specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: RCSB PDB
providerId: pdb
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Structural Biology
  - Proteomics
  - Bioinformatics
  - Life Sciences
  - Open Data
  - Research
description: >-
  RCSB PDB APIs are freely available to all researchers and developers with no
  subscription fee or API key required. All APIs implement rate limiting to ensure
  fair access. Static file downloads (HTTPS, rsync) are unrestricted. Exceeding
  API rate limits results in HTTP 429 responses; clients should implement exponential
  backoff and respect Retry-After headers.
sources:
  - https://www.rcsb.org/docs/programmatic-access/web-apis-overview
plans:
  - id: pdb-open
    name: Open Access
    type: open
    description: >-
      All RCSB PDB APIs are freely available to any researcher or developer worldwide
      at no cost and with no registration or API key required. Rate limits are enforced
      to protect shared infrastructure; a starting rate of a few requests per second
      is recommended for API endpoints. Static file downloads via HTTPS or rsync are
      not rate-limited.
    entries:
      - label: API Requests
        description: >-
          Requests to data, search, model, volume, sequence coordinates, and alignment
          APIs. Rate limits are in place; a sustained rate of a few requests per second
          is recommended. Exceeding limits returns HTTP 429.
        name: api_requests
        type: rate
        metric: requests_per_second
        limit: 10
        timeFrame: second
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://data.rcsb.org
          - https://search.rcsb.org
          - https://models.rcsb.org
          - https://maps.rcsb.org
          - https://sequence-coordinates.rcsb.org
          - https://alignment.rcsb.org
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: File Downloads
        description: >-
          Bulk file downloads via https://files.wwpdb.org or rsync://rsync.rcsb.org
          are unrestricted in volume. Polite harvesting practices are expected.
        name: file_downloads
        type: unlimited
        metric: bytes
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: unlimited
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://files.wwpdb.org
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: Data API (REST)
      - name: Data API (GraphQL)
      - name: Search API
      - name: ModelServer API
      - name: VolumeServer API
      - name: Sequence Coordinates API
      - name: Structure Alignment API
      - name: Bulk File Downloads (HTTPS + rsync)
      - name: Python Client (py-rcsb-api)
      - name: JavaScript/TypeScript Client (rcsb-api-tools)
      - name: Community Mailing List
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com