The latency for Plaid's Balance endpoint - /accounts/balance/get
- is higher than other endpoints because it retrieves fresh data from the financial institution each time it is called.
Unlike other Plaid products that provide balance information as part of the accounts
object and update on a regular cadence, the Balance product provides real-time balance information. This means that each time the /accounts/balance/get
endpoint is called, Plaid communicates with the financial institution to get the most current balance information. This process takes more time, hence the higher latency.
Due to its higher latency, we recommend any balance calls to occur 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.