generated: '2026-07-25'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/Spectrum%20licensing%20API.docx
signalling:
  headers: none
  retry_after: false
  detail: >-
    Neither ACMA API returns RateLimit, X-RateLimit or Retry-After headers. Limits are published
    as prose in the documentation and enforced silently in the response payload. Nothing about
    the limit is discoverable at runtime.
limits:
- api: acma:spectrum-licensing
  name: Records per query
  limit_count: 2000
  limit_interval: request
  scope: per-query
  enforcement: truncation
  detail: >-
    "There is a limit of 2000 records on each query. This is to discourage people from
    downloading the whole dataset through the API." The cap is a response-size ceiling, not a
    request-rate throttle: exceeding it does not error, the result is simply truncated. Callers
    page past it by advancing the offset (0, 2000, 4000, ...). TOTAL_RESULT on each record tells
    the caller how many pages remain.
  bypass: >-
    ACMA's published answer for whole-dataset use is not paging but the daily bulk zip download
    at https://www.acma.gov.au/register-radiocommunication-licences-rrl#/data-download.
  source: https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/Spectrum%20licensing%20API.docx
- api: acma:spectrum-licensing
  name: Request rate
  limit_count: null
  detail: >-
    No requests-per-second, per-minute or per-day quota is published, and no throttling response
    was observed across the live probe of all 22 operations on 2026-07-25. Absence of a
    published rate limit is recorded here as a fact, not as an invitation to hammer the service.
- api: acma:do-not-call-register-washing
  name: Numbers per RTA call (recommended)
  limit_count: 200
  limit_interval: request
  scope: per-soap-call
  enforcement: guidance
  detail: >-
    ACMA's optimum payload: "Try to put as many numbers as possible (up to 200) into one web
    method call." At that size the per-request SOAP overhead is amortised and the register can
    handle 10 to 20 such concurrent callers without timing out.
  source: https://www.donotcall.gov.au/getmedia/9810ca84-d7af-4972-b626-6b5495f52ac2/DNCR-SOAP-Fact-Sheet.pdf
- api: acma:do-not-call-register-washing
  name: Numbers per RTA call (maximum)
  limit_count: 500
  limit_interval: request
  scope: per-soap-call
  enforcement: timeout
  detail: >-
    "The maximum payload size should be 500 numbers." At that payload the caller may avoid a
    timeout when the register is quiet, but is likely to hit one when 10-20 concurrent users are
    active or another user is washing a large file on the other channels. The failure mode is a
    timeout, not a rejection.
- api: acma:do-not-call-register-washing
  name: Numbers per month via RTA
  limit_count: 5000000
  limit_interval: month
  scope: per-account
  enforcement: guidance
  detail: >-
    "Limit the total monthly wash using the real-time access service to fewer than 5 million
    numbers." Larger volumes are steered to the AWS/SFTP batch channel.
- api: acma:do-not-call-register-washing
  name: Wash credits
  limit_count: null
  limit_interval: subscription
  scope: per-account
  enforcement: metering
  detail: >-
    The real operational limit on the washing service is commercial, not technical: each number
    washed consumes a wash credit from the account's subscription, and subscriptions run from
    500 credits (free, type A) to 100,000,000 (type H). Invalid numbers are still charged. When
    the subscription limit is reached the caller receives a warning to buy another subscription.
  see: plans/acma-plans.yml
backoff_guidance:
  api: acma:do-not-call-register-washing
  detail: >-
    ACMA publishes explicit client backoff rules for the RTA channel: catch timeouts and handle
    them gracefully; after a timeout wait at least 30 seconds before calling GetWashResult; on a
    second failure wait another 30 seconds; on a third, wait at least 30 minutes or give up; and
    if timeouts are frequent, do not simply retry — postpone the wash to off-peak hours or move
    to another channel. Loads should be spread as evenly as possible "across seconds (not hours
    or daily)".
  source: https://www.donotcall.gov.au/getmedia/9810ca84-d7af-4972-b626-6b5495f52ac2/DNCR-SOAP-Fact-Sheet.pdf