NASA · Rate Limits

Nasa Rate Limits

NASA Open APIs run on the api.data.gov shared gateway. Rate limits are scoped per-API-key for signed-up keys and per-IP for the shared DEMO_KEY. There are no separate live/sandbox modes; higher limits require contacting api@nasa.gov. Counters reset on a rolling hourly basis.

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

It captures 3 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests_per_hour and requests_per_day.

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

Tagged areas include Rate Limiting, Government, Science, and Space.

3 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Rate LimitingGovernmentScienceSpace

Limits

Signed-up API key (default) key
requests_per_hour · hour
1000
Default for all signed-up keys across every NASA API at api.nasa.gov.
DEMO_KEY hourly IP
requests_per_hour · hour
30
Shared demo key — limit is per IP address, not per key.
DEMO_KEY daily IP
requests_per_day · day
50
Shared demo key daily ceiling per IP.

Policies

Rolling window
The hourly window resets on a rolling basis rather than at a fixed clock minute. After a block, access resumes within an hour without intervention.
Demo key vs signed key
DEMO_KEY is intended only for tutorials and exploration; production traffic should use a signed-up key. DEMO_KEY limits are enforced per IP and shared across all consumers from that IP.
Higher limits via email
Consumers needing more than 1,000 requests/hour are directed to email api@nasa.gov to request an allowlist; some upstream APIs (e.g. Earthdata, NASA POWER) have their own rate-limit policies documented separately.
Backoff
On 429, wait at least the remainder of the hour before resuming. There is no Retry-After header documented.

Sources

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Tools for rate limits

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  • find_rate_limitsBrowse and filter every rate limit in the catalog.
  • apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
  • resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
  • find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.
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All rate limits 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/rate-limits?limit=25"

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