{"article":{"id":16150929844887,"url":"https://plaid.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/en-us/articles/16150929844887.json","html_url":"https://support.plaid.com/hc/en-us/articles/16150929844887-Why-is-latency-for-Plaid-Balance-higher-than-other-endpoints","author_id":5390778350871,"comments_disabled":true,"draft":false,"promoted":false,"position":0,"vote_sum":0,"vote_count":0,"section_id":16150583224855,"created_at":"2023-07-19T21:10:34Z","updated_at":"2026-06-01T01:59:43Z","name":"Why is latency for Plaid Balance higher than other endpoints?","title":"Why is latency for Plaid Balance higher than other endpoints?","source_locale":"en-us","locale":"en-us","outdated":false,"outdated_locales":[],"edited_at":"2026-06-01T01:59:43Z","user_segment_id":null,"permission_group_id":1121774,"content_tag_ids":[],"label_names":[],"body":"

The latency for Plaid's real-time balance endpoints — /accounts/balance/get, and /signal/evaluate when called with a ruleset that includes a balance rule — is higher than other endpoints because they retrieve fresh data from the financial institution each time they are called.

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Unlike other Plaid products that provide balance information as part of the accounts object and update on a regular cadence, these endpoints can provide real-time balance information. This means that each time /accounts/balance/get is called (or /signal/evaluate is called with a balance-rule ruleset), Plaid communicates with the financial institution to get the most current balance information. This process takes more time, hence the higher latency.

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Due to this higher latency, we recommend running real-time balance calls as a backend process rather than calling the endpoint while your end user is active on your app. That way, users can continue on your app without long waiting times.

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