Generally speaking, the more complex a system, the more things can go wrong; this translates to a lower availability. In other words, it is much easier to have a 100% uptime for a static website than for an API.
So, what is the industry standard for availability for common APIs? Most online platforms offer a service level agreement (SLA) that includes a clause for the minimum availability of the platform. Here are some examples (accurate at the time of writing):
- Google Compute Engine Service Level Agreement (SLA): 99.99%
- Amazon Compute Service Level Agreement: 99.99%
- App Engine Service Level Agreement (SLA): 99.95%
- Google Maps—Service Level Agreement (“Maps API SLA”): 99.9%
- Amazon S3 Service Level Agreement: ...
