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: Edamam
providerId: edamam
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-06-02'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Food
  - Nutrition
  - UPC
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Edamam enforces both per-minute request-rate limits and monthly call quotas,
  scoped to the API key (app_id / app_key) and varying by purchased plan tier.
  Rate limits also differ by request category (Food/Nutrition, UPC,
  Autocomplete, Vision). The numbers below reflect Edamam's published Food and
  Grocery Database plan tiers; monthly quotas are managed as plan entries (see
  plans/edamam-plans-pricing.yml) while the per-minute ceilings are hard
  throttles applied regardless of remaining quota.
sources:
  - https://developer.edamam.com/food-database-api
  - https://developer.edamam.com/api/faq
  - https://developer.edamam.com/buyer/stats
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: Enterprise Basic — Food/Nutrition/UPC
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
    notes: Applies to Food, Nutrition, and UPC categories on the Enterprise Basic tier.
  - name: Enterprise Basic — Autocomplete
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Enterprise Basic — Vision
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: day
  - name: Enterprise Basic — Monthly Quota
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_month
    limit: 100000
    timeFrame: month
  - name: Enterprise Core — Food/Nutrition/UPC
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 100
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Enterprise Core — Autocomplete
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 500
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Enterprise Core — Vision
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 50
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Enterprise Core — Monthly Quota
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_month
    limit: 750000
    timeFrame: month
  - name: Enterprise Plus — All Categories
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 300
    timeFrame: minute
  - name: Enterprise Plus — Monthly Quota
    scope: key
    metric: requests_per_month
    limit: 5000000
    timeFrame: month
  - name: Enterprise Unlimited — All Categories
    scope: contract
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: 'unlimited (negotiated)'
    notes: Custom-priced tier; no published per-minute ceiling.
policies:
  - name: Per-Category Throttling
    description: >-
      Rate limits are enforced per request category (Food/Nutrition, UPC,
      Autocomplete, Vision), so heavy use of one category does not consume
      another's per-minute budget.
  - name: Quota vs Rate
    description: >-
      Monthly call quotas (tied to the purchased plan) are separate from the
      per-minute rate ceilings. Hitting either results in throttling until the
      window resets or the plan is upgraded.
  - name: Backoff Strategy
    description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter when a 429 is returned.
  - name: Usage Monitoring
    description: >-
      Consumption can be monitored from the Edamam buyer dashboard usage stats
      page; quotas reset at the start of each monthly billing cycle.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com