FAQ

What do I do when my trial usage runs out?

When a trial key uses up its allowance, data calls return Limit Exceeded (not a 429). The allowance does not refill — to keep going, purchase a plan or contact api@whitepages.com. Documentation calls keep working regardless; only data calls consume the allowance. See Rate Limits.

How are rate limits applied?

There are two distinct limits:

• 429 Too Many Requests — short-term throttling. Back off and retry with exponential backoff; it clears on its own.
• Limit Exceeded — you have used up your monthly plan limit or trial allowance. It persists until your quota resets (next month for a plan) or you upgrade.

Neither a 429 nor a 5xx is billed. See Rate Limits.

What counts as a breaking change?

Removing or renaming an endpoint or field, changing a field's type, adding a required parameter, or changing auth or error formats. Adding a new optional parameter, a new field, a new endpoint, or a new enum value is not breaking — so always ignore unknown fields. Breaking changes ship only in a new API version with at least 30 days' notice. Full detail: Breaking Changes Policy.

Is person search the same as phone lookup?

Yes. Reverse phone lookup, address lookup, and name search are all the same GET /v2/person/ endpoint with different parameters — pass phone= for a reverse phone lookup. There is no separate phone endpoint. See the Capability Map.