Registration and Terms of Use

Public or partner services

Users can request to use the public coding service, or the partner coding service. 

Public coding service

• Single record synchronous (real-time) coding
• Small batch synchronous coding (up to 300 records per batch)

Partner coding service

• Single record synchronous (real-time) coding
• Small batch synchronous coding (up to 300 records per batch)
• Large-file asynchronous upload/download bulk coding (from 1 record to millions of records per file)

Synchronous API calls will be throttled, and limits on asynchronous usage may also apply.

Client credentials are required to access the Coding Service API. 

To register for the service and request client credentials, please carefully read the WoAG Occupation Coding Service Terms of Use and Service Level Expectations (SLEs). You must agree to the Terms of Use before client credentials will be provided. You must agree to read and follow the API integration instructions in the WoAG Occupation Coding Service User Guide, as this supports reliable and fair use of the service. 

Then download and complete the Registration Form, and send the form to coding.service.registrations@abs.gov.au.

Provision of client credentials

Once registered, the ABS will email you: 

• a client identifier, clientID, and
• a client secret, clientSecret. This must be kept confidential as it is used when authenticating your requests.

The ABS will monitor registrations for usage, and users may be notified via email if their access is under review.

The ABS privacy policy outlines how the ABS handles any personal information that you provide to us in requesting access to this service.

Read carefully before requesting access to use the Australian Bureau of Statistics WoAG Coding Capability Service (‘the Coding Service’) Application Programming Interface (‘the API’). You must agree to the Terms of Use before client credentials will be provided.

These Terms of Use are entered into between the Commonwealth of Australia as represented by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the person or organisation using the API ('You'). 

The following Terms of Use apply to You, and by installing, accessing, or otherwise using the API, You hereby accept and agree to be legally bound by ALL of the terms and conditions set out in these Terms of Use. 

2.1 Conditions of use 

2.1.1 The ABS grants You a royalty free, non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable licence to use the API for the duration set out in clause 3 and on the terms and conditions set out in these Terms of Use. 

2.1.2 You agree to use the API in a fair and reasonable manner that does not impair access for others or compromise the performance of the service, and to act in good faith in all dealings related to the use of the API. This includes:

1. communicating openly with the ABS and cooperating with the ABS to resolve any disputes or technical issues;
2. acting honestly and ethically; and
3. exercising reasonable care in the safe and responsible usage of the API. 

2.1.3 You shall not engage in any act or omission that intentionally undermines the integrity, security, or intended functionality of the API. 

2.2 Access 

2.2.1 The ABS will facilitate access by You of the API through provision of an API Key.

2.2.2 You must treat the API Key as ABS Confidential Information and must take all reasonable measures to protect the API from unauthorised use or disclosure. 

2.2.3 You accept full responsibility for all activities that occur through the use of your API Key once it has been issued to You. 

2.2.4 You must take all such security and other measures necessary to ensure that the API Key is only used by You and that no third parties have access to it unless required by law. 

2.2.5 You agree to comply with any security requirements which the ABS may notify You of from time to time. 

2.2.6 The ABS reserves the right to withdraw your access to the API for any reason, at any time, without notice, including without limitation where the ABS considers that You are undertaking activities that put at risk the successful performance of the API or other ABS systems or resources, or where You are using or suspected of using the API contrary to any of these Terms of Use.

2.2.7 You acknowledge and agree that if the ABS withdraws your access to the API for any reason, the ABS will not be liable to compensate You for any corresponding or consequential direct or indirect losses, costs, damage or liability suffered or incurred by You. 

2.2.8 You must provide complete and accurate information upon registration for use of the API. You must notify the ABS if your registration details change.

2.3 Use of the API 

2.3.1 Without limiting clause 2.6, the ABS may impose a Request Rate Limit applicable to the fair and reasonable use of the API. 

2.3.2 Where the ABS considers it appropriate, it will make the Request Rate Limit available to You. 

2.3.3 The ABS reserves the right to change: 

1. a notified Request Rate Limit;
2. the structure of the data response to an API request, including by changing the dataset size, shape and scope of the data response; or
3. the structure or signature of API requests. 

2.3.4 While the ABS will use reasonable endeavours to promptly give prior notice to You of any of the changes described in clause 2.3.3 above, You acknowledge that the ABS is not obliged to do so. 

2.3.5 You accept full responsibility for ensuring the data You submit is suitable.

2.3.6 You accept full responsibility for the manner in which You set up your API requests including where this results in incorrect data or no data being returned. 

