What is a Good API Response Time?
Industry benchmarks for API response times. Learn what good, acceptable, and poor response times are for REST, GraphQL, and microservices APIs.
A good API response time is under 200ms. Under 100ms is perceived as instant by users. 200-500ms is acceptable for most applications. Anything over 1000ms (1 second) needs optimization. For critical APIs, aim for p95 under 200ms and p99 under 500ms. Response time benchmarks vary by industry: payment APIs need under 100ms, content APIs can tolerate 500ms, and file uploads may take seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ideal API response time?
Under 100ms is excellent, 100-200ms is good, 200-500ms is acceptable, over 1000ms needs improvement.
How fast should REST APIs respond?
REST APIs should respond in under 200ms for simple requests and under 500ms for complex queries.
What is p95 and p99 response time?
p95 means 95% of requests are faster than this time. p99 means 99% are faster. For critical APIs, p95 should be under 200ms.
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