US Department of Commerce · Rate Limits

Us Department Of Commerce Rate Limits

U.S. Department of Commerce APIs that route through api.data.gov inherit its standard rate-limit policy of 1,000 requests/hour per API key on a rolling window, with 429 OVER_RATE_LIMIT responses. The DEMO_KEY has much stricter per-IP hourly and daily caps. Higher limits can be requested for production use.

3 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Federal GovernmentOpen DataRate Limiting

Limits

Standard API Key key
requests_per_hour · hour
1000
Rolling-hour window; 429 with error code OVER_RATE_LIMIT when exceeded; clears as the oldest requests age out.
DEMO_KEY (per IP, hourly) IP
requests_per_hour · hour
30
Demonstration key only; intended for testing.
DEMO_KEY (per IP, daily) IP
requests_per_day · day
50
Demonstration key only; daily ceiling on top of the hourly cap.

Policies

Rolling-Hour Window
Limits are evaluated as a rolling one-hour window per API key; blocks lift automatically as older requests age out.
Higher Limit Request
Production users can contact api.data.gov to request higher per-key limits when a sustained 1,000 req/hr cap is insufficient.
Error Body
Throttled responses return HTTP 429 with an error code of OVER_RATE_LIMIT; clients should honor the rate-limit headers and back off rather than retry immediately.

Sources