OpenFEMA · Rate Limits

Fema Rate Limits

OpenFEMA does not publish a per-account or per-IP request-rate limit (no RPM/RPD ceiling, no API key or quota system). Instead, load is bounded per call by a record-count limit: each request returns at most 1,000 records by default, and at most 10,000 records even when $top is raised to its maximum. Clients page through larger result sets with $skip (and optionally $count to learn the total), or use the BETA $allrecords=true parameter to force a single full-result download bypassing the 10,000-row ceiling. For very large exports, FEMA recommends CSV or Parquet over JSON to keep payload size manageable.

Fema Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for OpenFEMA on the APIs.io network, conforming to the API Commons Rate Limits specification.

It captures 5 rate-limit definitions, measuring records and n/a.

The profile also includes 3 backoff/retry policies defined and response codes documented for throttled.

Tagged areas include Government, Open Data, Rate Limiting, Pagination, and Record Limits.

5 Limits
GovernmentOpen DataRate LimitingPaginationRecord Limits

Limits

Default Records Per Call request
records
1000
Applied when $top is not specified.
Maximum Records Per Call request
records
10000
Ceiling even when $top is explicitly raised above this value.
Paging Beyond the Ceiling request
records
unbounded via $skip
Use $skip (with $top) to page through result sets larger than 10000 records; add $count=true to learn the total matching record count up front.
Bulk Export request
records
unbounded via $allrecords=true (BETA)
Forces the full result set to be returned in one download, bypassing the 10000-record $top ceiling. Intended for bulk/offline export, not interactive use.
API Key / Subscription account
n/a
none required
The API is free, public, and does not require registration, an API key, or a subscription.

Policies

No Authentication, No Quota
OpenFEMA is open government data; there is no per-account quota system to exceed or upgrade.
Prefer Compact Formats for Large Pulls
For large datasets, FEMA recommends $format=csv or $format=parquet over JSON to reduce payload size; Parquet also carries an embedded schema.
Metadata Envelope Toggle
Pass $metadata=false to drop the wrapping metadata object and reduce response overhead on high-volume automated pulls.

Sources