECT_ID}/rate_limits

Replace {PROJECT_ID} with your actual project ID.

Below is an example using Python and the requests library:

PYTHONCopied
import requests
import os

# Retrieve your admin key and project ID from environment variables for security.
api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY")
project_id = "proj_abc"  # Replace with your actual project id.

url = f"https://api.openai.com/v1/organization/projects/{project_id}/rate_limits"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

if response.status_code == 200:
    rate_limits = response.json()
    print("Rate Limit Details:")
    print(rate_limits)
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")

And if you prefer using a terminal command with curl, you can use:

BASHCopied
curl "https://api.openai.com/v1/organization/projects/proj_abc/rate_limits" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

Notes:

• Be sure to replace proj_abc with your project’s actual ID.
• The endpoint returns details such as the maximum allowed requests per minute for different endpoints and models.
• This approach lets you programmatically monitor your rate limits and adapt your application (for example, by applying exponential backoff when necessary) without needing to check your account page manually.

This method helps you automate the process of checking rate limit details directly from your application.