sec-edgar · Rate Limits

Sec Edgar Rate Limits

SEC EDGAR enforces a fair-access policy of no more than 10 requests per second to its public endpoints (efts.sec.gov, data.sec.gov, www.sec.gov). All requests must include a descriptive User-Agent header containing a contact email. Excessive traffic results in temporary IP blocks. There is no API key and no per-tier differentiation.

1 Limits Throttle: 429
SECFilingsRegulatoryRate Limiting

Limits

SEC fair-access cap IP
requests_per_second ยท second
10
Applies aggregate across efts.sec.gov, data.sec.gov, and www.sec.gov. Requests above this rate are throttled or temporarily blocked.

Policies

User-Agent header required
Requests must include a descriptive User-Agent identifying the company / individual and a contact email (e.g., "Sample Company Name [email protected]"). Default library User-Agents are commonly blocked.
Backoff
On 403 or 429, back off and reduce request rate. Excessive requests can trigger an IP-level block; SEC will lift blocks once acceptable behavior is observed.
Bulk download alternative
For large workloads, pull bulk data from EDGAR's daily/quarterly index files or the bulk ZIP archives instead of hammering the API endpoints.
No authentication
All endpoints are anonymous. There is no API key, OAuth, or paid tier. The rate limit applies uniformly per source IP.

Sources