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: Kroger
providerId: kroger
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-27'
generated: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source: >-
  Kroger developer documentation, read anonymously from the portal content API
  (https://developer.kroger.com/api/v1/developer/content/search.json, HTTP 200).
  This SUPERSEDES the 2026-05-04 generated artifact, which recorded the limits as
  "undocumented" because the HTML docs host renders client-side. Kroger does
  publish per-API daily limits; they are just unreachable without executing JS.
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Groceries
  - Retail
description: >-
  Kroger publishes a daily call ceiling for each Public API. The limits are
  applied PER ENDPOINT and shared equally across ALL clients — Kroger states it
  does not currently support per-client limits. The window resets 24 hours after
  the client's first call to that endpoint. Partner APIs are documented as having
  no rate limit.
docs:
  - https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/public/getting-started/apis
  - https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/products/overview
  - https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/locations/overview
  - https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/cart/overview
  - https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/identity/overview
model:
  granularity: per-endpoint
  shared_across_clients: true
  per_client_limits: false
  quote: >-
    "All public APIs have a daily rate limit that is applied equally across all
    clients. Since the rate limits are applied to individual endpoints, we do not
    currently support individual rate limits by client. Rate limits reset 24
    hours after the first call to an endpoint."
  window: 24h rolling from the client's first call to the endpoint
limit_count: 4
limits:
  - name: Products API
    api: Kroger Products API (Public)
    endpoint: /v1/products
    scope: per-endpoint
    window: 1d
    limit: 10000
    unit: calls
    burst: null
    note: >-
      The 10,000 calls may be distributed across all operations that use the
      /products endpoint (product search and product details) as the client sees
      fit.
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/products/overview
  - name: Locations API
    api: Kroger Location API (Public)
    endpoint: /v1/locations, /v1/chains, /v1/departments
    scope: per-endpoint
    window: 1d
    limit: 1600
    unit: calls
    burst: null
    note: >-
      1,600 calls per day PER ENDPOINT, across three endpoints. Distributable
      across the operations that share an endpoint (list / details / HEAD query).
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/locations/overview
  - name: Cart API
    api: Kroger Cart API (Public)
    endpoint: /v1/cart
    scope: per-endpoint
    window: 1d
    limit: 5000
    unit: calls
    burst: null
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/cart/overview
  - name: Identity API
    api: Kroger Identity API (Public)
    endpoint: /v1/identity/profile
    scope: per-endpoint
    window: 1d
    limit: 5000
    unit: calls
    burst: null
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/api-products/public/identity/overview
  - name: Partner APIs
    api: all Partner APIs
    scope: account
    window: null
    limit: null
    unit: null
    note: >-
      "At this time, there are no rate limits on the number of requests to
      Partner APIs." Kroger nonetheless recommends Partner access precisely for
      clients who expect to exceed Public limits.
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/public/getting-started/apis
response_headers:
  published: false
  headers: []
  note: >-
    Kroger documents NO rate-limit response headers. There is no X-RateLimit-*,
    no RateLimit-* (RFC 9331 draft) and no documented Retry-After. The published
    HTTP status table for Public and Partner APIs (200, 201, 204, 400, 401, 403,
    404, 409, 500) does not include 429 at all, so the response an agent receives
    on exhaustion is not stated anywhere in the public docs. This is the single
    largest runtime gap in Kroger's rate-limit posture: the number is published,
    the signal is not, and a client cannot discover its remaining budget without
    counting calls itself.
responseCodes:
  throttled: undocumented
  serviceUnavailable: 503
policies:
  - name: Batch Instead of Loop
    description: >-
      Kroger's documented mitigation: "use parameters to fetch multiple resources
      in a single request" — e.g. the productId filter to return several products
      rather than one call per product.
    source: https://developer.kroger.com/documentation/public/getting-started/apis
  - name: Token Lifetime
    description: >-
      Access tokens live 1,800 seconds. Cache and reuse rather than re-requesting
      a token per call; token requests are themselves calls.
  - name: Partner Limits Are Contractual
    description: >-
      Partner-tier ceilings, where any exist, are set in the partner agreement
      rather than published.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com