Skip to main content
Version: v4.0.0

TTS Rate Limiting

This page explains OpenReader's TTS character rate limiting controls.

Overview​

  • TTS rate limiting is disabled by default.
  • Primary control is Settings → Admin → Site features → Disable TTS daily rate limiting.
  • Limits are enforced per day in UTC.
  • Enforcement applies only when auth is enabled.

How enforcement works​

When enabled, OpenReader enforces:

  • Per-user daily character limits.
  • IP backstop daily character limits.
  • Anonymous device backstop tracking (cookie-based) to reduce limit resets.

If a request exceeds the active limit, the TTS API returns 429 with reset metadata for the next UTC day.

Required auth behavior​

  • Auth must be enabled (BASE_URL + AUTH_SECRET) for TTS char limits to apply.
  • If auth is disabled, TTS character limits are effectively unlimited.
  • DISABLE_AUTH_RATE_LIMIT only affects Better Auth's own request throttling.
  • DISABLE_AUTH_RATE_LIMIT does not disable TTS character limits.

Runtime config​

  • disableTtsRateLimit default: true
  • Per-user and IP backstop limit values are configured in Settings → Admin → Site features and stored in DB runtime settings.
  • Optional first-boot seeding can be done via RUNTIME_SEED_JSON / RUNTIME_SEED_JSON_PATH (runtimeConfig.disableTtsRateLimit).