# U.S. states and territories — AutoSugges platform dataset

## How do I add U.S. states and territories autocomplete to my app?

U.S. states and territories is a free AutoSugges reference list of 57 items. Query it with your publishable key as the key parameter and the typed text as q, after at least two characters. Results come back pre-ranked from the edge, ten by default, ready for the AutoSugges React, React Native or HTML component.

The 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the six island areas, searchable by name, USPS abbreviation or FIPS code. Published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

57 items.

## Provenance
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/reference/codes2020/national_state2020.txt)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23, effective version 2020
Authority: authoritative
Licence: U.S. Government work. Not subject to copyright protection in the United States (17 U.S.C. §105). The Census Bureau requests citation rather than imposing licence terms. (public_domain)
Attribution: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census FIPS codes
Export allowed: yes

## Availability
Free

## Authority
Authoritative

## Dataset kind
Reference list

## Worked example
```json
{
  "value": "NV",
  "displayValue": "Nevada",
  "aliases": [
    "NV",
    "32",
    "Nevada"
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "usps": "NV",
    "fips": "32",
    "kind": "state"
  }
}
```

## Query it
```
/v1/query?key=YOUR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY&q=nevada
```

A publishable key is public by design and belongs in client code as written; it is not a secret.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is in the U.S. states and territories dataset?

The 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the six island areas, searchable by name, USPS abbreviation or FIPS code. Published by the U.S. Census Bureau. It has 57 items. Its source is U.S. Census Bureau. Authority: Authoritative. Licence: U.S. Government work. Not subject to copyright protection in the United States (17 U.S.C. §105). The Census Bureau requests citation rather than imposing licence terms. Refresh cadence: Decennial; rarely changes.

### Is the U.S. states and territories dataset free?

AutoSugges-published free datasets are never priced on their own — every plan includes all of them. What a plan prices is how many queries you may make, not which free list you may query. A few catalog entries are licensed from a third party or supplied by you, and those carry their own access terms, shown on that dataset's own page.

### How do I query U.S. states and territories?

Call GET /v1/query with your publishable key as the key parameter and the typed text as q, or mount the AutoSugges component for React, React Native or HTML. The runtime answers from the edge and never reads a database.

### What is the minimum number of characters before a query runs?

Two by default. A list owner can change the minimum, but it can never be 1. The client reads the real value from bootstrap and sends no request below it, so do not hardcode it.

### How long does the client wait after typing before it queries?

150 milliseconds by default. The value is delivered through bootstrap and a list owner can raise it, so the client uses the policy value rather than a constant.

### What happens when my query quota runs out?

The runtime returns a structured quota_exceeded response that carries no items and no placeholder suggestions, so exhaustion is never mistaken for no results. Render it from the typed error code and prompt an upgrade.

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Canonical page: https://autosugges.com/datasets/us-states