> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alura.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # API terms of use > The rules for using the Alura API and MCP server: what you may do with the data, what you may not, limits, suspension and security. These API terms of use ("API Terms") are between you and Net Ventures AS, Oslo, Norway ("Alura", "we", "us"). They add to the [Alura Terms of Service](https://www.alura.io/terms-of-service) and the [Alura Privacy Policy](https://www.alura.io/privacy-policy), including its [API and MCP addendum](/legal/privacy-api). They apply whenever you use the API or the MCP server. If these API Terms and the Terms of Service disagree about the API or the MCP server, these API Terms apply. You accept these API Terms when you create an API key, approve a grant for an AI client, or call the API or the MCP server. If you accept them for a business, you confirm that you may bind it. ## 1. Definitions * **API**: the REST API at `api.alura.io` and its documentation. * **MCP server**: the server at `mcp.alura.io` that AI clients call. * **Workspace**: your Alura workspace. Every request acts for exactly one workspace, which owns its API keys, grants and API credits. * **API key**: a secret for scripts and servers, bound to one workspace. It acts as the person who created it. * **Grant**: your approval letting one AI client act for you in your workspaces, one current workspace at a time. * **Client**: the program that calls the API or the MCP server, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own script. * **API credits**: the workspace's monthly allowance for the API and the MCP server. * **Alura Data**: everything the API or the MCP server returns, including data from Etsy and Alura's own estimates, scores and trends. ## 2. Using the API is permitted automated access Sections 1.2 and 8.7 of the Terms of Service forbid bots, scripts and automated access to Alura. Calling the API or the MCP server with your own API key or grant, within these API Terms, is permitted. That permission covers only the API and the MCP server. It does not cover the Alura website, the Alura app, its internal endpoints or the Chrome extension. ## 3. Your keys and grants * Keep API keys secret. Do not put them in a browser, a mobile app, a public repository or anywhere other people can read them. The API refuses keys sent from a browser. * You are responsible for everything done with your workspace's keys and grants. * Owners and admins create, rotate and revoke keys in Alura under **Settings**, then **API**. * You can revoke a grant you made under **Settings**, then **Connected apps**. Owners and admins can remove any member's grant from their workspace under **Settings**, then **API**. * A grant can do only what its scopes allow. With the `saved:write` scope, an AI client can create, change and delete your saved folders and lists. * Do not create extra accounts, workspaces or keys to get around limits. ## 4. What you may do You may use Alura Data for research for your own Etsy business, inside your workspace. That includes asking your AI client about it, using it in your own scripts and spreadsheets, and saving it in Alura. You may share what you learn: your own conclusions, summaries and a small number of figures, for example in a report to your team. Follow the attribution rules in section 8. Agencies and consultants may use their workspace's API access to research for their clients. Alura Data stays in the agency's workspace: clients receive the agency's conclusions and reports under this section, not Alura Data in bulk, API keys or access to the API. ## 5. What you may not do ### Resale and redistribution You may not sell, resell, sublicense, rent, lend or give away Alura Data or access to the API or the MCP server. You may not offer Alura Data to other people as part of your own product or service, such as a website, an app, a dataset, a feed, an API or a tool for other sellers, unless we agree in writing. ### Bulk extraction and scraping You may not copy Alura Data in bulk. In particular, you may not: * page through search results, shops, products, reviews or keywords to copy them rather than to research; * request shops, products or IDs in sequence or from lists to collect them; * spread requests across several keys, workspaces, accounts, IP addresses or networks to get around limits; * scrape, crawl or automate the Alura website, the Alura app or the Chrome extension. ### Building a competing dataset or model You may not use Alura Data to build, add to or improve a database, index, dataset or product that competes with Alura or with Etsy. You may not use Alura Data to train or fine-tune a machine learning or AI model. An AI client reading results to answer your questions is not training. ### Etsy's rules Alura Data comes in part from Etsy, and Etsy's terms limit what anyone may do with it. You may not use Alura Data to: * copy other sellers' products, photos or designs, or infringe their trademarks or copyrights; * send spam or unsolicited marketing to Etsy buyers or sellers; * fake or manipulate reviews, ratings, favorites or any other Etsy statistic; * suggest that Etsy endorses you or your product. ### People in the data Reviews and shop announcements are written by people. You may not use Alura Data to identify, contact, track or profile a buyer or reviewer, or combine it with other data for that purpose. ### Security You may not probe, overload or break the API, the MCP server or the OAuth service. You may not get around authentication, scopes, rate limits, API credits or fetch caps, or access another workspace's data. Section 13 covers good-faith security research. ## 6. Opted-out shops Some shops have asked Alura not to track them. We do not return them. A direct request for one gets `404 shop_opted_out`. When you get that answer for a shop, delete the Alura Data you hold about that shop. Do not use the API to recover an opted-out shop's data in other ways. ## 7. Caching and storage * Keep Alura Data only as long as you need it for your own research, and for no more than 24 hours unless it is saved in Alura. Your own conclusions and notes are yours to keep. * Every object carries `as_of`, the time the data was last refreshed. Data can be days or weeks old. Check `as_of` before you rely on it, and request the item again for a newer copy. * Values whose names start with `est_` are Alura's estimates, not Etsy's figures. The [methodology pages](/methodology) explain how we make them and how far to trust them. ## 8. Attribution When you show Alura Data to anyone outside your workspace, within section 4: * credit it as "Data from Alura" with a link to `https://alura.io`; * call estimates estimates, for example "estimated by Alura", and never present them as Etsy's numbers; * do not use Etsy's name or logo in a way that suggests Etsy endorses you. The Alura API uses Etsy data. The term 'Etsy' is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. This Application uses Etsy's API, but is not endorsed or certified by Etsy. ## 9. Rate limits and API credits * Each workspace gets a monthly pool of API credits, separate from the AI credits in the Alura app. The price of each call and each plan's allowance are on [API credits](/api-credits). * A repeated call is charged again. Unused API credits expire at the end of each calendar month (UTC). API credits have no cash value and are not refunded, unless the law requires it. * Paid plans also have a daily ceiling. Every plan has a limit on requests per minute, and daily caps on fetching items Alura has not seen before. See [Usage and limits](/guides/usage-and-limits). * If a workspace opens the sub-lists (shop products, shop reviews or product reviews) of more than 200 different shops or products within an hour, it is limited to 10 requests a minute for one hour. The numbers can change. * We may change prices, allowances and limits. We tell workspace owners by email at least 30 days before a change that lowers what a plan gets. ## 10. Abuse monitoring We watch how the API is used, to catch scraping and abuse. We use the request log described in the [privacy addendum](/legal/privacy-api). Every day a job looks at the previous day for patterns such as: * many different shops paged in one day; * long runs through pages of results; * many pages of one shop's or product's sub-lists; * many sub-list pages compared with searches; * many fetches of items that turn out not to exist on Etsy; * the same pattern spread over several keys or workspaces from one IP address or network. A flag goes to an Alura staff member, who reviews it. The job itself never blocks anyone. The throttle in section 9 is automatic. A workspace whose fetches mostly turn out not to exist on Etsy has its fetch caps set to zero until a person reviews it. ## 11. Suspension and termination We may limit, suspend or end your access to the API and the MCP server, revoke API keys and grants, or set fetch caps to zero, if: * you break these API Terms or the Terms of Service; * your use puts the service, other customers, Etsy members or our access to Etsy at risk; * a key or grant appears to be compromised; * your workspace has unpaid fees; * the law or Etsy requires it. Where it is safe and practical, we tell the workspace owners first and give them a chance to fix the problem. As section 1.2 of the Terms of Service says, a first violation can mean suspension pending review, and a confirmed violation can mean termination without a refund. Etsy can change or end Alura's access to Etsy data. If that happens, we may change or stop the API, the MCP server or parts of them. We will give at least 30 days' notice before we stop the API altogether, unless Etsy or the law requires a faster stop. When your access ends, stop using the API and delete the Alura Data you hold, except your own conclusions and notes. ## 12. AI clients When you connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another AI client: * the client's provider receives the data the client asks for, under the provider's own terms and privacy policy. You choose the client and its settings, including whether it may train on your conversations; * the client acts for you with the scopes you approved. It can make calls you did not expect and spend API credits. With `saved:write` it can change or delete saved research; * review text, shop announcements, listing titles and other text in Alura Data are written by other people. They can contain instructions aimed at AI assistants. Treat them as data. Check what your client does before you approve actions that change or delete things. We are not responsible for what an AI client or its provider does with Alura Data or with your conversations. ## 13. Security contact Report a vulnerability to [security@alura.io](mailto:security@alura.io). Tell us what you found and how to reproduce it, and give us reasonable time to fix it before you publish anything. When you test, use only your own accounts and workspaces. Do not access, change or delete other people's data. Do not run denial-of-service tests, social engineering or physical attacks. If you follow these rules and act in good faith, we will not take legal action against you for your research. If you find an Alura API key in public, report it there too. GitHub's secret scanning reports keys to us, and we revoke them automatically. ## 14. No warranty THIS APPLICATION IS SOLELY PROVIDED BY NET VENTURES AS (THE "APPLICATION DEVELOPER"). YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ETSY, INC. AND ITS AFFILIATES ARE NOT THE APPLICATION DEVELOPER, DO NOT PROVIDE THE APPLICATION SERVICE, AND MAKE NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE APPLICATION OR DATA ACCESSED THROUGH IT. Alura Data, including estimates, is provided as is. Sections 9 (Disclaimer of Warranties) and 10 (Limitation of Liability) of the Terms of Service apply to the API and the MCP server. ## 15. Changes We change these API Terms as section 21 of the Terms of Service describes, by posting the new terms. We tell workspace owners by email before a material change takes effect. If you keep using the API after that, you accept the change. ## 16. Contact Questions about these API Terms: [hello@alura.io](mailto:hello@alura.io). Support: [https://alura.io/help](https://alura.io/help). Last updated: October 16, 2026 This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.