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: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
providerId: animal-and-plant-health-inspection-service
generated: '2026-09-02'
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-09-02'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://www.aphis.usda.gov (site search for rate limits / throttling / quotas - nothing published),
  plus live probes of https://services7.arcgis.com/2C1NQ7u6M6SXoa8p/arcgis/rest/services on 2026-09-02
note: >-
  SUPERSEDES a 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep scaffold that invented free/professional/enterprise tiers with
  10/100/1000 rpm and X-RateLimit-* headers. None of that was ever published by APHIS. This revision
  records only what was actually found. APHIS documents NO request-rate limit, NO quota, and NO
  throttling response for any of its surfaces. The only published, machine-readable limits on the
  provider's API surface are the ArcGIS Feature Service per-request record ceilings, which are
  pagination limits rather than rate limits, and they are recorded as such below.
limit_count: 3
headers:
  limit: null
  remaining: null
  reset: null
  retryAfter: null
  policy: null
  note: >-
    No rate-limit response headers were observed on any unauthenticated 200 from the ArcGIS feature
    services, and none are documented. An agent has no runtime signal to back off on.
responseCodes:
  throttled: null
  quotaExceeded: null
  note: >-
    ArcGIS REST returns HTTP 200 with an {"error":{"code":...}} envelope for application-level
    failures, so a client cannot detect exhaustion from the status code either.
limits:
  - name: ArcGIS Feature Service maximum records per query
    scope: per-request
    kind: pagination
    metric: features_per_query
    limit: 2000
    applies:
      - USDA-MRP ArcGIS REST Feature Services (majority of services)
    evidence:
      url: https://services7.arcgis.com/2C1NQ7u6M6SXoa8p/arcgis/rest/services/Federal_Citrus_Quarantine_Data/FeatureServer?f=json
      status: 200
      field: maxRecordCount
    note: Exceed it by paging with resultOffset / resultRecordCount, or by using returnIdsOnly with maxIdsCount.
  - name: ArcGIS Feature Service maximum records per query (reduced services)
    scope: per-request
    kind: pagination
    metric: features_per_query
    limit: 1000
    applies:
      - PPQ_GIS_Federal_Quarantine_Feature_Layer
      - Barberry_Service
    evidence:
      url: https://services7.arcgis.com/2C1NQ7u6M6SXoa8p/arcgis/rest/services/PPQ_GIS_Federal_Quarantine_Feature_Layer/FeatureServer?f=json
      status: 200
      field: maxRecordCount
  - name: ArcGIS Feature Service maximum object ids per query
    scope: per-request
    kind: pagination
    metric: ids_per_query
    limit: 1000000
    applies:
      - USDA-MRP ArcGIS REST Feature Services
    evidence:
      url: https://services7.arcgis.com/2C1NQ7u6M6SXoa8p/arcgis/rest/services/VS_NWS_Cases_and_Initial_Detections_for_States/FeatureServer?f=json
      status: 200
      field: maxIdsCount
undocumented:
  - surface: APHIS eFile Permitting System
    reason: Authenticated web application behind USDA eAuthentication; no developer API and no published limits.
  - surface: Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR)
    reason: Salesforce Experience Cloud site; no published limits.
  - surface: APHIS Public Search Tool
    reason: Salesforce Experience Cloud site; no published limits.
tags:
  - Agriculture
  - Animal Health
  - Federal Government
  - Plant Health
  - Rate Limiting
  - Geospatial
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: info@apievangelist.com