SkyWatch · Rate Limits

Skywatch Rate Limits

SkyWatch does not publish fixed numeric request-rate limits for the EarthCache API. The dominant constraint is commercial rather than request-based: imagery ordering is metered per square kilometre by resolution tier with per-tier purchase minimums, and pipelines are further bounded by a per-pipeline budget (budget_per_km2 and max_cost). Archive Search is asynchronous - a search is created, then polled - and clients are expected to poll politely (the reference client waits between GET requests while a search returns 202). Callback delivery for subscriptions retains invocation history for three months.

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

It captures 5 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests, area, cost, and history.

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

Tagged areas include Satellite Imagery, Earth Observation, EarthCache, Rate Limiting, and Quotas.

5 Limits Throttle: 429
Satellite ImageryEarth ObservationEarthCacheRate LimitingQuotas

Limits

EarthCache API Requests account
requests
not published
No fixed numeric request-rate limit is documented for the EarthCache API.
Archive Search Polling search
requests
poll with backoff
A search returns 202 while processing; clients poll search_results with a delay until 200.
Order Purchase Minimum order
area
per resolution tier
Each resolution tier has a minimum billable AOI (for example 5 km2 for standard and very-high archive, 1 km2 for high).
Pipeline Budget pipeline
cost
configurable (budget_per_km2, max_cost)
Pipelines cap spend per km2 and overall via budget_per_km2 and max_cost fields.
Callback Retention subscription
history
3 months
The /callbacks endpoint returns callback invocations over the last three months.

Policies

Asynchronous Search
Searches are created and then polled; callers should implement a delay between poll requests and honor 202 responses.
Backoff Strategy
Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter and honor Retry-After on 429 responses.
Budget Enforcement
Pipelines will not deliver imagery that exceeds their configured budget_per_km2 or max_cost.

Sources

Work with this as data

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

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for rate limits

4 MCP tools reach this
  • 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.
All 92 tools

Call it yourself

curl for this page
This rate limit 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/rate-limits/skywatch-rate-limits"
All rate limits 
curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/rate-limits?limit=25"

Discovery needs no key. Ratings and market analysis are Pro.

Get an API key

Free tier, no email required.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.