# PMC Open Access API (OA Service)

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/pmc-open-access-api-oa-service/  
**Provider:** National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) — https://apis.io/providers/ncbi/  
**Base URL:** https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/utils/oa/oa.fcgi  
**Documentation:** https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/oa-service/

PMC Open Access API (OA Service) is one of 14 APIs that [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)](https://apis.io/providers/ncbi/) publishes on the [APIs.io](https://apis.io/) network. Tagged areas include PubMed Central, Open Access, Literature, and PMC. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes API documentation and rate-limit docs.

The PubMed Central Open Access API retrieves citation data, licensing details, and FTP download locations for Open Access articles in the PMC archive. Queries accept a PMC identifier and return structured XML with article metadata and links to full-text files in formats such as PDF and XML.

## Machine-readable artifacts (3)

- **Documentation** — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/oa-service/
- **RateLimits** — https://kinlane.github.io/ncbi/rate-limits/pmc-oa.yml
- **Plans** — https://kinlane.github.io/ncbi/plans/pmc-oa.yml

## Other National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) APIs (12)

- [NCBI Entrez E-utilities API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-entrez-e-utilities-api/)
- [NCBI BLAST URL API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-blast-url-api/)
- [PubChem PUG REST API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/pubchem-pug-rest-api/)
- [PMC ID Converter API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/pmc-id-converter-api/)
- [PMC OAI-PMH Service](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/pmc-oai-pmh-service/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) BioSample API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-biosample-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Gene API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-gene-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Genome API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-genome-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Organelle API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-organelle-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Prokaryote API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-prokaryote-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-taxonomy-api/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Version API](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/ncbi-version-api/)

## Tags

PubMed Central, Open Access, Literature, PMC

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/apis/ncbi/pmc-open-access-api-oa-service/). The API's provider profile, Kin Score and agent-readiness rating are at https://apis.io/providers/ncbi/.