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: Federal Student Aid
providerId: federal-student-aid
created: '2026-05-04'
generated: '2026-09-09'
method: searched
source: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/api-documentation/
docs:
  - https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/api-documentation/
  - https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/
modified: '2026-09-09'
tags:
  - Education
  - Federal Government
  - Financial Aid
  - Higher Education
  - Rate Limiting
  - Quotas
  - Throttling
description: >-
  Published rate limits for the College Scorecard API, the one publicly callable
  surface on this Federal Student Aid record. Replaces the 2026-05-04 scaffold,
  whose values were generated defaults and did not match anything the Department
  publishes. Limits below are transcribed from the Department's API Documentation
  page and the api.data.gov developer manual, and the response headers were
  observed live on 2026-09-09.
headers:
  limit: X-RateLimit-Limit
  remaining: X-RateLimit-Remaining
  reset: null
  retryAfter: null
  policy: null
headers_note: >-
  Observed live 2026-09-09 on GET
  https://api.data.gov/ed/collegescorecard/v1/schools?api_key=DEMO_KEY&per_page=1
  -> HTTP 200 with "x-ratelimit-limit: 10" and "x-ratelimit-remaining: 9".
  No reset, Retry-After or RateLimit-Policy header is emitted, so a throttled agent
  is told that it is over the limit but never when it may return. That missing
  signal is the notable gap on this surface.
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  keyRejected: 403
  serviceUnavailable: 503
error_codes:
  throttled: OVER_RATE_LIMIT
  keyRejected: API_KEY_MISSING | API_KEY_INVALID | API_KEY_DISABLED
limits:
  - tier: registered
    name: Default registered API key
    scope: per-ip
    metric: requests_per_hour
    limit: 1000
    burst: null
    window: 1h
    cost: free
    source: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/api-documentation/
    quote: >-
      "The default rate limit is 1,000 requests per IP address per hour."
    increase_process: >-
      Email scorecarddata@rti.org to request an increase. No self-service upgrade,
      no paid tier.
  - tier: demo
    name: Shared DEMO_KEY
    scope: per-ip
    metric: requests_per_hour
    limit: 30
    burst: null
    window: 1h
    cost: free
    source: https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/
    quote: '"Hourly Limit: 30 requests per IP address per hour"'
  - tier: demo
    name: Shared DEMO_KEY (daily)
    scope: per-ip
    metric: requests_per_day
    limit: 50
    burst: null
    window: 24h
    cost: free
    source: https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/
    quote: '"Daily Limit: 50 requests per IP address per day"'
limit_count: 3
notes:
  - >-
    The limit is bound to the IP address, not the key. Registered and demo traffic
    from one NAT egress or one cloud region share a bucket, which matters for any
    agent fleet calling from a small pool of addresses.
  - >-
    Federal Student Aid's own partner systems (FSA Partner Connect, SAIG, COD,
    NSLDS) publish no rate limits because they publish no public API.