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: SEC API
providerId: sec-api
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: false
tags:
- SEC Filings
- Regulatory Filings
- EDGAR
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
description: >-
  SEC API (sec-api.io) governs throughput with per-second request limits that
  scale by subscription tier, plus a monthly free data-download allowance. On
  the Personal & Startups tier the Query API is limited to 20 requests/second;
  on Business Internal Use the Query API rises to 40 requests/second and the
  Full-Text Search API is limited to 20 requests/second. The Free Trial is a
  one-time 100-call allocation rather than a per-second limit. Enterprise rate
  limits are customizable. The real-time Filing Stream API is a push WebSocket
  and is not governed by a per-request rate limit. Numbers were grounded against
  the sec-api.io pricing page on 2026-07-11; verify current values before
  relying on them.
notes: >-
  Rate limits are enforced per API token. Requests over the plan limit are
  throttled; clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter. Verify
  current per-second limits and monthly data-download allowances on the
  sec-api.io pricing page during reconciliation.
sources:
- https://sec-api.io/pricing
- https://sec-api.io/docs
- https://sec-api.io/docs/stream-api
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Free Trial Calls
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: 100 total (one-time)
  notes: One-time evaluation allocation, not a per-second limit.
- name: Query API - Personal & Startups
  scope: token
  metric: requests
  limit: 20 per second
  notes: Filing Query API on the Personal & Startups tier.
- name: Query API - Business
  scope: token
  metric: requests
  limit: 40 per second
  notes: Filing Query API on the Business Internal Use tier.
- name: Full-Text Search - Business
  scope: token
  metric: requests
  limit: 20 per second
  notes: Full-Text Search API rate on the Business Internal Use tier.
- name: Enterprise Rate Limits
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: customizable
  notes: Negotiated per Enterprise agreement.
- name: Monthly Data Download (Personal)
  scope: account
  metric: bytes
  limit: 50 GB per month included
  notes: Free monthly data-download allowance on Personal & Startups.
- name: Monthly Data Download (Business)
  scope: account
  metric: bytes
  limit: 100 GB per month included
  notes: Free monthly data-download allowance on Business Internal Use.
- name: Filing Stream API
  scope: connection
  metric: messages
  limit: push (no per-request rate limit)
  notes: WebSocket push feed; server pings every 25s and expects a pong within 5s.
policies:
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: On a 429 response, back off with exponential delay and jitter before retrying, and stay within your plan's per-second limit.
- name: WebSocket Keepalive
  description: The Filing Stream server sends a ping every 25 seconds and expects a pong within 5 seconds; respond to pings (most libraries do so automatically) to avoid disconnection.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com