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: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
providerId: bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-atf-
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-09-05'
generated: '2026-09-05'
method: probed
source: >-
  Live unauthenticated requests to https://regulations.atf.gov/api/* and the two
  ATF ArcGIS feature services on 2026-09-05, plus a search of atf.gov for any
  published usage policy.
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  ATF publishes no rate limits and returns no rate-limit headers. This file
  replaces a 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep scaffold that invented free/professional/
  enterprise tiers with per-minute and per-month quotas for an agency that sells
  nothing and issues no API keys. None of those numbers were ever ATF's; all have
  been removed.
limit_count: 0
limits: []
headers: {}
responseCodes: {}
observed:
  - surface: ATF eRegulations API
    url: https://regulations.atf.gov/api/regulation
    rate_limit_headers: []
    detail: >-
      No X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset,
      RateLimit-Policy or Retry-After header on any 200 response. No 429 was
      returned during this pass. There is no key, so there is nothing to scope a
      limit to; any limiting would be per-IP and is undocumented.
  - surface: ATF ArcGIS feature services
    url: https://services6.arcgis.com/PrP5ZtrES07DmVmv/arcgis/rest/services/Federal_Firearm_Licensees_locations/FeatureServer/0
    rate_limit_headers: []
    detail: >-
      No rate-limit headers. The one hard, PUBLISHED ceiling on this provider is a
      transfer limit rather than a rate limit, and it is declared in the service
      descriptor itself.
transfer_limits:
  - surface: Federal Firearm Licensees locations
    field: maxRecordCount
    value: 2000
    standardMaxRecordCount: 16000
    tileMaxRecordCount: 8000
    total_records: 77514
    detail: >-
      A single query returns at most 2,000 features regardless of `where`. Walking
      all 77,514 FFL records therefore takes at least 39 paged requests using
      resultOffset / resultRecordCount. Check `exceededTransferLimit` on every
      page. Source: the FeatureServer descriptor saved under geoservices/.
  - surface: ATF Office Locations
    field: maxRecordCount
    value: 2000
    total_records: 537
    detail: Fits in a single request; the cap never binds.
policies:
  - name: No published usage policy
    description: >-
      ATF documents no fair-use rule, no throttling behaviour and no contact for
      requesting higher volume. A consumer building on these endpoints has no
      stated ceiling and no warning before one is enforced. Rate-limit the client
      side conservatively and cache: the regulation text changes at Federal
      Register cadence (27 CFR 646 has not changed since 2014) and the feature
      layers were last edited 2026-06-17 and 2026-04-16.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com