Stack Exchange

stackexchange.com · 3 records in Data APIs, Storage · JSON

Records 3

caveatStack Exchange API
Data APIsfree tieridentity emailno cardlimit request-rateevidence documentedstale on 2026-12-04
fails: quotastack exchange as bulk storage
Storageidentity email?card?limit per-object-capevidence documentedstale on 2026-12-05
fails: quotaStack Exchange image host (i.sstatic.net, ex-i.stack.imgur.com)
Storagefree tieridentity email?card?limit per-object-capevidence reportedstale on 2026-11-19

Stack Exchange API

Data APIs

api.stackexchange.com/docsQ&A knowledge API (REST, JSON) with quarterly XML data dumpsdata-apis/stack-exchange-apiJSON compare report an error

Free allowance: With no key, 300 requests per day per IP.
Verdict: caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
Cost: free tier
Identity: emailno card, no phone
Binding limit: request-rate300 requests per day per IP with no key; 10,000 per day per IP with a free app key, and an IP using several keys gets the highest key's limit; 10,000 requests per day for each user and app pair with an access token; up to 5 such quotas...
Evidence: documented57 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
Freshness: stale on 2026-12-04checked 2026-11-03 (live); stale on 2026-12-04

Free tier	With no key, 300 requests per day per IP. A free app key from Stack Apps raises the daily limit to 10,000 per IP; an access token gives a separate 10,000-per-day quota for each user and app pair, up to 5 per user. Every site's content is also published quarterly as an XML data dump. unit requests; metered on request-count; A keyless call answered 200 with quota_max 300. When one IP uses several keys, the highest key's limit applies to that IP, so more keys do not add quota. Anonymous paging stops at page 25: a page above 25 answered access_denied with no key or token.
Price	none stated
Limits	request-rate (binding) 300 requests per day per IP with no key; 10,000 per day per IP with a free app key, and an IP using several keys gets the highest key's limit source request-rate (binding) 10,000 requests per day for each user and app pair with an access token; up to 5 such quotas per user source per-ip-shaping more than 30 requests a second from one IP are dropped, with a ban on the order of 30 seconds to a few minutes source request-rate (binding) a response carrying backoff means that method must not be called again for that many seconds; semantically identical requests at most once a minute source per-object-cap 100 items per page and 100 ids per call; page numbers above 25 need an app key or an access token source The keyless quota is shared by every keyless application on one IP. The network-wide dump download is reported to fail around 19.5 GB for some downloaders.
Binding	request-rate An IP gets 300 requests a day with no key and 10,000 with a free key, so a whole-site read goes to the quarterly dump, which has no request count.
Identity	email Keyless reads need nothing: a call with no key answered 200 at 300 requests a day. The 10,000-a-day key needs an application registered on Stack Apps, whose registration page sends a visitor with no session to the login page, and then an API key generated on the application's dashboard, because a new application has no key until one is generated. The Stack Apps signup takes an email and a password, or a Google sign-in; the network signup takes an email and a password, or a Google or GitHub sign-in. The official dump of one site needs a logged-in profile on that site; the official whole-network dump is downloaded from the data dumps page of user preferences on Meta Stack Exchange, which sends a visitor with no session to the Meta Stack Exchange login page; the community copy on the Internet Archive needs no account.
Egress	Free: API responses are gzip-compressed JSON with no byte price; the official dumps download free from a logged-in profile, and the community copy on the Internet Archive downloads over anonymous HTTP with Range support free allowance: no byte allowance published
Per-object cap	at most 100 items per page and 100 ids per {ids} parameter; page numbers above 25 need an app key or an access token
Retention	the API serves the live sites; the official dump page offers the current quarterly dump, and Academic Torrents lists community uploads of the network dump from 2024-02-29 to 2026-09-30
Interface	rest JSON over HTTPS GET at https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/, every response compressed; the authentication documentation says an application key or access token goes in an Authorization header as a Bearer value; OAuth 2.0 for user-scoped calls and writes; quarterly XML dumps as one 7z archive per site, downloaded from the Data dump access page in that site's profile settings (one site for each download; a meta site is a separate download from its own profile), or for the whole network from the data dumps page of user preferences on Meta Stack Exchange; the community copies of the whole-network dump are also distributed as BitTorrent torrents (the interface vocabulary has no BitTorrent term, so the record lists rest); the Stack Exchange Data Explorer runs SQL over a copy refreshed every Sunday. endpoint: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/
Tooling	Any HTTP client that decompresses gzip; 7-Zip or p7zip for the dump archives; a BitTorrent client for the Internet Archive and Academic Torrents copies of the network dump.
Composes with	The quarterly XML dump is the bulk path for a whole-site or whole-network read (official download from a logged-in profile, or the anonymous community copy on the Internet Archive and Academic Torrents); the API at 300 requests a day keyless, or 10,000 with a free key, serves fresh lookups; the Data Explorer answers SQL over the weekly copy.
Reliability	The network-wide dump came back in October 2026 after a removal of about two years, and downloads of the full archive are reported to fail around 19.5 GB; the Internet Archive copy is a community upload, not an official release.
Notes	Caveat: the keyless quota is 300 requests a day, and the 10,000-a-day quota needs an account and a registered app. Bulk path: the quarterly XML dump, per site or for the whole network, from a logged-in profile; the 2026-09-30 network dump is also on the Internet Archive (91.9G) and Academic Torrents (99,497,279,488 bytes) as community uploads.
Evidence note	documented The quotas and throttles are documented, not exhausted. A keyless call answered 200 with quota_max 300, page 26 with no key answered access_denied, and a HEAD on one site archive of the Internet Archive copy answered 200 with its size. The 10,000-a-day key quota sits behind a sign-up. quota_max of a call made with a new key: unverified: behind a sign-up. The fields of the Stack Apps registration form after its June 2025 redesign: unverified: behind a sign-up; a 2021 Stack Apps post lists four required fields, Application Name, Description, OAuth domain and Application Website. Whether the whole-network dump page opens for an account with no profile on Meta Stack Exchange: unverified: behind a sign-up.
Parsed numbers	has-free-tier 1 request-rate 300 requests / day request-rate 10000 requests / day per-ip-shaping 30 requests

