> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: /docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Best practices

> Get better results and spend fewer credits with the News API.

## Quality

* **Pick the effort per use case, not per app.** Use `low` for high-volume
  feeds, `medium` for most questions and `high` when the top results must be
  right. See [Effort levels](/docs/news/effort-levels.md).
* **Use `collapse=story` to see more events.** One article per story fits
  more distinct events into the same `limit`.
* **Use `min_newsrooms` to find what matters.** Stories carried by many
  newsrooms are the ones most people saw.
* **Filter instead of piling up keywords.** `languages`, `countries`,
  `sources` and their `not_` versions narrow the search without changing what
  `q` means.
* **Use a date order for feeds.** `sort_by=published_at` lists the best
  matches of `q` newest first. It sorts the best matches, not every article of
  the window.

## Cost

* **Ask for what you will show.** The price of a search does not depend on
  `limit`, but a larger `limit` gives your users or your model more to read.
* **Cache repeated searches.** Every successful search is charged, so serve
  the same query from your cache when a few minutes' freshness is enough.
* **Use story pages for depth.** One `/stories/{story_id}` call (1 NCC) lists
  every article of a story; do not run more searches to find them.
* **Check `/subscription` for free.** It shows your balance, prices and limits
  without spending credits.

## Reliability

* Retry `429` after the `Retry-After` header, and `500` and `503` after a short
  wait. Do not retry other `4xx` errors unchanged.
* Log the `Correlation-ID` header of failed requests and send it to support.
* Treat `window.clamped: true` as a sign your plan's history is shorter than
  what you asked for.


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