diff --git a/app/src/app/api/og/route.ts b/app/src/app/api/og/route.ts
index 06b5601..dc503ff 100644
--- a/app/src/app/api/og/route.ts
+++ b/app/src/app/api/og/route.ts
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@ import { type NextRequest } from "next/server";
 import { isValidId } from "@pixabots/core";
 import { generateOgImage } from "@/lib/og-image";
 import { CORS_HEADERS, optionsResponse, imageResponse } from "@/lib/api";
-import { checkRate, clientKey } from "@/lib/rate-limit";
+import { checkRate, clientKey, isSameOrigin } from "@/lib/rate-limit";
 import { parseIdsCsv } from "@/lib/ids";
 import { normalizeHex } from "@/lib/palette";
 
-const OG_LIMIT = 20;
+const OG_LIMIT = 60;
 const OG_WINDOW_MS = 60_000;
 
 const MAX_TITLE_LEN = 60;
@@ -40,7 +40,9 @@ function parsePalette(
 }
 
 export async function GET(request: NextRequest) {
-  const rate = checkRate(`og:${clientKey(request)}`, OG_LIMIT, OG_WINDOW_MS);
+  const rate = isSameOrigin(request)
+    ? { allowed: true, remaining: OG_LIMIT, resetSeconds: 60, limit: OG_LIMIT }
+    : checkRate(`og:${clientKey(request)}`, OG_LIMIT, OG_WINDOW_MS);
   if (!rate.allowed) {
     return Response.json(
       { error: `Rate limit exceeded. Try again in ${rate.resetSeconds}s.` },
diff --git a/app/src/app/api/pixabot/[id]/route.ts b/app/src/app/api/pixabot/[id]/route.ts
index 4d5cdaa..506aeb2 100644
--- a/app/src/app/api/pixabot/[id]/route.ts
+++ b/app/src/app/api/pixabot/[id]/route.ts
@@ -17,12 +17,13 @@ import {
   MAX_SPEED,
   DETERMINISTIC_CACHE,
 } from "@/lib/api";
-import { checkRate, clientKey } from "@/lib/rate-limit";
+import { checkRate, clientKey, isSameOrigin } from "@/lib/rate-limit";
 import { normalizeHex } from "@/lib/palette";
 
 // Per-IP rate limit for animated renders (GIF / WebP are 5–50× costlier
-// than PNG). Limits per minute per lambda instance.
-const ANIMATED_LIMIT = 30;
+// than PNG). Limits per minute per lambda instance. Same-origin traffic
+// (our own /browse grid, etc.) bypasses this — see isSameOrigin below.
+const ANIMATED_LIMIT = 120;
 const ANIMATED_WINDOW_MS = 60_000;
 
 export const OPTIONS = optionsResponse;
@@ -133,7 +134,9 @@ export async function GET(
       });
     }
     if (animated) {
-      const rate = checkRate(`animated:${clientKey(request)}`, ANIMATED_LIMIT, ANIMATED_WINDOW_MS);
+      const rate = isSameOrigin(request)
+        ? { allowed: true, remaining: ANIMATED_LIMIT, resetSeconds: 60, limit: ANIMATED_LIMIT }
+        : checkRate(`animated:${clientKey(request)}`, ANIMATED_LIMIT, ANIMATED_WINDOW_MS);
       if (!rate.allowed) {
         return Response.json(
           { error: `Rate limit exceeded. Try again in ${rate.resetSeconds}s.` },
diff --git a/app/src/lib/rate-limit.ts b/app/src/lib/rate-limit.ts
index 65a3535..201cd4d 100644
--- a/app/src/lib/rate-limit.ts
+++ b/app/src/lib/rate-limit.ts
@@ -72,3 +72,17 @@ export function clientKey(request: Request): string {
   if (xff) return xff.split(",")[0].trim();
   return request.headers.get("x-real-ip") ?? "unknown";
 }
+
+/**
+ * True when the request came from our own pages (the browse grid, the bot
+ * detail page, etc.). Used to exempt UI traffic from the animated-render
+ * rate limit — /browse alone renders ~60 GIFs on first paint, which would
+ * blow past any sane per-IP cap. Sec-Fetch-Site is modern-browser-native
+ * (Chrome / Firefox / Safari) and cannot be forged by script from another
+ * origin, so it's a reasonable guard for "this is our UI, not abuse."
+ * External consumers (curl, servers, other sites hotlinking) get
+ * `cross-site` or no header → still rate-limited.
+ */
+export function isSameOrigin(request: Request): boolean {
+  return request.headers.get("sec-fetch-site") === "same-origin";
+}