U.S. Geological Survey · Rate Limits

U S Geological Survey Rate Limits

USGS does not publish numeric rate limits for its public web services. Documentation steers high-volume / automated consumers toward the bulk GeoJSON feeds, ATOM feeds, and Python-based catalog download scripts rather than ad-hoc API polling. Specific throttling thresholds and headers are not documented on the public USGS pages reviewed.

U S Geological Survey Rate Limits is the machine-readable rate-limit profile for U.S. Geological Survey on the APIs.io network, in the API Commons Rate Limits shape.

It captures 2 rate-limit definitions, measuring varies.

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 3 backoff/retry policies defined.

Tagged areas include Federal Government, Earth Science, Earthquake, Hydrology, and Open Data.

2 Limits
Method: generated, dated 2026-05-05.
Written by API Evangelist on 2026-05-05 and not verified against a page the provider published. Treat every limit as unconfirmed until a dated transcription replaces it.
View Source
Federal GovernmentEarth ScienceEarthquakeHydrologyOpen DataRate Limiting

Limits

Earthquake / FDSN Web Service IP
varies
see https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/comcat/
USGS recommends real-time GeoJSON feeds over repeated FDSN queries for automated applications; explicit per-second numeric limits are not published.
USGS Water Data IP
varies
see https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/
Specific request-rate ceilings not documented on the public service pages reviewed.

Policies

Use Bulk Feeds for Automation
USGS explicitly recommends that automated applications consume the real-time GeoJSON / ATOM feeds rather than repeatedly polling the catalog API.
Acceptable Use
Federal information services expect courteous use; sustained excessive polling may be throttled at the network edge without prior notice.
429 Handling
Apply exponential backoff on transient failures; specific Retry-After timing is not published.

Sources

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