QuakeIndex API

Free, no key, no sign-up. Every response carries generated and source, and every event carries source_url pointing at its USGS event page — which is the record of authority for all of its values.

The same document is available as JSON at /api/?format=json, or by sending Accept: application/json.

Conventions

Timestamps are epoch milliseconds UTC, with an ISO 8601 string alongside.
Provenance is on every response, not in the documentation only.
Freshness: events are ingested from the USGS all_hour feed every 30 seconds.
No forecasts. Nothing in this API predicts anything. Method →

Rate limits

A fixed window per IP address. A fixed window can admit a burst at a window boundary; that is an accepted trade for a public read-only API and is stated here rather than hidden. Exceeding it returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.

Endpoint	Limit
`/api/latest`	120 / 60 s
`/api/near`	60 / 60 s
`/api/felt`	60 / 60 s

`GET /api/latest`

The most recent events, newest first.

Parameter	Range	Default
`limit`	1–100	20
`min_magnitude`	float	none

{
  "generated": 1790399450000,
  "generated_iso": "2026-09-26T05:10:50.000Z",
  "source": "USGS",
  "count": 20,
  "events": [{
    "id": "ci41339287",
    "url": "https://quakeindex.com/quake/ci41339287/7-km-ene-of-anza-ca/",
    "time": 1790399215610,
    "time_iso": "2026-09-26T05:06:55.610Z",
    "magnitude": 0.52,
    "magnitude_type": "ml",
    "depth_km": 14.02,
    "latitude": 33.5815,
    "longitude": -116.607,
    "place": "7 km ENE of Anza, CA",
    "status": "automatic",
    "felt_reports": null,
    "reported_intensity": null,
    "measured_intensity": null,
    "impact_alert": null,
    "tsunami": false,
    "event_type": "earthquake",
    "indexed_by_quakeindex": false,
    "first_seen_by_quakeindex": 1790399418055,
    "source": "USGS",
    "source_url": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci41339287"
  }]
}

`GET /api/near`

Events within a radius of a point, newest first, each with distance_km.

Parameter	Range	Default
`lat`	−90…90, required	—
`lon`	−180…180, required	—
`km`	1–1000	50
`days`	1–365	30
`limit`	1–200	20
`min_magnitude`	float	none

truncated is true when the result hit limit, so a caller can tell a full page from a complete answer.

curl 'https://quakeindex.com/api/near?lat=37.77&lon=-122.42&km=80&days=7'

`GET /api/felt`

"Was that an earthquake?" for a point and a time window.

Parameter	Range	Default
`lat`	required	—
`lon`	required	—
`minutes`	5–180	60
`km`	10–500	150

answer is one of three values, and the middle one is the point of the endpoint:

yes — an event was found; events[0] is the most likely one.
not_yet_reported — nothing found, and the window is 30 minutes or less. A small earthquake can take several minutes to reach the USGS catalogue, so this is not the same as no. Anything that renders this as a negative is misusing it.
no — nothing found over a window long enough that a felt earthquake would normally be catalogued by now.

`GET /sitemap-quakes.xml`

Indexable events from the last 48 hours. Which events are indexable is defined on the method page: magnitude 2.5 and above in the United States, 4.5 and above elsewhere.

Attribution

The earthquake data is USGS's and is public domain — cite USGS for it. For our computed figures (the activity score, the strips, the per-place statistics) please cite QuakeIndex and link to the page. See the terms.

Need a higher limit, or a bulk export? team at voittovirta.com.