The Mendeley Open API only allows clients to make a limited number of calls in a given hour.

The default rate limit for calls to the REST API varies depending on the method being requested.

Public resources calls are based on the IP of the host and are limited to 150 requests per hour. There are a couple of exceptions:

• search-terms is limited to 5000 requests per hour.
• search-details is limited to 500 requests per hour.

User specific resources do user and IP based rate limiting and all of them are limited to 150 requests per hour.

Update: User specific resources are not rate limited.

We return a X-RateLimit-Remaining header in every response and it shows how many requests you can still do within the next hour (starting when the first request was made). Its value will be 'n/a' if no rate limit is in place.

Note: These limits are temporary and are likely to change in the future. Please check for updates.

Some applications find the default limit is very restrictive. These are temporary limits and are likely to change in the future.

We offer whitelisting for those applications that need to do more requests. If you need it, please send us an email to api@mendeley.com explaining your needs. We will then review your application and once we have made our decision, we will email you back with more details.

We strongly suggest to not do a request to the OAPI in every page load of your application landing page. Instead, try to call the OAPI less frequently and serve your users your cached responses.

If you still have questions or suggestions regarding rate limiting, do not hesitate to contact us at api@mendeley.com, we'll be happy to get some feedback and help you!