specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
provider: Figshare
providerId: figshare
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'
reconciled: true
description: >-
  Figshare does not enforce hard automatic rate limits on the API. Instead, the
  platform monitors usage and reserves the right to throttle or block requests
  if abuse is detected. The official recommendation is no more than one request
  per second. Violations may result in temporary throttling (HTTP 429) or
  blocking at Figshare's discretion.
retryAfter:
  header: Retry-After
  description: >-
    If a 429 response is returned due to detected abuse or excessive requests,
    clients should honor the Retry-After header value before retrying.
throttled: 429
limits:
  - scope: global
    metric: requests_per_second
    limit: 1
    timeFrame: second
    recommended: true
    enforced: false
    notes: >-
      Figshare recommends clients limit to 1 request per second. This is a
      soft recommendation; there is no hard automatic throttle, but excessive
      usage may trigger monitoring-based restrictions.
  - scope: file_upload
    metric: max_file_size_standard_gb
    limit: 20
    timeFrame: per_upload
    notes: >-
      Standard accounts are limited to 20GB per individual file upload.
      Figshare+ and institutional accounts support up to 5TB per file (AWS S3
      multipart upload).
  - scope: items
    metric: max_files_per_item
    limit: 500
    timeFrame: per_item
    notes: >-
      A maximum of 500 files per item/article applies. Institutional admins
      may be able to request an increase.
policy:
  abuseDetection: true
  automaticThrottle: false
  monitoringEnabled: true
  blockingPolicy: >-
    Figshare reserves the right to throttle or block API requests if monitoring
    detects usage patterns consistent with abuse or excessive load.
  documentation: https://docs.figshare.com/