# Provenance stamped 2026-10-07 (roadmap#943): written by an API Evangelist sweep (dated 2026-06-13 by the file itself), not
# harvested from the provider. `method: generated` so the economics campaign may replace it with a
# dated, verbatim transcription; every figure below is unverified until it does.
method: generated
generated: '2026-06-13'
specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: ACM Digital Library
providerId: acm
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
tags:
  - Academic
  - Bibliographic Records
  - Citations
  - Computing
  - Conference Proceedings
  - DOI
  - Digital Library
  - Journals
  - Metadata
  - Open Access
  - Publications
  - Research
  - Scholarly
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Rate limit definitions for the ACM Digital Library web endpoints. ACM does not publish explicit rate limit
  thresholds for its search and content retrieval endpoints. Access is controlled through institutional IP
  authentication or individual account login. Automated or parallel access attempts may result in temporary
  IP blocks. Text and data mining is permitted for research and educational purposes but not for commercial
  use per ACM's terms. Premium subscribers have access to bulk download capabilities with enhanced throughput.
headers:
  limit: X-RateLimit-Limit
  remaining: X-RateLimit-Remaining
  reset: X-RateLimit-Reset
  retryAfter: Retry-After
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - tier: basic
    name: Basic Tier Search Rate
    scope: ip-address
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 10
    burst: 20
    timeFrame: minute
    applies:
      - ACM Digital Library Search API
      - ACM Digital Library Content Retrieval API
    notes: >-
      ACM does not publish explicit rate limits. Estimated conservative limits based on observed behavior;
      aggressive parallel requests may result in temporary IP blocks. Sequential, polite access is recommended.

  - tier: basic
    name: Basic Tier Citation Export Rate
    scope: ip-address
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 5
    burst: 10
    timeFrame: minute
    applies:
      - ACM Digital Library Citation Export API
    notes: >-
      Citation export requests should be throttled to avoid triggering automated access protections.

  - tier: premium
    name: Premium Tier Bulk Download
    scope: account
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 60
    burst: 100
    timeFrame: minute
    applies:
      - ACM Digital Library Search API
      - ACM Digital Library Content Retrieval API
      - ACM Digital Library Citation Export API
    notes: >-
      Premium institutional subscribers have access to bulk download capabilities. Actual limits are
      subject to negotiated terms and ACM's terms of service for text and data mining.

notes:
  - ACM Digital Library does not expose a formal developer API with documented rate limit headers.
  - Rate limits above are estimated from observed platform behavior and community reports.
  - Text and data mining is permitted for research and educational purposes, not commercial use.
  - Contact dl-team@hq.acm.org for programmatic access inquiries.
  - Parallel scraping or crawling may result in temporary IP-level blocking.