OnlyFans API Best Practices
The difference between a demo and a production integration is how you handle the unhappy paths. These OnlyFans API best practices keep an ofapis integration cheap, correct, and safe under load. ofapis is an independent API; you automate your own connected account.
1 — Make writes idempotent
Networks retry, and webhook delivery is at-least-once. Before you send a DM, trigger a mailing, or create a scheduled post, check whether you already did. Key on a stable id — the incoming webhook evt.id, or your own campaign id — and record completed work:
if store.setnx(f"done:{event_id}", 1): # first time only
send_reply(chat_id, text)
For broadcasts, prefer one mailing trigger over a loop of per-chat sends: a single dispatch object can't fan out into duplicates the way a half-finished loop can.
2 — Retry with exponential backoff
Treat 429 and 5xx as transient. Back off exponentially with jitter and a ceiling; never hammer a rate limit.
async function withRetry(fn, tries = 5) {
for (let i = 0; i < tries; i++) {
const r = await fn();
if (r.status !== 429 && r.status < 500) return r;
const wait = Math.min(2 ** i * 200 + Math.random() * 200, 10000);
await new Promise((res) => setTimeout(res, wait));
}
throw new Error("exhausted retries");
}
Do not retry 4xx other than 429 — a 400 or 422 won't fix itself. Your plan's requests-per-minute is on pricing.
3 — Verify every webhook
Each delivery carries an HMAC-SHA256 signature over the raw body in X-Ofapis-Signature. Recompute it with your endpoint secret and compare in constant time, on the raw bytes before JSON parsing:
const expected = crypto.createHmac("sha256", secret).update(rawBody).digest("hex");
if (!crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(expected), Buffer.from(sig))) return res.status(401).end();
An unverified endpoint is a spoofable trigger for your automations. Details in webhook events explained.
4 — Spend credits deliberately
Billing is one credit per successful call — failed calls (expired session, upstream error) are free. So:
- Don't poll for messages; subscribe to webhooks instead.
- Preview before you blast. The mailing preview returns recipient count and estimated cost before you commit, so a 30,000-fan send never surprises your balance.
- Cache slow-changing data (profile, segment membership) instead of re-fetching per event.
- Watch remaining credits via
/meand alert before a campaign drains the month.
5 — Paginate, don't guess
List endpoints are cursor-based. Follow hasMore / the returned cursor to the end; never assume one page is the whole audience:
curl "https://api.ofapis.com/api/public/v1/chats?limit=50&cursor=eyJ..." \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ofapis_sk_..."
Use a sane limit, and process each page before fetching the next to bound memory.
6 — Guard your secrets
The ofapis_sk_... token and webhook secret are credentials. Keep them in environment variables or a secrets manager — never in a browser bundle, mobile app, or git. Rotate on a schedule and immediately on any suspected leak; revoking in the dashboard is instant. Scope work to the right creator with /accounts/{id}/... so a bug can't cross accounts.
FAQ
Why should I avoid polling for messages?
Every call costs a credit on success, and polling asks "anything new?" thousands of times for a few yes-es. A message.received webhook delivers the event directly and inbound deliveries aren't metered.
Which HTTP errors are safe to retry?
Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff and jitter. Do not retry other 4xx codes like 400 or 422 — they signal a bad request that a retry won't fix.
How do I keep a retried call from acting twice?
Make writes idempotent by keying on a stable id (the webhook evt.id or your own) and recording completed work, so a duplicate delivery is a no-op.
Where should the API token live?
In server-side environment variables or a secrets manager, never in client code or version control. Rotate regularly, and revoke instantly in the dashboard if a key may have leaked.