Overview
The CO-OPS Data Retrieval API is a public API that requires no authentication or API key to access observations and predictions from NOAA CO-OPS stations.
Setup guide
Get started
No credential or API key is required. The CO-OPS Data Retrieval API is publicly accessible and does not require signup or authentication. Simply specify the required station parameter (a 7-character water level/meteorological station ID or a currents station ID) in your requests. Station listings are available at https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov or on the Tides & Currents Station Map.
Add it to Ingest
In the Ingest UI under Connectors → NOAA Tides and Currents (CO-OPS), no credential is required. Ingest connects directly to the public API.
Mind the limits
NOAA does not publish a specific numeric rate limit but recommends spacing out requests. Ingest uses a conservative 1 request/second to avoid throttling under heavy load. Data length per request is limited based on the interval/product: 6-minute interval data is limited to 1 month, hourly data to 1 year, daily means to 10 years, and monthly means to 200 years. HTTP 429, 500, 502, 503, and 504 responses are retried; 401 and 403 are treated as fatal.
Supported streams
6 endpoints are available out of the box. Each endpoint syncs into its own Iceberg table in Snowflake.
| Endpoint | Description | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| currents currents | – | |
| daily_max_min daily_max_min | – | |
| daily_mean daily_mean | – | |
| hourly_height hourly_height | – | |
| monthly_mean monthly_mean | – | |
| water_level water_level | – |
Authentication
- Auth type
- None
- Provider docs
- api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov ↗
Performance & limits
- Rate limit
- varies by plan