I would like to request an optional paid API tier that provides higher request limits for integrations and self-hosted library-management applications.
I am using Hardcover as the metadata source for Bookshelf. When adding or syncing a large number of authors and books, the process takes a very long time because Bookshelf must retrieve the relevant author, edition, book, and metadata records from the Hardcover API.
I do not know the exact request limit I am currently reaching, but large library operations appear to be heavily throttled. This is especially noticeable during:
Initial library imports
Adding many authors at once
Rebuilding or migrating a Bookshelf instance
Matching an existing ebook or audiobook collection
Refreshing metadata across a large catalog
I understand that API capacity has real infrastructure costs, and I am not asking for unlimited free access. I would be willing to pay for a higher API tier with clearly defined limits.
A paid option could potentially include:
A higher requests-per-minute allowance
A larger daily request quota
Clear rate-limit headers or usage reporting
Different tiers based on expected request volume
Guidance for developers on batching, caching, and efficient API usage
This would make Hardcover much more practical as the metadata provider for larger self-hosted libraries while helping Hardcover recover the infrastructure costs associated with heavier API use.
My immediate use case is synchronizing authors and books into separate ebook and audiobook Bookshelf instances. The integration works, but adding authors and processing the catalog is currently extremely slow.
Thank you for considering a supported paid tier for users and developers who need greater API capacity.