Do cached responses count against my quota?

Yes. Every validation call counts, whether the answer came fresh from VIES or from vatnode’s 15-minute cache. You get the same validated data either way; cached responses are just faster.

Why cached answers still count

Quota measures validation answers delivered to you, not upstream calls made on your behalf. A call that reaches vatnode and returns a valid/invalid result uses one quota slot, regardless of where the answer came from. If you have set a requester VAT in dashboard Account details, checks go to VIES live so that each one carries its own consultation number, and they count the same way.

How to spend less quota

The most effective saving is in your own application. Cache successful results and skip re-checking a number you validated within the last day. That works well for:

• repeat customers at checkout or on invoice creation;
• recurring counterparties you bill every month;
• bulk clean-ups where the same number appears on several rows.

Keep the validation date alongside the stored result, so you can decide when a number is old enough to deserve a fresh check. If you need to be told when a number’s status changes, VAT monitoring on paid plans re-checks numbers for you and sends a webhook.

Watching your remaining quota

You can see your remaining quota move in real time via the RateLimit-* response headers: RateLimit-Remaining drops by one on each counted call.