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: NPR
providerId: npr
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: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Media
  - News
  - Radio
  - Rate Limiting
description: NPR does not publish numeric per-second or per-minute rate limits for its developer APIs.
  Access is controlled at the OAuth client / partner level; misuse is handled via account suspension
  per the NPR API Terms of Use rather than a documented 429 throttle ceiling.
notes: Rate limit values are not publicly published. Update once NPR Digital Services documents per-client
  ceilings.
sources:
  - https://dev.npr.org/
  - https://dev.npr.org/guide/services/listening
responseCodes:
  unauthorized: 401
  forbidden: 403
  throttled: 429
limits:
  - name: Per OAuth client
    scope: oauth-client
    metric: varies
    limit: not numerically published; subject to fair use under the developer agreement
    applies:
      - NPR Listening
      - NPR Station Finder
      - NPR Identity
      - NPR Authorization
policies:
  - name: OAuth required
    description: Most NPR API surfaces require an OAuth 2.0 client credential issued via the developer
      registration flow.
  - name: Terms of Use
    description: Use is governed by the NPR API Terms of Use; abuse, misattribution, or content-license
      violations result in suspension rather than throttling.
  - name: Backoff
    description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter on 429 responses and honor any
      Retry-After header.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com