NHTSA Safety Ratings API — Vehicle Crash Test and Rollover Data

NHTSA NCAP 5-star vehicle safety ratings: frontal crash, side crash, rollover risk, ESC, FCW, LDW features, plus complaint/recall counts. Built for insurance underwriting, used-car due diligence, and auto safety researchers.

Free trial

A free Apify account gives you about 5 USD of monthly credits, more than enough to inspect every model-year for a popular make before paying.

Use cases

1. Insurance underwriting — for a VIN (or make/model/year), return overall_rating, front_crash_stars, side_crash_stars, and recalls_count for risk tiering.
2. Used-car due diligence — given a make/model, fetch every model year's ratings and surface trends (improving vs. declining).
3. Fleet procurement — evaluate has_esc_standard, has_fcw_optional_or_standard, has_ldw_optional_or_standard for a list of vehicles being considered for purchase.

Input

{
  "model_year": 2020,
  "make": "TOYOTA",
  "model": "CAMRY",
  "max_results": 50
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
model_year	integer	0	Restrict to one model year. 0 = all years.
make	string	""	Exact make (uppercase). Empty = all.
model	string	""	Partial model name match.
min_overall_stars	integer	0	Filter to ratings at or above this.
is_top_safety_pick	boolean	false	Only IIHS Top Safety Pick+.
max_results	integer	50	Cap on returned vehicles.

Output (real run)

[
  {
    "vehicle_id": 14855,
    "model_year": 2020,
    "make": "TOYOTA",
    "model": "CAMRY",
    "vehicle_description": "2020 Toyota CAMRY 4 DR AWD",
    "overall_rating": "5",
    "overall_front_crash_rating": "5",
    "overall_side_crash_rating": "5",
    "front_crash_driverside_rating": "5",
    "front_crash_passengerside_rating": "5",
    "front_crash_stars": "5",
    "side_crash_stars": "5",
    "side_pole_stars": "5",
    "rollover_stars": "5",
    "rollover_rating": "5",
    "rollover_possibility": 0.087,
    "has_5_star_overall": true,
    "is_top_safety_pick": true,
    "has_esc_standard": true,
    "has_fcw_optional_or_standard": true,
    "has_ldw_optional_or_standard": true,
    "n_safety_features_standard": 3,
    "complaints_count": 213,
    "recalls_count": 7,
    "investigation_count": 0,
    "total_safety_investigations_count": 0,
    "nhtsa_url": "https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2020/TOYOTA/CAMRY/4%20DR%20AWD"
  }
]

Field	Type	Description
vehicle_id	integer	NHTSA internal record id.
model_year / make / model	integer / string	Vehicle identity.
vehicle_description	string	Human-readable trim.
overall_rating	string	NCAP overall 1–5 star rating.
front_crash_* / side_crash_* / rollover_*	string / number	Per-test ratings and probabilities.
front_crash_stars / side_crash_stars / side_pole_stars / rollover_stars	string	Sub-rating stars.
rollover_possibility	number	Single-vehicle rollover probability.
has_5_star_overall	boolean	Convenience flag.
is_top_safety_pick	boolean	IIHS TSP+ flag.
has_esc_standard / has_fcw_* / has_ldw_*	boolean	Active safety feature flags.
n_safety_features_standard	integer	Count of standard active safety features.
complaints_count / recalls_count / investigation_count	integer	NHTSA complaint and recall counters.
total_safety_investigations_count	integer	Open investigations.
nhtsa_url	string	Canonical URL on nhtsa.gov.

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• No subscription. Free monthly credits apply first.
• 1 result = $0.001 USD (about $1 per 1 000 results).
• Charged per item returned in the dataset; failed runs are not charged.

Source, licence, limits

• Source: NHTSA NCAP ratings API at https://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa-datasets.
• Licence: US Government work, public domain (17 U.S.C. § 105).
• Update frequency: NHTSA adds new model-year ratings quarterly; this Actor reflects the upstream API at the moment of the run.
• Limits: NHTSA returns one row per (year, make, model, trim). Make spelling is exact — "TOYOTA" not "Toyota". Older model years (<2000) may have missing fields.

FAQ

Why is overall_rating a string, not a number? NHTSA stores F (not rated) alongside 1..5. The Actor preserves the upstream convention so null/missing stays distinguishable.

What's the difference between TSP and TSP+? Both are IIHS Top Safety Pick designations; TSP+ requires has_5_star_overall plus specific active safety features. NHTSA's API mirrors this as is_top_safety_pick.

Can I get the rollover band? Yes, rollover_band is returned when NHTSA has published it (most 2005+ model years).

Why are some vehicles missing active-safety fields? Pre-2010 vehicles predate NHTSA's active-safety taxonomy and won't have ESC/FCW/LDW fields.

Why does complaints_count vary between runs? Complaints are added continuously; treat as a snapshot at run time.

How do I find only 5-star overall? Set is_top_safety_pick=true or filter on overall_rating == "5" client-side.

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Changelog

• 2026-10-12 — SEO metadata (seoTitle, seoDescription); README rewritten with real output sample, FAQ, cross-links.
• 2026-10-07 — Pricing switched to Apify pay-per-event ($0.001 per dataset item).
• 2026-09-30 — Initial public release on the Apify Store.