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: Pokémon TCG API
providerId: pokemon-tcg
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Pokemon
- Trading Cards
- TCG
- Gaming
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
description: >-
  The Pokémon TCG API publishes explicit numeric rate limits that depend on
  whether a request carries an API key. Without a key, requests are limited
  to 1,000 per day and a maximum of 30 per minute. With a free API key from
  the Pokémon TCG Developer Portal (sent via the X-Api-Key header), the
  default limit is 20,000 requests per day, and higher limits can be
  arranged by contacting the maintainer via Discord or email. The deprecated
  v1 API throttles all third-party applications to 30 requests per minute.
  Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429.
notes: >-
  Limits exist to keep the free, donation-funded service responsive - each
  request has a real computational cost to the maintainer. Batch requests
  economically: pageSize goes up to 250, the select parameter trims response
  payloads, and the q syntax narrows result sets so fewer pages are needed.
sources:
- https://docs.pokemontcg.io/getting-started/rate-limits
- https://docs.pokemontcg.io/getting-started/authentication
- https://docs.pokemontcg.io/getting-started/errors
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Anonymous Daily Requests
  scope: client
  metric: requests
  limit: 1000/day
  notes: Applies to all requests made without an X-Api-Key header.
- name: Anonymous Per-Minute Requests
  scope: client
  metric: requests
  limit: 30/minute
  notes: Enforced alongside the daily cap for keyless requests.
- name: Keyed Daily Requests (Default)
  scope: api-key
  metric: requests
  limit: 20000/day
  notes: Default for free API keys from dev.pokemontcg.io; higher limits available on request via Discord or email.
- name: V1 API Requests (Deprecated)
  scope: client
  metric: requests
  limit: 30/minute
  notes: The deprecated v1 API throttles all third-party applications to 30 requests per minute.
- name: Page Size
  scope: request
  metric: results
  limit: 250 per page
  notes: pageSize defaults to 250 and cannot exceed 250; use page to iterate.
policies:
- name: Optional Authentication
  description: Requests without an API key do not fail - they simply run under drastically reduced rate limits.
- name: Economical Use
  description: The maintainer encourages integrations to minimize requests - use select to trim fields, precise q queries to narrow results, and the maximum pageSize of 250 when paging through data.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter on HTTP 429 responses and spread bulk syncs across the day.
- name: Elevated Limits
  description: Higher daily limits are granted case-by-case by contacting the maintainer via Discord or email; donations via Patreon or Ko-fi help fund server capacity.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com