Department of the Interior · Rate Limits

Department Of The Interior Rate Limits

DOI APIs split into two rate-limit regimes. APIs gated by an api.data.gov developer key (notably the NPS Data API) inherit api.data.gov's standard default of 1,000 requests per hour per API key, raisable via support. USGS, Reclamation, BLM, USFWS, and ONRR public endpoints are unauthenticated and bounded by fair-use rather than per-key quotas. Rate signaling on api.data.gov-fronted services uses X-RateLimit-* headers and HTTP 429 / 503 on throttle.

Department Of The Interior Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for Department of the Interior on the APIs.io network, conforming to the API Commons Rate Limits specification.

It captures 3 rate-limit definitions, across the api-data-gov and open tiers, measuring requests_per_hour and requests_per_minute.

The profile also includes 4 backoff/retry policies defined and response codes documented for throttled, quotaExceeded, serviceUnavailable, and forbidden.

Tagged areas include Federal Government, Public Lands, Geospatial, Open Data, and Rate Limiting.

3 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Federal GovernmentPublic LandsGeospatialOpen DataRate Limiting

Limits

api.data.gov default per-key limit api-key
requests_per_hour · hour
1000
api.data.gov increased limit (raise via support) api-key
requests_per_hour
higher; request via api.data.gov support
Open / fair-use throttle IP
requests_per_minute
fair-use; not published

Policies

api.data.gov Key Pattern
NPS-style endpoints enforce limits at the api.data.gov gateway. Excess returns 429 with a JSON error and an OVER_RATE_LIMIT code. Increases must be requested in writing via the api.data.gov contact form.
USGS Fair Use
USGS earthquake and water services request that bulk consumers cache responses, throttle polling intervals (e.g. earthquake events polled at most every minute), and identify themselves with a contact email in the User-Agent string. There is no per-key rate limit.
Backoff Strategy
On 429 / 503 implement exponential backoff with jitter, honor Retry-After when present.
Caching Encouragement
All DOI / USGS bureaus encourage caching of responses (especially geospatial and water-data bulk pulls) to reduce load on shared scientific infrastructure.

Sources