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: OSHA
providerId: osha
generated: '2026-08-27'
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source:
  - https://usdepartmentoflabor.github.io/Developer/beginner/
  - https://usdepartmentoflabor.github.io/Developer/experienced/
  - https://usdepartmentoflabor.github.io/Developer/health-and-safety/dol-osha-enforcement/
  - https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/ita/documentation/osha_injury-tracking-application-api-documentation-v1.pdf
tags:
  - Compliance
  - Government
  - Health Standards
  - Regulatory
  - Workplace Safety
  - Rate Limiting
description: >-
  No rate limit is published for either OSHA API surface. The ITA API documentation
  (23 pages, covering auth, every endpoint and every validation rule) never mentions throttling,
  quotas, 429 responses or retry guidance. The DOL developer portal documents only a RESULT-SET
  cap, which is pagination, not rate limiting. No RateLimit-* or X-RateLimit-* response header is
  documented on either surface, and no 429 behaviour is described anywhere.
supersedes: >-
  This file replaces a 2026-05-04 scaffold that asserted X-RateLimit-* headers, a 429 throttle
  response and a 10 req/min free-tier limit with a burst of 20. None of that is published by
  OSHA or DOL. Recorded here as an honest zero.
limit_count: 0
limits: []
headers: {}
headers_note: No rate-limit response headers are documented or observed on www.osha.gov/oshaApi/v1 or data.dol.gov.
responseCodes: {}
responseCodes_note: No 429 or throttling status code is documented. The only rejection status observed live is 403 for a missing credential.
result_set_caps:
  - surface: OSHA Enforcement Data API (data.dol.gov/get/)
    kind: pagination
    default_records: 100
    max_records_per_request: 200
    mechanism: limit/offset path segments
    quote: '"The following datasets use offset for pagination so you can gather more than the limit of 200 records."'
    note: A cap on rows returned, not a cap on calls per unit time. It is recorded here because it is the only quantitative limit OSHA data consumers are given.
agent_note: >-
  An agent integrating either surface has no runtime backoff signal to read. There is no
  Retry-After, no remaining-quota header and no documented exhaustion status, so retry policy
  has to be conservative and blind.
x-evidence:
  - {url: 'https://usdepartmentoflabor.github.io/Developer/health-and-safety/dol-osha-enforcement/', status: 200, fetched: '2026-08-27'}
  - {url: 'https://www.osha.gov/oshaApi/v1/establishments', status: 403, fetched: '2026-08-27'}