Genius Search API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Genius Account Search API
  description: 'The Genius API exposes the Genius/Rap Genius crowdsourced music knowledge

    base — songs, artists, albums, annotations, and referents. Responses are

    JSON. The API does NOT serve raw lyric text directly (those must be scraped

    from the public song page); it returns rich song, artist, album, annotation

    metadata, scoring, and the URLs needed to locate lyrics on genius.com.

    '
  version: 1.0.0
  termsOfService: https://genius.com/static/terms
  contact:
    name: Genius API Support
    url: https://docs.genius.com/
  license:
    name: Genius API Terms of Use
    url: https://genius.com/static/terms
  x-generated-from: documentation
  x-last-validated: '2026-05-29'
servers:
- url: https://api.genius.com
  description: Production Genius API
tags:
- name: Search
  description: Full-text search across the Genius corpus.
paths:
  /search:
    get:
      tags:
      - Search
      operationId: search
      summary: Search Genius
      description: 'Search across songs, artists, and lyrics. Returns hit objects keyed by

        type, currently only `song` results are surfaced by the public API.

        '
      security:
      - GeniusOAuth2: []
      - ClientAccessToken: []
      parameters:
      - name: q
        in: query
        required: true
        description: The search query.
        schema:
          type: string
          example: Kendrick Lamar Alright
      - name: per_page
        in: query
        description: Number of results per page (max 5 for search).
        schema:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 5
          default: 5
      - name: page
        in: query
        description: Page of results to return (1-indexed).
        schema:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          default: 1
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchResponse'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
components:
  schemas:
    RichText:
      type: object
      description: 'Genius represents textual content in multiple formats. Which key is

        present depends on the `text_format` query parameter.

        '
      properties:
        dom:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
        html:
          type: string
        markdown:
          type: string
        plain:
          type: string
    Media:
      type: object
      properties:
        provider:
          type: string
          example: youtube
        type:
          type: string
          example: video
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        start:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
        native_uri:
          type: string
          nullable: true
    ErrorResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        meta:
          allOf:
          - $ref: '#/components/schemas/Meta'
          - type: object
            properties:
              error:
                type: string
                description: Short machine error code.
                example: not_found
              error_description:
                type: string
                description: Human-readable error description.
      required:
      - meta
    Song:
      type: object
      description: A Genius song record.
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
          example: 378195
        title:
          type: string
          example: Alright
        title_with_featured:
          type: string
        full_title:
          type: string
          example: Alright by Kendrick Lamar
        artist_names:
          type: string
        primary_artist:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Artist'
        featured_artists:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Artist'
        album:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Album'
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
          description: Public genius.com URL for the song page (source of lyric HTML).
        path:
          type: string
        release_date:
          type: string
          format: date
          nullable: true
        release_date_for_display:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        song_art_image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        song_art_image_thumbnail_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        header_image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        header_image_thumbnail_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        lyrics_state:
          type: string
          description: Lifecycle state of the lyrics (complete, incomplete, unreleased, etc.).
        lyrics_owner_id:
          type: integer
        annotation_count:
          type: integer
        api_path:
          type: string
        pyongs_count:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
        stats:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/SongStats'
        media:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Media'
        description:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/RichText'
        description_annotation:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Referent'
        recording_location:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        producer_artists:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Artist'
        writer_artists:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Artist'
    SearchHit:
      type: object
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          example: song
        index:
          type: string
          example: song
        result:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Song'
    Artist:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
          example: 1421
        name:
          type: string
          example: Kendrick Lamar
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        api_path:
          type: string
        image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        header_image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        is_meme_verified:
          type: boolean
        is_verified:
          type: boolean
        followers_count:
          type: integer
        iq:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
        slug:
          type: string
        description:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/RichText'
        alternate_names:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        instagram_name:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        twitter_name:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        facebook_name:
          type: string
          nullable: true
    Meta:
      type: object
      description: Wrapper metadata included on every response.
      properties:
        status:
          type: integer
          description: HTTP status code echoed in the payload.
          example: 200
        message:
          type: string
          description: Optional human-readable status message.
      required:
      - status
    User:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        login:
          type: string
        name:
          type: string
        about_me_summary:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        avatar:
          type: object
          properties:
            tiny:
              type: object
              properties:
                url:
                  type: string
                  format: uri
            thumb:
              type: object
              properties:
                url:
                  type: string
                  format: uri
            small:
              type: object
              properties:
                url:
                  type: string
                  format: uri
            medium:
              type: object
              properties:
                url:
                  type: string
                  format: uri
        header_image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        human_readable_role_for_display:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        iq:
          type: integer
        identity_provider:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        roles_for_display:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        api_path:
          type: string
    Referent:
      type: object
      description: A referent is a fragment of text on a page that one or more annotations are attached to.
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        annotator_id:
          type: integer
        annotator_login:
          type: string
        api_path:
          type: string
        classification:
          type: string
          example: accepted
        fragment:
          type: string
          description: The exact text being annotated.
        is_description:
          type: boolean
        path:
          type: string
        range:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
          description: DOM range describing the location of the fragment on the source page.
        song_id:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        verified_annotator_ids:
          type: array
          items:
            type: integer
        annotatable:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Annotatable'
        annotations:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Annotation'
    SongStats:
      type: object
      properties:
        unreviewed_annotations:
          type: integer
        hot:
          type: boolean
        pageviews:
          type: integer
          nullable: true
    Annotation:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        api_path:
          type: string
        body:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/RichText'
        comment_count:
          type: integer
        community:
          type: boolean
          description: True if the annotation was authored by the community rather than an artist or editor.
        custom_preview:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        has_voters:
          type: boolean
        votes_total:
          type: integer
        verified:
          type: boolean
          description: True if the annotation has been verified by a trusted editor or artist.
        verified_by:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/User'
        state:
          type: string
          enum:
          - accepted
          - pending
          - deleted
          - needs_exegesis
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        share_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        source:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        pinned:
          type: boolean
        cosigned_by:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/User'
        authors:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/AnnotationAuthor'
        created_at:
          type: string
          format: date-time
    SearchResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        meta:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Meta'
        response:
          type: object
          properties:
            hits:
              type: array
              items:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchHit'
    Annotatable:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        type:
          type: string
          example: song
        title:
          type: string
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        api_path:
          type: string
        image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        context:
          type: string
    AnnotationAuthor:
      type: object
      properties:
        attribution:
          type: number
          format: float
        pinned_role:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        user:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/User'
    Album:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        name:
          type: string
        full_title:
          type: string
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        api_path:
          type: string
        cover_art_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        cover_art_thumbnail_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        release_date_for_display:
          type: string
          nullable: true
        artist:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Artist'
  responses:
    BadRequest:
      description: Malformed request.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
  securitySchemes:
    GeniusOAuth2:
      type: oauth2
      description: 'Genius uses OAuth 2.0 with the authorization-code flow. Apps are

        registered at https://genius.com/api-clients.

        '
      flows:
        authorizationCode:
          authorizationUrl: https://api.genius.com/oauth/authorize
          tokenUrl: https://api.genius.com/oauth/token
          scopes:
            me: Access account profile of the authenticated user.
            create_annotation: Create new annotations.
            manage_annotation: Edit or delete the user's annotations.
            vote: Upvote, downvote, or remove a vote on annotations.
    ClientAccessToken:
      type: http
      scheme: bearer
      bearerFormat: client_access_token
      description: 'Client-only access token issued at app registration. Sufficient for

        read-only endpoints (search, songs, artists, albums, annotations,

        referents, web_pages/lookup).

        '
externalDocs:
  description: Official Genius API documentation
  url: https://docs.genius.com/