Documentation
Documentation
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference
RateLimits
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/inaturalist/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
swagger: '2.0'
info:
title: iNaturalist Annotations Places API
description: '# https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/
[iNaturalist](https://www.inaturalist.org/) is a global community of
naturalists, scientists, and members of the public sharing over a million
wildlife sightings to teach one another about the natural world while
creating high quality citizen science data for science and conservation.
These API methods return data in JSON/JSONP and PNG response formats. They
are meant to supplement the existing [iNaturalist
API](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference), implemented in Ruby
on Rails, which has more functionality and supports more write operations,
but tends to be slower and have less consistent response formats. Visit our
[developers page](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers) for more
information. Write operations that expect and return JSON describe a single
`body` parameter that represents the request body, which should be specified
as JSON. See the "Model" of each body parameter for attributes that we
accept in these JSON objects.
Multiple values for a single URL parameter should be separated by commas,
e.g. `taxon_id=1,2,3`.
Map tiles are generated using the
[node-mapnik](https://github.com/mapnik/node-mapnik) library, following the
XYZ map tiling scheme. The "Observation Tile" methods accept nearly all the
parameters of the observation search APIs, and will generate map tiles
reflecting the same observations returned by searches. These
"Observation Tile" methods have corresponding
[UTFGrid](https://github.com/mapbox/utfgrid-spec) JSON
responses which return information needed to make interactive maps.
Authentication in the Node API is handled via JSON Web Tokens (JWT). To
obtain one, make an [OAuth-authenticated
request](http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference#auth) to
https://www.inaturalist.org/users/api_token. Each JWT will expire after 24
hours. Authentication required for all PUT and POST requests. Some GET
requests will also include private information like hidden coordinates if
the authenticated user has permission to view them.
Photos served from https://static.inaturalist.org and
https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com have multiple size
variants and not all size variants are returned in responses. To access
other sizes, the photo URL can be modified to replace only the size
qualifier (each variant shares the exact same extension). The domain a photo
is hosted under reflects the license under which the photo is being shared,
and the domain may change over time if the license changes. Photos in
the `inaturalist-open-data` domain are shared under open licenses. These can
be accessed in bulk in the [iNaturalist AWS Open Dataset](
https://registry.opendata.aws/inaturalist-open-data/). Photos in the
`static.inaturalist.org` domain do not have open licenses.
The available photo sizes are:
* original (max 2048px in either dimension)
* large (max 1024px in either dimension)
* medium (max 500px in either dimension)
* small (max 240px in either dimension)
* thumb (max 100px in either dimension)
* square (75px square)
iNaturalist Website: https://www.inaturalist.org/
Open Source Software: https://github.com/inaturalist/
## Terms of Use
Use of this API is subject to the iNaturalist
[Terms of Service](https://www.inaturalist.org/terms) and
[Privacy Policy](https://www.inaturalist.org/privacy). We will block any
use of our API that violates our Terms or Privacy Policy without notice.
The API is intended to support application development, not data scraping.
For pre- generated data exports, see
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers.
Please note that we throttle API usage to a max of 100 requests per minute,
though we ask that you try to keep it to 60 requests per minute or lower,
and to keep under 10,000 requests per day. If we notice usage that has
serious impact on our performance we may institute blocks without
notification.
Terms of Service: https://www.inaturalist.org/terms
Privacy Policy: https://www.inaturalist.org/privacy
'
version: 1.3.0
basePath: /v1
schemes:
- http
- https
produces:
- application/json
tags:
- name: Places
description: Search and fetch
paths:
/places/{id}:
get:
summary: Place Details
description: 'Given an ID, or an array of IDs in comma-delimited format, returns
corresponding places. A maximum of 500 results will be returned
'
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/path_multi_id_or_slug'
- name: admin_level
in: query
type: array
enum:
- -10
- 0
- 10
- 20
- 30
- 100
items:
type: integer
description: 'Admin level of a place, or an array of admin levels
in comma-delimited format. Supported admin levels are: -10
(continent), 0 (country), 10 (state), 20 (county), 30 (town),
100 (park)'
tags:
- Places
responses:
'200':
description: 'Returns an object with metadata and an results array of places
'
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/PlacesResponse'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
/places/autocomplete:
get:
summary: Place Autocomplete
description: 'Given an string, returns places with names starting with the search
term.
'
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/autocomplete_q'
- name: order_by
type: string
in: query
description: Sort field
enum:
- area
tags:
- Places
responses:
'200':
description: 'Returns an object with metadata and an results array of places
'
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/PlacesResponse'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
/places/nearby:
get:
summary: Nearby Places
description: 'Given an bounding box, and an optional name query, return `standard`
iNaturalist curator approved and `community` non-curated places nearby
'
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/nelat_required'
- $ref: '#/parameters/nelng_required'
- $ref: '#/parameters/swlat_required'
- $ref: '#/parameters/swlng_required'
- name: name
in: query
type: string
description: Name must match this value
- $ref: '#/parameters/per_page'
tags:
- Places
responses:
'200':
description: 'Returns an object with metadata and an results object containing
`standard` and `community` places
'
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/NearbyPlacesResponse'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
definitions:
Error:
type: object
properties:
code:
type: integer
message:
type: string
PolygonGeoJson:
type: object
properties:
type:
type: string
coordinates:
type: array
items:
type: array
items:
type: array
description: an array of [long, lat]
items:
type: number
format: double
CorePlace:
type: object
properties:
id:
type: integer
name:
type: string
display_name:
type: string
BaseResponse:
type: object
properties:
total_results:
type: integer
page:
type: integer
per_page:
type: integer
ShowPlace:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/definitions/CorePlace'
- type: object
properties:
admin_level:
type: integer
ancestor_place_ids:
type: array
items:
type: integer
bbox_area:
type: number
format: double
geometry_geojson:
$ref: '#/definitions/PolygonGeoJson'
location:
type: string
description: in the format "lat,lng"
name:
type: string
place_type:
type: integer
NearbyPlacesResponse:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/definitions/BaseResponse'
- required:
- results
properties:
results:
type: object
properties:
standard:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/ShowPlace'
community:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/ShowPlace'
PlacesResponse:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/definitions/BaseResponse'
- required:
- results
properties:
results:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/ShowPlace'
parameters:
nelat_required:
name: nelat
type: number
format: double
in: query
required: true
description: 'Must be nearby this bounding box (*nelat, *nelng, *swlat, *swlng)
'
nelng_required:
name: nelng
type: number
format: double
in: query
required: true
description: 'Must be nearby this bounding box (*nelat, *nelng, *swlat, *swlng)
'
path_multi_id_or_slug:
name: id
in: path
required: true
type: array
items:
type: string
description: Must have this ID or slug
autocomplete_q:
name: q
type: string
in: query
required: true
description: Search by name (must start with this value) or by ID (exact match).
swlng_required:
name: swlng
type: number
format: double
in: query
required: true
description: 'Must be nearby this bounding box (*nelat, *nelng, *swlat, *swlng)
'
swlat_required:
name: swlat
type: number
format: double
in: query
required: true
description: 'Must be nearby this bounding box (*nelat, *nelng, *swlat, *swlng)
'
per_page:
name: per_page
type: string
in: query
description: 'Number of results to return in a `page`. The maximum value is generally
200 unless otherwise noted
'
securityDefinitions:
api_token:
type: apiKey
name: Authorization
in: header