name: Wikimedia REST API (RESTBase) Rate Limits
description: Rate limiting information for the Wikimedia REST API served at /api/rest_v1/ on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This API benefits from globally distributed caching infrastructure designed to support high request volumes with reduced latencies.
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_REST_API
created: "2026-06-13"
modified: "2026-06-13"
rateLimits:
  - name: General Read Requests
    description: No published hard per-minute or per-second limit. The API is served via distributed CDN caching and is designed for high request volumes. Responsible usage and proper User-Agent headers are required to avoid blocks.
    quota: unlimited
    period: none
    unit: requests
    notes: Cached responses are served from Wikimedia's globally distributed edge network. Repeated identical requests are served from cache without hitting origin servers.

  - name: Page Summary Endpoint
    description: GET /api/rest_v1/page/summary/{title} - Returns summary data for a Wikipedia article. Highly cached; suitable for high-frequency read access.
    quota: unlimited
    period: none
    unit: requests
    endpoint: /api/rest_v1/page/summary/{title}

  - name: Page HTML Endpoint
    description: GET /api/rest_v1/page/html/{title} - Returns full HTML rendering of a Wikipedia page. Served from cache; larger response payload than summary.
    quota: unlimited
    period: none
    unit: requests
    endpoint: /api/rest_v1/page/html/{title}

  - name: Page Metrics Endpoint
    description: GET /api/rest_v1/metrics/pageviews/... - Returns page view statistics. Part of the Wikimedia Analytics API.
    quota: unlimited
    period: none
    unit: requests
    endpoint: /api/rest_v1/metrics/pageviews/

throttlingBehavior:
  retryStrategy: exponential-backoff
  userAgentRequired: true
  userAgentFormat: "clientname/version (contact-url; contact-email) library/version"
  cacheHeaders: true
  notes: Respect Cache-Control and ETag response headers to minimize redundant requests.

restrictions:
  - description: A descriptive User-Agent header is mandatory for all requests to Wikimedia APIs.
    required: true
  - description: The API is read-only. No write operations are supported at this endpoint.
    required: false