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: Radio Browser
providerId: radio-browser
created: '2026-05-28'
modified: '2026-05-28'
tags:
  - Music
  - Open Data
  - Community
  - Rate Limiting
  - Throttling
description: |
  Documented rate limits for the Radio Browser community API. Radio Browser does not publish a general
  per-IP request quota for read endpoints, but it enforces per-interaction throttles on click counting
  and voting, and operators of individual mirrors may apply their own throttles. Clients are required
  to send a descriptive User-Agent header (appname/appversion) so the maintainer can reach them if a
  client is misbehaving.
headers:
  retryAfter: Retry-After
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
requirements:
  - name: User-Agent
    description: Clients MUST send a descriptive User-Agent header (e.g. "MyRadioApp/1.4"). Requests without one may be blocked by mirror operators.
    enforcement: per-request
limits:
  - tier: community
    name: Vote Throttle
    scope: ip+station
    metric: votes_per_station_per_ip
    limit: 1
    timeFrame: 10_minutes
    description: A vote on a given station from a given IP is only counted once per 10-minute window.
    applies:
      - Radio Browser API
  - tier: community
    name: Click Throttle
    scope: ip+station
    metric: clicks_per_station_per_ip
    limit: 1
    timeFrame: day
    description: A click on a given station from a given IP is only counted once per 24-hour window.
    applies:
      - Radio Browser API
  - tier: community
    name: Mirror Operator Discretion
    scope: ip
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: null
    timeFrame: minute
    description: |
      Individual mirror operators may impose their own per-IP throttles (commonly observed values are
      in the range of several hundred to a thousand requests per minute). No global, published number
      exists. Clients should respect 429 responses, back off, and rotate across mirrors discovered via
      DNS resolution of all.api.radio-browser.info.
    applies:
      - Radio Browser API
recovery:
  - strategy: rotate-mirror
    description: When throttled, resolve all.api.radio-browser.info again and switch to a different mirror.
  - strategy: respect-retry-after
    description: Honor the Retry-After header when present on 429/503 responses.
  - strategy: self-host
    description: For high-volume workloads, self-host radiobrowser-api-rust to bypass shared-mirror throttles.