2.4 Uses of the API not permitted 

2.4.1 You must not: 

1. access or attempt to access ABS data, systems or resources that You are not authorised to use, including unauthorised intrusion into any part of the ABS’ IT systems or resources;
2. engage in any act or transmit any data that may adversely impact the API, ABS’ IT systems or other resources;
3. attempt to bypass any security controls;
4. interfere with the functionality of the API or ABS’ IT systems, overload the API or ABS’ IT systems or attempt to disable them, including without limitation through a ‘Denial of service’ attack;
5. attempt to use the API or ABS’ IT systems without authorisation or in an unauthorised manner;
6. transmit any file with malicious content;
7. use the facilities and capabilities of the API or ABS’ IT systems or resources to conduct any illegal activity or solicit the performance of any illegal activity;
8. attempt to modify, adapt, translate, sell, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of ABS’ IT software or systems; or
9. interfere or attempt to interfere with the rights of others to use the API or ABS IT systems or resources. 

2.4.2 Any breach of clause 2.4.1 may result in a temporary or permanent ban by the ABS on You accessing the API or other ABS systems. 

2.5 Monitoring Use 

2.5.1 You consent to the ABS monitoring and collecting data on your usage of the API including without limitation for service improvement, evidence of misuse, and attempted or actual security breaches. 

2.5.2 You consent to the ABS using and disclosing the data collected under clause 2.5.1 for ABS’ internal use only, or for disclosure to other parties if required by law. 

2.6 Fair and Reasonable Use for Service Stability

2.6.1 As part of the registration process, You will be asked to nominate your expected approximate usage volumes, including API calls per day and number of records per day. The ABS will use this information to assist in administering fair and reasonable use to maintain service stability.

2.6.2 The ABS will regularly assess your actual usage against your nominated expected approximate usage volumes and take reasonable steps to manage any usage which materially exceeds those volumes, including contacting You to discuss adjustments or improvements to usage patterns.

2.6.3 Where usage materially exceeds your nominated expectations and adversely impacts the performance or stability of the service, the ABS may apply additional throttling, restrict batch processing, or temporarily suspend or revoke access to the API. 

2.7 Model Updates and Withdrawal

2.7.1 The ABS may periodically retrain, update, replace, withdraw, or retire the machine learning models that underpin the Coding Service, including but not limited to reflect updated classification standards, improved algorithms, or enhanced training data.

2.7.2 The ABS may at its discretion withdraw or retire any machine learning model version, taking into consideration user requirements for that version. 

3.1 The Terms of Use will apply on and from the Commencement Date and continue until terminated in accordance with clause 3.2. 

3.2 These Terms of Use may be terminated for convenience, by the ABS or by You, by written notice by the ABS or You as appropriate to the other, including following a withdrawal of access as described in clause 2.2.6. 

3.3 Upon termination of these Terms of Use, You shall immediately cease to use the API. 

4.1 The ABS will deliver the API Key to You via your nominated email address as soon as practicably possible following receipt of your Request. 

4.2 The SLEs for the Coding Service are detailed below.

5.1 You acknowledge that the intellectual property of the WoAG Coding Capability Service and all information contained within the service, including but not limited to statistical data and describing metadata, vests in the Commonwealth of Australia, as represented by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

5.2 You acknowledge and accept that any material and data passed through the API is subject to the terms of the “ABS Copyright notice” and “Attributing ABS material” notice available on the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au.

6.1 Subject to clause 6.5, the ABS makes no warranties or representations that: 

1. information passed through the API is error free
2. data passed through the API will be received by You in a manner that is reliable, timely, uninterrupted, up-to-date, current or that the data releases will otherwise meet your requirements
3. the API or data releases in the API will be available at the time You require
4. the API Key, ABS IT systems or resources supporting use of the API by You will be operational, available or accessible at any given time and the ABS shall not be in any way liable for any loss, damage or injury suffered by You or any other person or corporation consequent upon the use of the API or the existence of errors in the API. 

6.2 For the avoidance of doubt, while the ABS will seek to inform You of any event or outage that might materially affect your use of the API or access to data releases in the API, the ABS will not be liable for any corresponding delays to transactions or disruption to your business or operations arising directly or indirectly from any such event or outage (whether or not the event or outage was notified to You by the ABS in a timely manner or at all). 

6.3 You must notify the ABS if You discover or suspect any error or malfunction in the API, API Key or related ABS IT systems or resources. In such an event, You agree to provide to the ABS information and details regarding any error or malfunction of the API, API Key or related ABS IT systems or resources to the extent reasonably necessary to identify, confirm or investigate and rectify any such error or malfunction (including where relevant any details of your operating environment). 

6.4 You agree to indemnify the ABS in respect of all liability for loss, damage or injury which may be suffered by any person in connection with these Terms of Use or use of the API. 

