HDX — Humanitarian Data Exchange (UN OCHA)
- Free allowance
- No published per-user or per-file quota anywhere in the docs.
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- write-gatedreviewed by OCHA; approval, not identity or payment
- Evidence
- reported4 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | No published per-user or per-file quota anywhere in the docs. The platform hosts the files itself ('upload the data file directly to the HDX platform'), S3-backed. Aggregate catalog is 28,359 datasets and growing at organisational pace. unit mixed; metered on unstated |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
write-gated: you must belong to an HDX organisation with publishing rights. Any registered user may REQUEST a new organisation ( /org/request/new) and the request is human-reviewed by OCHA. So the gate is editorial approval, not identity or payment. |
| Identity | email email |
| Egress | unmetered public download. Direct GET on /dataset/<slug>/resource/<id>/download/<file>; no egress counter, no rate card, no CDN token. Files are anonymous to read — no login to download. |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | not stated |
| Interface | unknown CKAN 2.x action API (package_search / package_create / resource_create) plus the hdx-python-api wrapper, which is the documented write path. |
| Tooling | curl + API token, or pip install hdx-python-api. Write operations need an API token from the user profile; token is per-user, free, issued on signup. |
| Composes with | CKAN resource_create accepts a URL as well as a local file, so HDX can act as a metadata+mirror layer over another host. Public download URLs are stable and content-addressable by resource id — reasonable as a serving tier. |
| Reliability | UN-operated, 10+ years of uptime, but editorial review means a rejection is silent and unbounded — no SLA on org approval, and an org can be removed for content outside humanitarian scope. Do not treat as primary durable storage. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 4
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | docs.humdata.org/publish/publish-data/organizations-on-hdx | 'Only registered users can request to create a new organization. Open: https://data.humdata.org/org/request/new. If you are not logged in, you will see an error page.' |
| 2026-10-21 | docs.humdata.org/publish/publish-data/preparing-and-publishi | 'To publish manually, you will need to upload the data file directly to the HDX platform... you must be logged in and belong to an HDX organization with publishing permissions.' |
| 2026-10-21 | data.humdata.org/api/3/action/package_search?rows=0 | HTTP 200, success:true, count 28359, i.e. the CKAN write API family is live on the same host |
| 2026-10-21 | docs.humdata.org/build/hdx-python-library | 'Your organization must exist on HDX, and you need to be an editor or admin of it' — confirms programmatic publish is real, not UI-only |
Unknown values 5
- interface: the access interface was not established
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read