Restrictions, points

Technical limitations

A maximum of five simultaneous API requests are allowed per advertiser.

Points

Points are used as a way of regulating the load on the API server. If you do not have enough points, you cannot make API requests.

Points “belong to” advertisers and agencies. If an API request is made by an advertiser's representative, the points are deducted from the advertiser. If a request is made by an agency's representative, point deduction depends on the Use-Operator-Units: true HTTP header. If this header is specified, the points are deducted from the agency. If it is omitted, they are deducted from the advertiser (the agency's client). It doesn't matter which representative of the advertiser or agency is making the request.

The agency makes its own decision on when to spend its own points, and when to spend a client's points. For example, an agency can use its points to:

  • Create advertising campaigns and ads for a new client who hasn't accumulated enough points yet.

  • Manage campaigns for an active client who has run out of points.

Each response to an API request contains the Units HTTP header, which shows the number of points:

Spent when running the request/Available balance/Allowed per day.

Example:
Units: 10/20828/64000

The Units-Used-Login HTTP response header specifies the username of the representative of an advertiser or agency whose points were deducted for the request.

How points are awarded

Each advertiser (or agency) is given an individual daily limit of points. This limit depends on the activity of advertising campaigns — the number of impressions and clicks, and resulting expenditures.

If the number of impressions and clicks isn't growing much or campaigns are short on funds, frequent and large API requests create an unreasonable load on the Yandex Direct servers. The daily limit is calculated using a grid of budget thresholds based on statistics for different types of campaigns.

The daily limit is divided among 24 hour-long periods and provided in a sliding window. At the start of each period, the advertiser or agency is given 1/24 of the daily limit. During the current period, the advertiser or agency can spend 1/24 of the daily limit plus the points that were awarded and not spent during the previous 23 hours.

The start time of the hourly period may vary for different advertisers and agencies, and doesn't necessarily coincide with the beginning of the astronomical hour. For example, the periods may begin at 00:18, 01:18, 02:18, and so on.

How points are spent

Points can be deducted for:

  • A successful method call.

  • A method call that finished with an error.

  • Successfully creating or editing an object.

  • Creating or editing an object that led to an error.

  • Getting an object.

The points deducted for errors are the same for all services and methods:

  • 20 points per method call that invokes an error (excluding server errors, such as when the server is unavailable).

  • 20 points per operation to create or edit an object that invokes an error.

Points deducted for successful method calls and successful operations with objects are listed in the table.

Service Method Per call Per object
AdExtensions add 5 1
delete 10 1
get 5 1
AdGroups add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
AdImages add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
Ads add 20 20
archive 15 0
delete 10 0
get 15 1
moderate 15 0
resume 15 0
suspend 15 0
unarchive 40 0
update 20 20
AgencyClients add 10 1
get 10 1
update 10 1
AudienceTargets add 10 2
delete 10 2
get 1 1
resume 10 2
setBids 10 2
suspend 10 2
Bids get 15 3 points per 2000 keywords*
set 25 0
setAuto 25 0
BidModifiers add 15 1
delete 15 0
get 1 0
set 2 0
toggle 15 0
Businesses get 10 1
Campaigns add 10 5
archive 10 5
delete 10 2
get 10 1
resume 10 5
suspend 10 5
unarchive 10 5
update 10 3
Changes check 10 0
checkCampaigns 10 0
checkDictionaries 10 0
Clients get 10 0
update 10 1
Creatives get 15 1
Dictionaries get 1 0
DynamicTextAdTargets add 20 5
delete 10 1
get 15 1
resume 10 1
setBids 25 0
suspend 10 1
Feeds add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
KeywordBids get 15 3 points per 2000 keywords*
set 25 0
setAuto 25 0
Keywords add 20 2
delete 10 1
get 15 3 points per every 2000 keywords* if requesting at least one of the parameters Productivity, StatisticsSearch, or StatisticsNetwork.

Otherwise, 1 point per every 2000 keywords*.

resume 15 0
suspend 15 0
update 20 2
KeywordsResearch deduplicate 10 0
hasSearchVolume 1 0
Leads get 1 1
NegativeKeywordSharedSets add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
RetargetingLists add 10 2
delete 10 2
get 1 1
update 10 2
Sitelinks add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
SmartAdTargets add 20 5
delete 10 1
get 15 1
resume 10 1
setBids 10 0
suspend 10 1
update 10 1
TurboPages get 15 1
VCards add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
Service Method Per call Per object
AdExtensions add 5 1
delete 10 1
get 5 1
AdGroups add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
AdImages add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
Ads add 20 20
archive 15 0
delete 10 0
get 15 1
moderate 15 0
resume 15 0
suspend 15 0
unarchive 40 0
update 20 20
AgencyClients add 10 1
get 10 1
update 10 1
AudienceTargets add 10 2
delete 10 2
get 1 1
resume 10 2
setBids 10 2
suspend 10 2
Bids get 15 3 points per 2000 keywords*
set 25 0
setAuto 25 0
BidModifiers add 15 1
delete 15 0
get 1 0
set 2 0
toggle 15 0
Businesses get 10 1
Campaigns add 10 5
archive 10 5
delete 10 2
get 10 1
resume 10 5
suspend 10 5
unarchive 10 5
update 10 3
Changes check 10 0
checkCampaigns 10 0
checkDictionaries 10 0
Clients get 10 0
update 10 1
Creatives get 15 1
Dictionaries get 1 0
DynamicTextAdTargets add 20 5
delete 10 1
get 15 1
resume 10 1
setBids 25 0
suspend 10 1
Feeds add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
KeywordBids get 15 3 points per 2000 keywords*
set 25 0
setAuto 25 0
Keywords add 20 2
delete 10 1
get 15 3 points per every 2000 keywords* if requesting at least one of the parameters Productivity, StatisticsSearch, or StatisticsNetwork.

Otherwise, 1 point per every 2000 keywords*.

resume 15 0
suspend 15 0
update 20 2
KeywordsResearch deduplicate 10 0
hasSearchVolume 1 0
Leads get 1 1
NegativeKeywordSharedSets add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
update 20 20
RetargetingLists add 10 2
delete 10 2
get 1 1
update 10 2
Sitelinks add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
SmartAdTargets add 20 5
delete 10 1
get 15 1
resume 10 1
setBids 10 0
suspend 10 1
update 10 1
TurboPages get 15 1
VCards add 20 20
delete 10 0
get 15 1
Note. If less than 2000 keywords were retrieved using the Bids.get, Keywords.get, or KeywordBids.get method, points are only deducted for the method call.