Pokémon TCG API · Rate Limits

Pokemon Tcg Rate Limits

The Pokémon TCG API publishes explicit numeric rate limits that depend on whether a request carries an API key. Without a key, requests are limited to 1,000 per day and a maximum of 30 per minute. With a free API key from the Pokémon TCG Developer Portal (sent via the X-Api-Key header), the default limit is 20,000 requests per day, and higher limits can be arranged by contacting the maintainer via Discord or email. The deprecated v1 API throttles all third-party applications to 30 requests per minute. Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429.

Pokemon Tcg Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for Pokémon TCG API on the APIs.io network, in the API Commons Rate Limits shape.

It captures 5 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests and results.

An exhausted limit returns HTTP 429.

This profile was written by API Evangelist and has not been verified against a page the provider published; treat every limit as unconfirmed until a dated transcription replaces it.

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

Tagged areas include Pokemon, Trading Cards, TCG, Gaming, and Rate Limiting.

5 Limits Exhausted: HTTP 429
Method: generated, dated 2026-07-11.
Written by API Evangelist on 2026-07-11 and not verified against a page the provider published. Treat every limit as unconfirmed until a dated transcription replaces it.
View Source
PokemonTrading CardsTCGGamingRate LimitingQuotas

Limits

Anonymous Daily Requests client
requests
1000/day
Applies to all requests made without an X-Api-Key header.
Anonymous Per-Minute Requests client
requests
30/minute
Enforced alongside the daily cap for keyless requests.
Keyed Daily Requests (Default) api-key
requests
20000/day
Default for free API keys from dev.pokemontcg.io; higher limits available on request via Discord or email.
V1 API Requests (Deprecated) client
requests
30/minute
The deprecated v1 API throttles all third-party applications to 30 requests per minute.
Page Size request
results
250 per page
pageSize defaults to 250 and cannot exceed 250; use page to iterate.

Policies

Optional Authentication
Requests without an API key do not fail - they simply run under drastically reduced rate limits.
Economical Use
The maintainer encourages integrations to minimize requests - use select to trim fields, precise q queries to narrow results, and the maximum pageSize of 250 when paging through data.
Backoff Strategy
Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter on HTTP 429 responses and spread bulk syncs across the day.
Elevated Limits
Higher daily limits are granted case-by-case by contacting the maintainer via Discord or email; donations via Patreon or Ko-fi help fund server capacity.

Sources

Work with this as data

Every rate limit here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

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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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Call it yourself

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This rate limit 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/rate-limits/pokemon-tcg-rate-limits"
All rate limits 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/rate-limits?limit=25"

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