USGS Earthquake API: Search Quakes by Magnitude & Area
Page updated
Price: $0.10 per 1,000 earthquakes, flat on every Apify plan, no start fee. Free-plan cap: up to 100 earthquakes per run on the Apify Free plan. Prices checked on 2026-10-19.
The USGS Earthquake tool returns one row per earthquake, with time, coordinates, depth, magnitude, place, review status, PAGER alert level, tsunami flag, significance and a link to the USGS event page.
Search by time window, magnitude and depth, inside a bounding box or within a radius of a point.
Who it is for
Researchers, data journalists, insurance and risk analysts, educators and developers who need earthquake data as clean rows.
- Pull every earthquake above a magnitude in a region and date range.
- Build a daily feed of new significant earthquakes.
- Join earthquake events to assets or locations for risk analysis.
- Create datasets for teaching, maps or dashboards.
Inputs
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| lastDays | integer | No | Days back from now. Ignored if startTime is set. Default window is 30 days. |
| startTime | string | No | ISO 8601 UTC, e.g. 2026-10-01 or 2026-10-01T00:00:00. |
| endTime | string | No | ISO 8601 UTC. Default: now. |
| minMagnitude | number | No | e.g. 4.5. Use maxMagnitude for an upper limit. |
| minDepthKm | number | No | Depth range in km, with maxDepthKm. |
| minLatitude | number | No | Bounding box, with maxLatitude, minLongitude and maxLongitude. Or use a circle instead. |
| latitude | number | No | Circle search center, with longitude and maxRadiusKm. |
| orderBy | string | No | time (default, newest first), time-asc, magnitude or magnitude-asc. |
| maxItems | integer | No | Default 100, up to 20,000 earthquakes (the service limit). |
Example input
{
"lastDays": 7,
"minMagnitude": 4.5,
"orderBy": "time",
"maxItems": 50
}Example output
[
{
"type": "event",
"id": "us6000u3ge",
"time": "2026-10-19T18:55:37.471Z",
"updated": "2026-10-19T21:01:19.614Z",
"latitude": -14.0266,
"longitude": 165.4974,
"depthKm": 10,
"mag": 5.7,
"magType": "mb",
"place": "203 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu",
"title": "M 5.7 - 203 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu",
"eventType": "earthquake",
"status": "reviewed",
"tsunami": false,
"alert": "green",
"sig": 500,
"net": "us",
"url": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000u3ge"
}
]Price
$0.10 per 1,000 earthquakes
Free-plan cap: Up to 100 earthquakes per run on the Apify Free plan
Billing happens on Apify, not on this website.
Limits
- Up to 100 earthquakes per run on the Apify Free plan.
- Up to 20,000 earthquakes per run (the USGS service limit).
- Paced at about one request per second, with back-off on errors.
What it does not do
- It is not for emergency response, early warning or any life-safety decision. Data can be delayed or revised; use earthquake.usgs.gov and local authorities for official information.
- It does not combine a bounding box and a circle in one search. Use one or the other.
FAQ
What counts as a result?
One earthquake row.
Do I pay for searches with no results or for errors?
No. No-results, invalid-input, error and limit rows are free.
Where does the data come from?
From the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program FDSN event service. USGS data is in the U.S. public domain. Lepidata is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USGS.
Is there a start fee?
No. You pay only the flat price per result.