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API Timeout Details

When integrating with the Flipkart APIs, it is essential to ensure that your system is configured with appropriate timeout values. This is important to handle network delays, server processing times, and to avoid unnecessary disruptions during API calls.

The Flipkart Seller API has two main sets of APIs: Listing APIs and Order Management APIs. Based on the nature of these APIs and the time required to process requests, we have configured the following recommended timeout values:

  • Listing APIs: Recommended timeout value of 10 seconds
  • Order Management APIs: Recommended timeout value of 60 seconds

We advise setting your timeout configuration at least to these values or higher. This ensures that requests to the Flipkart API have sufficient time to complete, particularly during times of high load or when the response time may vary.

Why Set Appropriate Timeout Values?​

  • Avoid Timeouts: API requests with too short a timeout value may result in premature failures, causing important actions like retrieving listings or placing orders to fail.
  • Better Reliability: Setting a reasonable timeout ensures that your system is resilient to transient network delays and server processing times. Without enough time, you may experience high error rates, leading to a poor user experience.
  • Efficiency: It allows your application to function smoothly without prematurely canceling requests that are still being processed.

Impact of Low Timeout Values​

If you set timeout values lower than the recommended 10s (for Listing APIs) or 60s (for Order Management APIs), you may face:

  • Increased Rate of Errors: Shorter timeouts can result in requests timing out before the server can respond, leading to errors such as 408 Request Timeout.
  • Loss of Data Integrity: In some cases, when requests are terminated prematurely, it might lead to incomplete data retrieval or actions that are not fully processed (e.g., order creation or listing updates).
  • Slower Response Times: As requests may be cut off prematurely, your system may spend more time retrying requests, which can slow down overall application performance.