generated: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source: https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/
docs: https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/#metering
limit_count: 3
headers: []
status_on_exhaustion: 429
retry_after: false
note: >-
  OpenSanctions meters by MONTHLY QUERY QUOTA, not by a per-second or per-minute
  rate. There is no published requests-per-second or concurrency ceiling, and — the
  finding that matters for an agent — NO runtime signal at all: live responses
  carry no X-RateLimit-*, no RateLimit-* (RFC 9239 style), and no Retry-After.
  A client cannot see how close it is to the ceiling; it discovers exhaustion by
  being 429'd, and the 429 then persists until the first of the next month rather
  than clearing after a backoff window. Billing is per LOGICAL QUERY, not per HTTP
  request, so one /match call carrying 100 entities consumes 100 units of quota.
limits:
  - scope: per-key
    window: calendar-month
    limit: >-
      A default per-key monthly request ceiling applies to both trial and paid keys;
      the numeric value is set per key and is not published.
    burst: null
    status: 429
    reset: beginning of the next calendar month
    source: https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/
  - scope: per-account
    window: month
    limit: 2,000,000 queries
    kind: soft-threshold
    note: >-
      Volumes "likely to exceed 2 million queries per month" require contacting
      OpenSanctions so they can verify the traffic is legitimate. Not an enforced
      rate limit — a stated escalation threshold.
    source: https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/
  - scope: per-account
    window: hour
    limit: 200,000 requests
    kind: soft-threshold
    note: >-
      Same escalation clause: "more than 200,000 requests per hour" should be
      cleared with OpenSanctions in advance.
    source: https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/
metering:
  unit: logical query
  billed_operations:
    - {operation: match_match__dataset__post, cost: "EUR 0.10 x queries in the request"}
    - {operation: reconcile_reconcile__dataset__get, cost: "EUR 0.10 x queries in the request"}
    - {operation: search_search__dataset__get, cost: "EUR 0.10 per request"}
  free_operations:
    - {operation: fetch_entity_entities__entity_id__get, cost: free}
    - {operation: statements_statements_get, cost: free}
  batch_size: >-
    A single /match request may bundle up to 100 queries — one per entity being
    screened — and each query in the batch is billed individually.
  failed_requests: >-
    "Non-successful calls, whether caused by client or server errors, are always
    free" — only 2xx responses are metered.
x-evidence:
  fetched: '2026-08-27'
  probes:
    - {url: 'https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/api/faq/', status: 200}
    - {url: 'https://api.opensanctions.org/healthz', status: 200, note: no rate-limit response headers}
    - {url: 'https://api.opensanctions.org/catalog', status: 200, note: no rate-limit response headers}