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: ClearVIN
providerId: clearvin
created: '2026-06-21'
modified: '2026-06-21'
reconciled: false
tags:
- VIN
- Vehicle History
- Automotive
- NMVTIS
- Vehicle Data
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  ClearVIN's vendor API does not publish explicit numeric request-rate limits.
  Access is gated by authentication and account state rather than per-minute
  throttles: requests must originate from an IP address registered with
  ClearVIN, bearer tokens issued at /rest/vendor/login expire after 120 minutes
  and must be refreshed, and consumption is bounded by the account's prepaid
  report credits / package balance. Specific RPM / RPD ceilings are not
  documented and are not reconciled in this artifact.
notes: >-
  No numeric rate limits are published on ClearVIN's API subscriber pages.
  Confirm any per-account or per-IP throttling, concurrency, and quota values
  with ClearVIN during onboarding / reconciliation.
sources:
- https://www.clearvin.com/en/api-subscribers/
- https://www.clearvin.com/en/api-subscribers/vin-decode-api/
- https://www.clearvin.com/en/api-subscribers/nmvtis-history-api/
responseCodes:
  throttled: see provider documentation
limits:
- name: Registered IP Allowlist
  scope: account
  metric: source_ip
  limit: requests must originate from a registered IP address
  notes: API requests are rejected when not sent from an IP registered with ClearVIN.
- name: Token Lifetime
  scope: account
  metric: token
  limit: 120 minutes
  notes: Bearer tokens from /rest/vendor/login expire after 120 minutes and must be re-issued.
- name: Credit / Package Balance
  scope: account
  metric: credits
  limit: bounded by prepaid report credits / package balance
  notes: Report retrieval consumes account credits; throughput is bounded by remaining balance.
- name: Request Rate (RPM / RPD)
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: No numeric per-minute / per-day request rate is published; verify with ClearVIN.
policies:
- name: IP Registration
  description: Production API access requires pre-registering originating IP addresses with ClearVIN.
- name: Token Refresh
  description: Clients must re-authenticate at /rest/vendor/login when the 120-minute token expires.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com