Which "Amazon product API" are we talking about?
For affiliate sites, Amazon's product API used to be the Product Advertising API 5.0 (PA-API). Amazon has replaced it with the Creators API. Amazon's own PA-API pages now say PA-API will be deprecated on 30 April 2026 and tell developers to migrate. Developers who received Amazon's notice report 15 May 2026 as the date the old endpoint stops answering.
The Creators API does the same job: it returns product titles, images, prices and availability for ASINs, and lets you search the catalog. It isn't a drop-in swap. It uses new credentials, a new sign-in method and a single global endpoint, so code written for PA-API needs changes.
Two other Amazon APIs come up in searches but aren't for affiliates: the Selling Partner API is for sellers managing their own listings, and the Amazon Ads API is for advertisers running sponsored campaigns.
What it costs, and what it really costs
There's no subscription, no per-call fee and no paid tier. What Amazon asks for is performance. To get and keep access, Amazon's documentation lists three conditions:
- Be an approved Associate in the marketplace you want data for. Amazon says your account needs final acceptance into the program before you can register.
- Have 10 qualifying sales in the past 30 days to access the API.
- Register through Associates Central: Tools → Creators API. Only the primary account owner can sign up.
The 10-sales threshold is the real price. Before late 2025, one sale in 30 days kept PA-API access alive. Publishers started seeing the new AssociateNotEligible error when Amazon raised the bar to 10, and it now appears in the Creators API documentation.
Rate limits: how much you can call it
Amazon measures usage in transactions per second (TPS) and transactions per day (TPD).
| Stage | Limit |
|---|---|
| First 30 days with new credentials | 1 request per second, 8,640 requests per day |
| After that | 1 extra request per day for every 5 cents of shipped revenue earned through the API in the previous 30 days |
| Per-second ceiling | 1 extra request per second for every $4,320 of that revenue, up to 10 per second |
| Over the limit | HTTP 429 ThrottleException; Amazon says to back off and retry |
For a typical review site this is plenty, as long as you don't call Amazon on every page view. Each request can look up to 10 ASINs, and the access token lasts an hour, so a well-built site caches both and refreshes product data on a schedule.
What happens when you fall below 10 sales
Your calls start failing with an access-denied error. Amazon's documentation says two reassuring things about this:
- You can keep linking with other tools such as SiteStripe, and those links still earn.
- You regain API access within two days after your referred sales are shipped.
The danger is what your site does in the meantime. A site that depends on the API for every product box shows blank prices, broken images or errors the moment access drops, exactly when you need every sale.
Can you show prices without the API?
No. Amazon's program policies only let your site show prices and availability if Amazon serves the link that displays them, or if you get the data from the Creators API or PA-API. If you refresh that data less often than hourly, you also need a date and time stamp next to it. A hand-typed price, or one copied from Amazon's page, breaks the rules even if it was right when you typed it.
That's also why third-party "free Amazon product APIs" don't help an affiliate site. Most are scrapers with small free allowances, and their prices aren't from Amazon's API, so you can't display them on an Associates site.
How to run a site before you qualify
New sites can't get API access, so plan for two modes from day one:
- No-API mode: show your own product photos (or none), your own specs and scores, and a tagged "Check price on Amazon" button. No prices, no Amazon images.
- Live mode: once you have 10 qualifying sales, add your Creators API credentials and switch product boxes to live prices, images and stock.
- Automatic fallback: if access drops, go back to No-API mode by itself, without broken boxes.
You can build that switch yourself: check for credentials, catch the access-denied error, and render a different product box. Or use a kit that already does it.
Affilicraft does this out of the box
A Next.js review-site kit with No-API and live Creators API modes that switch by themselves, a compliance check that blocks hand-typed prices, and a doctor command that explains AssociateNotEligible and other errors in plain English.
FAQ
Is the Amazon product API free?
Yes. Amazon doesn't charge Associates to use the Creators API, which replaced PA-API 5.0. The cost is eligibility: your Associates account needs 10 qualifying sales in the past 30 days for that marketplace.
Can a new Amazon Associate use the product API?
Not straight away. You need final acceptance into the Associates program and 10 qualifying sales in the past 30 days. Until then, link with SiteStripe or tagged links and show your own product text without prices.
What are the Creators API rate limits?
New credentials start at 1 request per second and 8,640 requests per day for the first 30 days. After that, limits scale with the shipped revenue you earn through the API, up to 10 requests per second.
What happens if I drop below 10 sales?
API calls fail with an access-denied error until your referred sales ship again. Amazon says access returns within two days after those sales ship. Your tagged links keep earning in the meantime.
Are third-party Amazon product APIs a free alternative?
They're not free at scale, and for an affiliate site they don't solve the main problem: Amazon's rules only let you show prices and availability that come from its own API or a link Amazon serves.
Where these facts come from
- Amazon: Welcome to Creators API
- Amazon: Register for Creators API
- Amazon: Creators API rates
- Amazon: Creators API error codes
- Amazon: PA-API 5.0 rates and deprecation notice
- Amazon Associates Program Policies
Not legal advice. Amazon changes these rules from time to time; check Associates Central for the current terms.