AWS: Error! RequestThrottled HTTP Status 503: Service Unavailable


Error! RequestThrottled
HTTP Status 503: Service Unavailable
AWS Access Key ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. You are submitting requests too quickly. Please retry your requests at a slower rate.

Recently, while trying to hit Amazon Affiliate APIs (PA API), I started seeing this error message.

This error has nothing to do with DBA Stuff but I thought of sharing this information here with you. You never know a developer may come to you while facing a similar issue.

I looked thru the forums and could not find a reliable solution for it. Then I came up with my own solution(s).

So what is the problem?

When you try to hit the PA APIs – you get the error message that You are submitting request too quickly. I know you are not doing it.

As a first step, go to Amazon Scratch pad and make sure that problem is not with your API Request but with Amazon only.

Once you see the similar error in Scratchpad, the next step it to make sure that your account is still live.

If both the checks are fine. And your account is not disabled by Amazon then the next step is to see how many sales you have done in the last 30 days?

Why Sales? This is a recent change to Amazon’s PA APIs. If you have not done any sale in the last 30 days – your APIs access may not work as it was working before. Read the policy here

So what is the fix?

As such there is no fix yet. But that is how I managed to fix my problem.

  1. Limit the number of API hits. This did not work for me because for my account – I was not allowed to hit the APIs at all.
  2. Create new API keys. Same as above, it did not work for me.
  3. The masterstroke. I used other ways of promoting Amazon’s product (like links, widget, etc). I created a very weird graphics to grab the attention of Facebook Group members (in a buy-sell group) and made sure that I could do at least 3 sales. It worked for me and I regained my API access back within 3-4 days. Please don’t ask what that graphic was. Most of the group members really criticized that. Enough talk!

I am not really sure if the same approach is going to work for you or not, but it is worth trying to sell a few products to regain access.

So what has triggered this thought in my mind? I opened a ticket with Amazon support and I received the response below: