Transit · Rate Limits

Transit Rate Limits

Transit publishes a single documented free-tier limit on the partner API: 5 calls per minute and 1,500 calls per month per access key. Limits are scoped to the partner access key issued after the request-form approval. Higher throughput is available only via direct contact with the partnerships team; no published policy describes burst, retry, or idempotency behavior.

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

It captures 3 rate-limit definitions, measuring requests_per_minute, requests_per_month, and varies.

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

Tagged areas include Rate Limiting, Public Transit, Real-Time, and Mobility.

3 Limits Throttle: 429 Quota: 429
Rate LimitingPublic TransitReal-TimeMobility

Limits

Per-minute request rate (free tier) key
requests_per_minute · minute
5
Applies to every access key issued under the standard free partner tier. Negotiated tiers raise this ceiling.
Monthly request quota (free tier) key
requests_per_month · month
1500
Hard monthly cap on every standard partner key. Quota resets on the calendar month; production deployments must upgrade.
Negotiated partner ceiling key
varies
contact partnerships team for sustained production volume
Transit does not publish higher tiers; signage, embedded trip planners, and first/last-mile platforms negotiate limits directly with partners+website@transit.app.

Policies

Approval-gated access
Keys are issued only after the Google Form request is approved; anonymous/self-service signup is not available.
Per-key scoping
All published limits apply per access key, not per source IP or per agency. Partners running multiple deployments should request additional keys via the partnerships team.
Hard quota at the monthly ceiling
The 1,500 calls/month cap is a hard quota in the free tier; once hit, requests are rejected until the calendar month rolls over or the key is upgraded.
Soft retry guidance
Transit publishes no explicit retry/backoff policy; consumers should treat 429 responses as advisory and use exponential backoff with jitter on retries.

Sources