Acceptable Use Policy
How to use our APIs
Last updated
How to use our APIs
Last updated
This page is intended as an easy-to-read summary of a subset of our . It does not replace the Terms of Use, which always take precedence.
Don't systematically scrape the APIs and store the results. Examples of the things that we would consider scraping:
Requesting all available eclipse paths
Request data for a grid of coordinates at high frequency using an automated script
With scraping, we apply the duck test:
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
If your intended usage may appear as scraping, please contact us with details to avoid unexpected interruptions to service.
By all means, use our API data to power your user interfaces, or to derive your own data to power your own sites or applications, but don't grab it from our APIs and redistribute it in substantiallly similar form.
For example, when showing a GeoJSON file on a digital map, the file should be sourced by your app, web page, or other software directly from our API URLs by each end user. Don't store the file on your own server and distribute it from there.
Follow our published methods for accessing the APIs. Don't try to subvert security mechanisms or dig around in dark corners for undocumented end points or parameters.
Respect the included in our API responses. If a response includes Cache-Control: private don't store that in your own shared cache. If your use case warrants a different approach, talk to us about it.
Note, there's unlikely to be a performance-related reason to attempt your own caching: our API runs on CloudFlare and responses are automatically served from locations close to users.
Keep control of your own API keys and do not share them with others. If you think your API keys are compromised, disable or delete them, and let us know.
Don't encourage or provide means for end users of your software or service to sign up for their own accounts and enter their own API keys. We've seen some apps do this over the years to avoid paying for services - it's a bad look.
Be sure to follow any posted on this site.
Be aware that apply to API usage on platform, account and individual end-point levels. Adjust your usage or plan to avoid regularly blowing through them.