Evidence 57

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-31	stackapps.com/questions/2	the daily request limit is counted per IP address
2026-10-31	stackapps.com/questions/2	with an API key the daily limit is 10,000 requests
2026-10-31	stackapps.com/questions/2	with no key the daily limit is 300 requests
2026-10-31	stackapps.com/questions/2	an IP using several keys gets the highest key's limit, not a sum
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/2.3/info?site=stackoverflow	a keyless call to /2.3/info answered with quota_max 300
2026-10-31	probe: `https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/info?site=stackoverflow`	a keyless GET of /2.3/info?site=stackoverflow answered 200
2026-10-31	api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions?page=26&pagesize=1&site=	page 26 with no key or token answered access_denied
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs	anonymous paging stops at page 25
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs	a page holds at most 100 items and an {ids} parameter at most 100 ids
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs	a request key needs an application registered on Stack Apps
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs	every API response is compressed
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	part of the text of Limits, above
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	the ban after the 30-a-second throttle lasts about 30 seconds to a few minutes
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	keyed applications without a token share an IP quota of 10,000 a day by default
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	an access token gives a separate 10,000-a-day quota for each user and app pair
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	a user can hold up to 5 such quotas
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	a backoff field obliges a wait before calling that method again
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle	identical requests are asked to be at most once a minute
2026-10-30	api.stackexchange.com/docs/authentication	user-scoped access uses OAuth 2.0
2026-10-30	stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register	the Stack Apps application registration page redirects a visitor with no session to the login page
2026-10-30	stackoverflow.com/users/signup	the network signup offers GitHub sign-in beside the email and password fields
2026-10-30	stackoverflow.com/users/signup	the network signup offers Google sign-in
2026-10-30	stackoverflow.com/help/data-dumps	each site's dump is published quarterly and downloaded from the account settings page
2026-10-30	stackoverflow.com/help/data-dumps	the official download is a checkbox and a button on a logged-in settings page
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	the network-wide dump had been removed about two years earlier
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	the network-wide dump was restored in October 2026
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	the network and per-site dumps download from the user preferences page
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	new dumps are published quarterly
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	full-archive downloads are reported to fail around 19.5 GB for some downloaders
2026-10-31	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	the dumps are kept online for as long as reasonably possible, with no fixed period
2026-10-31	archive.org/details/stackexchange_20260930	part of the text of Reliability, above
2026-10-31	archive.org/details/stackexchange_20260930	the Internet Archive item holds the dump through 2026-09-30
2026-10-31	archive.org/details/stackexchange_20260930	the official dump format is XML
2026-10-31	archive.org/details/stackexchange_20260930	the Internet Archive item is 91.9G
2026-10-31	probe: `https://archive.org/download/stackexchange_20260930/stackexchange_20260930/math.stackexchange.com.7z`	a HEAD with no account on math.stackexchange.com.7z in the Internet Archive copy answered 200 with 3,933,317,407 bytes
2026-10-31	probe: `https://archive.org/download/stackexchange_20260930/stackexchange_20260930/math.stackexchange.com.7z`	the Internet Archive copy supports HTTP ranges
2026-10-30	academictorrents.com/collection/stack-exchange-data-dumps.cs	Academic Torrents lists the 2026-09-30 network dump at 99,497,279,488 bytes
2026-10-30	academictorrents.com/collection/stack-exchange-data-dumps.cs	the oldest dump listed on Academic Torrents is 2024-02-29
2026-10-30	data.stackexchange.com/help	the Data Explorer copy is refreshed every Sunday
2026-10-30	data.stackexchange.com/help	the Data Explorer runs queries for anonymous users