6.5 Subject to conditions or warranties implied by law which are incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification or where to do so is illegal or would render any provision of the Terms of Use void: 

1. no condition or warranty is given, and no representation is made by the ABS in relation to the quality, fitness, suitability for any purpose or otherwise, or
2. our liability to You for a breach of any condition or warranty is limited to the replacement of the API. 

6.6 The provisions of this clause 6, together with any other provision which expressly or by implication from its nature is intended to survive termination of these Terms of Use.

7.1 The information and materials made available for using the API are provided for information purposes only. Although we implement steps to minimise the risk that the information and materials made available for using the API are inaccurate or the coding service fails to code correctly, we make no claim as to the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of the information and materials made available for using the API. You are responsible for exercising due diligence before relying on the information and materials made available for using the API, including reviewing and verifying coded outputs prior to any subsequent use. 

7.2 We do not accept any liability to any person for the coded records (or the use of such information) made available via the API. To the extent permitted by law, we exclude liability for any loss (including but not limited to loss from viruses and any negligence on our part) caused by use or reliance on the API or the information and materials made available via the API. 

7.3 If you are a “consumer” for the purposes of the Australian Consumer Law or equivalent state and territory laws, and those laws operate to provide you with non-excludable rights in relation to the goods or services supplied under this agreement, to the extent permitted by law, we limit our liability for any failure to comply with a consumer guarantee to:

1. in relation to goods, our choice of: (i) replacement of the goods or supply of equivalent goods; (ii) repair of the goods; (iii) payment for the cost of replacing the goods or of acquiring equivalent goods; or (iv) payment of the cost of having the goods repaired; and
2. in relation to services, our choice of: (i) supplying the services again; or (ii) payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

7.4 If you re-supply (including by republishing, reproducing, redistributing or sharing, in whole or in part) the information and materials we make available via the API, and a third party claims that we are liable for loss and damage they have suffered or incurred as a result of the information or materials they obtained from you, you must indemnify us for any liability we incur in connection with that third party claim. 

8.1 Unless otherwise indicated, these Terms of Use represent the entire understanding and agreement regarding the API and supersede any prior proposal, representation or written or oral agreement. 

8.2 These Terms of Use may be modified by the ABS at any time. In this circumstance an updated version of the Terms of Use will be made available to You. 

8.3 Failure or delay by the ABS in enforcing any provision of these Terms of Use does not mean that the ABS no longer regard that provision as binding. A waiver by the ABS of a provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of any other breach of these Terms of Use. 

8.4 You may not assign, either in whole or in part, the benefit or burden of these Terms of Use without prior written consent of the ABS. 

8.5 If any provision of these Terms of Use is unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, it shall be deemed severable from, and shall in no way affect the validity or enforceability of, the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use. 

8.6 These Terms of Use shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Australian Capital Territory and the parties agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that Territory. 

8.7 You must not use any information or materials made available via the API in any way that implies endorsement or sponsorship by us of you or any of your products, goods or services.

9.1 When You accept these Terms of Use by completing the Registration Form, You agree that You are legally bound by these Terms of Use. 

9.2 If You are an individual accepting these Terms of Use on behalf of an organisation, You warrant and represent to the ABS that You are properly authorised by the organisation You represent to enter into, and to be legally bound by, these Terms of Use. 

9.3 If You are a non-corporate Commonwealth entity (as defined by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth), the ABS acknowledge these Terms of Use are not legally enforceable provided that You agree to comply with the Terms of Use as if you were agreeing to a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). 

10.1 The API is supported by the ABS in accordance with the SLEs below If you experience issues with the API or have a technical enquiry, please contact coding.capability@abs.gov.au. Our support business hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm AEST. We will respond to your enquiry as soon as practicable.

10.2 The ABS has developed this WoAG Coding Service and API in accordance with the Policy for responsible use of AI in government and as described in the ABS AI transparency statement.       

11.1 The ABS take the security of your personal information seriously. We set high standards for protecting your privacy, and the security and confidentiality of your information.

11.2 We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Archives Act 1983 (Cth) in the storage, use and destruction of your personal information collected for managing and operating our business (see the ABS Privacy Policy for Managing and Operating Our Business).

11.3 The ABS secures all our systems and information in accordance with the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF). The Coding Service and API meet the control and security objectives set out in the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM).

1. Introduction

These Service Level Expectations ("SLE") outline the service commitments, availability, and support expectations for the use of the ABS Whole of Australian Government Occupation Coding Service ("the Coding Service") and the Coding Service API. This SLE forms part of the Terms of Use and applies to all users accessing the service.

