Search and download mod files programmatically using the Nexus Mods API
domain: gaming · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Generate a personal API key from your Nexus Mods account and send it in the apikey header for REST v1 calls to api.nexusmods.com
For advanced filtering or dependency graphs, query the GraphQL v2 endpoint at graphql.nexusmods.com, which is mostly unauthenticated aside from some OAuth-gated fields
Use the REST endpoints to search mods by game domain and retrieve mod/file metadata
Request a direct download link for a specific file, understanding that this action is restricted to premium Nexus Mods accounts
Track your usage against the rate limits (roughly 20,000 requests per 24 hours before throttling to 500/hour, with an additional ~30 requests/second hard cap) and back off on 429 responses
Cache metadata locally where the terms allow it to avoid repeated calls for the same mod listing
Known gotchas
Generating a direct file download link via the API is restricted to premium members only — non-premium credentials receive an explicit permission error
Rate limits are two-tiered: a 24-hour request budget plus a hard per-second cap enforced at the reverse-proxy layer, so bursty scripts can get 429s well before hitting the daily quota
REST v1 and GraphQL v2 are two separate, currently coexisting APIs with different auth models — mixing up which endpoint supports which query type is a common integration mistake
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