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/419975/the-return-of-the-ne	the whole-network dump is downloaded from the data dumps page of user preferences on Meta Stack Exchange, beside the per-site dump
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401324/announcing-a-change-	a site and its meta site are separate downloads, each requested from its own site
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401324/announcing-a-change-	each further site's dump needs the same download from that site
2026-11-02	api.stackexchange.com/docs/authentication	part of the text of Interface, above
2026-11-02	academictorrents.com/collection/stack-exchange-data-dumps.cs	Academic Torrents lists the 2026-09-30 network dump with a BitTorrent infohash and a mirror count
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/224873/all-stack-exchange-d	a Meta Stack Exchange wiki lists the network dump releases with links to download them over BitTorrent or from the Internet Archive
2026-11-02	stackoverflow.com/help/data-dumps	a per-site dump is downloaded from the Data dump access page in the profile settings of that site
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/help/api-authentication	an API key is generated on the application's page in Stack Apps after the application is registered
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/help/api-authentication	a registered application gets an increased throttle quota
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/410541	a newly created application has no key until one is generated on its dashboard
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register	the Stack Apps signup page, shown to a visitor sent from the registration page, offers Google sign-in beside the email and password fields
2026-11-02	meta.stackexchange.com/users/data-dump-access/current	the whole-network dump page sends a visitor with no session to the Meta Stack Exchange login page
2026-11-02	stackoverflow.com/help/creating-accounts	a Stack Exchange account is created with an email address and a password, or through Google or Facebook sign-in
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/questions/8975/the-fieldnames-in-the-error-mes	a Stack Apps post of 2021 lists the four required fields of the registration form: Application Name, Description, OAuth domain and Application Website
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/questions/8107/can-i-make-a-private-applicatio	a Stack Apps answer says a key registered with placeholder values in the required fields still gives the 10K quota
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/questions/8107/can-i-make-a-private-applicatio	a Stack Apps answer says an application registered for a key is visible only to its owner and Stack Exchange staff
2026-11-02	stackapps.com/questions/8971	a Stack Apps FAQ answer, edited June 2025, says the key is generated in the API Keys section of the application's dashboard

stack exchange as bulk storage

Storage

meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-whystorage/stack-exchange-as-bulk-storageJSON compare report an error

Free allowance: Per-image upload cap of 10 MiB (raised from 2 MiB); images are uploaded into posts
Verdict: fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
Cost: not stated
Identity: email?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
Binding limit: per-object-cap10 MiB per uploaded image
Evidence: documented6 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
Freshness: stale on 2026-12-05checked 2026-11-04 (live); stale on 2026-12-05

Free tier	Per-image upload cap of 10 MiB (raised from 2 MiB); images are uploaded into posts unit none; metered on none
Price	none stated
Limits	per-object-cap (binding) 10 MiB per uploaded image source
Binding	per-object-cap 10 MiB per uploaded image, images only; no total quota or egress meter is documented on the pages read
Identity	email (placeholder) not published
Egress	not recorded
Per-object cap	10 MiB per uploaded image (raised from 2 MiB) (10485760 bytes)
Interface	unknown
Tooling	unverified: whether a public image-upload API exists; a 2021 comment says images uploaded via the API went to the same image host
Composes with	not recorded
Reliability	10 MiB per uploaded image (raised from 2 MiB); the storage is images attached to posts
Evidence note	documented documented from the Stack Exchange staff and accepted-answer posts captured on 2026-11-03: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/stack-exchange-s-image-hosting-arrangement-with-imgur-has-ended-migration-complete (10 MiB cap) and https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why-it-is-set-to-2-mib (10MiB limit, API uploads reach the image host); posting rate limits are unverified
Parsed numbers	per-object-cap 10 MiB

Evidence 6

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-21	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why	2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/stack-exchange-s-ima	a staff member states the image upload cap is now 10 MiB
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why	the accepted answer states the upload limit is now 10 MiB
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why	a commenter reports API uploads reach the image host
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/stack-exchange-s-ima	the documented constraint is a per-image cap, not egress
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/stack-exchange-s-ima	the image upload cap is now 10 MiB

More fields 1

dead end	`{"failure_class": "egress","why": "2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"}`

Unknown values 5

chaining: no value was recorded for this field
egress terms: no value was recorded for this field
interface: the access interface was not established
per object cap notes: no value was recorded for this field
retention stated: no value was recorded for this field

Stack Exchange image host (i.sstatic.net, ex-i.stack.imgur.com)

Storage

stackexchange.comMediastorage/stack-exchange-image-hostJSON compare report an error

Free allowance: 10 MiB per uploaded image, animated GIFs 2 MiB; images over 2 MiB are resized below 2 MiB; no per-account total is stated on the page read
Verdict: fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
Cost: free tier
Identity: email?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
Binding limit: per-object-cap10 MiB hard cap per upload (file or URL); animated GIFs 2 MiB
Evidence: reported7 sources; a third party said so
Freshness: stale on 2026-11-19checked 2026-11-04 (live); stale on 2026-11-19

Free tier	10 MiB per uploaded image, animated GIFs 2 MiB; images over 2 MiB are resized below 2 MiB; no per-account total is stated on the page read unit unlimited; metered on unstated
Price	none stated
Limits	per-object-cap (binding) 10 MiB hard cap per upload (file or URL); animated GIFs 2 MiB source 10 MiB hard cap per upload, images over 2 MiB are automatically resized below 2 MiB (best effort), animated GIFs capped at 2 MiB; not byte-exact storage; posting rate limits per site
Identity	email (placeholder) not published
Egress	free, Cloudflare-fronted, cacheable — probe showed 'Server: cloudflare', 'cf-cache-status: HIT'
Per-object cap	10 MiB hard cap per upload (file or URL); images over 2 MiB are resized below 2 MiB; animated GIFs stay capped at 2 MiB (10485760 bytes)
Retention	Images over 2 MiB are automatically resized below 2 MiB, so stored bytes differ from the upload; historical Imgur images were migrated to i.sstatic.net (migration complete 2024-05-28).
Interface	rest rest
Tooling	no official image-upload endpoint in the SE API; images are inserted by the web editor or by POSTing a post body containing an already-hosted URL. Wrapper only (Selenium/editor automation) — this is the failure point
Composes with	2 MiB x unlimited posts x unlimited answers x N Stack Exchange sites (180+ sites, one network account). 500 GB = ~256,000 images; not a practical bulk store without a browser farm
Reliability	the most permanent image host in this set — SE migrated every historical Imgur URL to i.sstatic.net in May 2024 precisely to guarantee links never rot; a live 2013-era test image still returns 200 with Last-Modified 2024-05-01
Notes	10 MiB per image (animated GIFs 2 MiB), resized below 2 MiB; no per-account total stated
Evidence note	reported read on 2026-11-03: two Stack Exchange meta posts: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401308 (10MiB hard cap, resize of images over 2MiB, animated GIFs capped at 2MiB) and https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/ (images migrated from Imgur); the unlimited unit and the permanence of old image URLs rest on a probe of 2026-10-21 that is not repeated, so the rung stays reported
Parsed numbers	has-free-tier 1 per-object-cap 10 MiB

Evidence 7

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-21	i.sstatic.net/mHJfs.jpg	probe: GET -> 200, content-type image/jpeg, 138754 bytes, Server: cloudflare, cf-cache-status: HIT, Last-Modified Wed, 01 May 2024
2026-10-21	i.stack.imgur.com/mHJfs.jpg	probe: GET -> 302 (redirect to the new host, old URLs still resolve)
2026-10-21	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/	... — 'Created a new image uploading service at i.sstatic.net ... Migrated all images from Imgur ... Migration complete! May 28th 2024'
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401308	the hard cap is 10MiB, by upload or URL
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401308	uploads over 2 MiB are resized below 2 MiB
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/	all images were migrated from Imgur to the Stack-run service
2026-11-03	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/401308	animated GIFs stay capped at 2MiB

More fields 1

dead end	`{"failure_class": "quota","why": "2 MiB per image, no per-account total; unlimited images per post","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"}`

Unknown values 2

per object cap notes: 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