Q: What is data preview?

A: The Data Preview feature provides a glimpse of your query results by displaying a maximum of 500 records, irrespective of the actual outcome. It serves as a quick snapshot, but it may not encompass the entire query’s results.

If you require a more extensive dataset, we recommend utilizing Download or Deliver options, as this reference table outlines. For comprehensive country-period datasets, for example,  Germany’s March 2021 data, we encourage using the Bulk File option, which has no record limitations as it offers the complete dataset.

For other scenarios, we suggest breaking down your request into smaller queries, ideally categorized by specific periods. This approach helps optimize the extraction algorithms and ensures you obtain the data you need effectively.

Q: When using the Data Preview button/API, I received this message “Error: Rate limit is exceeded. Try again in 1 second.“. What should I do?

A: This error indicates that we are encountering a substantial volume of Data Preview requests. We recommend that you register a free account with UN Comtrade, sign in, and re-submit your query.