2. Service Availability

• The ABS aims to maintain API availability of 99%, excluding scheduled maintenance or events beyond our control (e.g. infrastructure or third-party failures or force majeure).
• Service availability is supported by the ABS on a best effort basis. Scheduled maintenance will be advised to registered users via email at least 3 business days in advance, where practicable.
• The API may be temporarily unavailable at short notice for critical updates. We will notify affected users as soon as possible in these cases.
• The ABS is not liable for downtime caused by third-party dependencies, force majeure events, or user-related issues.
• The ABS will monitor registrations for usage, and users may be notified via email if their access is under review for removal due to inactivity.

3. Performance Standards

• The API supports two tiers of access.
• Registered Public Users have:
  • access to synchronous single-record and small batch coding only
  • a throttled maximum of 1 request per second
  • a daily maximum limit of 100 requests per hour
• Registered Partner Users have access to this synchronous coding as well as asynchronous large batch coding.
• Partner access eligibility is determined by the ABS during the registration process. Australian Government agencies (Commonwealth and State/Territory) will generally be offered Partner access. Other organisations may be considered for Partner access where their proposed use demonstrably supports government functions or delivers direct public value to the Australian public.
• The ABS reserves the right to modify Partner access eligibility as the service evolves.
• Asynchronous batch requests are processed in a queued workflow. Response times vary depending on file size, system demand and current queue load at the time of submission
• Processing may range from a few minutes to several hours. Users will be provided with guidance on expected timelines in the User Guide.
• Rate limits for synchronous coding are enforced and users will receive a status code response notification of any request exceeding the limit. Users can refer to the User Guide for help interpreting and managing these responses.
• The ABS may introduce or apply revised rate limits or throttling to manage fair and reasonable use for system stability. ABS will request registered users to nominate their expected approximate usage volumes during the registration process (e.g., API calls per day and number of records per day). These declarations help the ABS manage fair and reasonable use to support overall system stability. The ABS may compare actual usage against these expectations to guide support, scaling decisions, or enforcement of usage controls.
• Where possible, service level changes to rate limits or throttling will be communicated in advance and documented in the User Guide.

4. Support, Contact & Communication

• Support is available via email at coding.capability@abs.gov.au.
• The ABS aim to respond to general enquiries and provide support as soon as possible.
• The ABS will use reasonable endeavours to promptly notify registered users via email of:
  • planned outages, with at least 3 business days’ notice where possible
  • significant API changes
  • emergency incidents, such as unplanned or unexpected outages or failures
  • applying additional throttling, restricting batch processing, or temporarily suspending or revoking access to the API where a registered user’s usage materially exceeds their nominated expected approximate usage volumes and adversely impacts the performance or stability of the service
  • machine learning model changes, retrains, updates, replacements, withdrawals and retirements, along with guidance for transition.
• The ABS aim to triage and begin work on critical issues as soon as possible. A critical issue is one that prevents access to the service, or results in incorrect responses for otherwise valid input data.
• If a critical issue remains unresolved or impacts your agency’s operations, you may escalate through the ABS feedback and complaints channels. See the Contact us page or submit a complaint via the ABS website.
• Feedback or complaints about the API service can be submitted via the ABS website or emailed directly to coding.capability@abs.gov.au. All complaints will be acknowledged within 1 week, and depending on the complexity, we aim to resolve most issues within 4 weeks.

5. User Responsibilities

• Users must ensure data submitted meets API format and validation requirements.
• Users are responsible for ensuring their applications comply with API usage guidelines and best practices.
• The API is provided on a best effort basis and is not intended for mission-critical or time-critical applications without users’ independent validation or contingency arrangements or fallback procedures.
• The Coding Service supports the classification of free text against ABS Occupation Classifications. It is not intended to replace human decision making, and users are expected to review and contextualise the coded output.
• Users should be aware that the machine learning models used by the Coding Service may be retrained, updated, replaced, withdrawn or retired over time.
• Users are expected to use the service fairly and reasonably, consistent with its intended purpose. The ABS may monitor usage and take action, including rate limiting and throttling, or withdrawal of access, where use is excessive or adversely impacts service stability.
• The ABS may periodically review registrations and check-in with users who haven’t used the service for an extended period. If we don’t receive a response, user access may be revoked, and registration removed.
• Users must notify the ABS if their registration details change.

6. Exclusions of Liability

• The ABS is not responsible for any loss or damage suffered by users from downtime or degraded performance resulting from user-side configurations, third-party dependencies, or event or outage that materially affect Your use of the API or access to data releases in the API.
• The ABS does not guarantee uninterrupted service and is not responsible for indirect or consequential loss or damages resulting from API downtime or errors.
• The ABS is not responsible for any loss or damage suffered by users using or relying on information made available via the API, including but not limited to loss from viruses and any negligence contributed by ABS.

7. Amendments to SLEs

• The ABS reserves the right to update these SLEs as necessary. Changes will be communicated to registered users via email.