Yelp Categories API

openapi: 3.1.0
info:
  title: Yelp Fusion AI Categories API
  description: 'The Yelp Fusion API provides programmatic access to Yelp''s database of local businesses, reviews, events, categories, and conversational AI search. This definition documents the public Fusion REST endpoints: business search and discovery, business details, reviews, autocomplete, phone search, business match, events, categories, and the Yelp Fusion AI chat endpoint. Authentication is via a bearer API key passed in the Authorization header.'
  version: '3.0'
  contact:
    name: Yelp Developer
    url: https://docs.developer.yelp.com/
  termsOfService: https://docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/policies
servers:
- url: https://api.yelp.com
  description: Yelp Fusion API base URL
security:
- bearerAuth: []
tags:
- name: Categories
  description: Yelp business category taxonomy
paths:
  /v3/categories:
    get:
      tags:
      - Categories
      operationId: getAllCategories
      summary: Get All Categories
      description: Returns the full list of Yelp business categories.
      parameters:
      - name: locale
        in: query
        description: Locale in the form {language}_{country}, e.g. en_US.
        schema:
          type: string
          pattern: ^[a-z]{2,3}_[A-Z]{2}$
        example: example
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Successful response
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  categories:
                    type: array
                    items:
                      $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category'
              examples:
                GetAllCategories200Example:
                  summary: Default getAllCategories 200 response
                  x-microcks-default: true
                  value:
                    categories:
                    - alias: rickys-tacos-san-francisco
                      title: Tacos
                      parent_aliases:
                      - example
                      country_whitelist:
                      - example
                      country_blacklist:
                      - example
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests'
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
  /v3/categories/{alias}:
    get:
      tags:
      - Categories
      operationId: getCategory
      summary: Get Category Details
      description: Returns details for a single Yelp category by alias.
      parameters:
      - name: alias
        in: path
        required: true
        description: The category alias, e.g. "restaurants".
        schema:
          type: string
        example: rickys-tacos-san-francisco
      - name: locale
        in: query
        description: Locale in the form {language}_{country}, e.g. en_US.
        schema:
          type: string
          pattern: ^[a-z]{2,3}_[A-Z]{2}$
        example: example
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Successful response
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  category:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category'
              examples:
                GetCategory200Example:
                  summary: Default getCategory 200 response
                  x-microcks-default: true
                  value:
                    category:
                      alias: rickys-tacos-san-francisco
                      title: Tacos
                      parent_aliases:
                      - example
                      country_whitelist:
                      - example
                      country_blacklist:
                      - example
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests'
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
components:
  schemas:
    Category:
      type: object
      properties:
        alias:
          type: string
          description: Unique category identifier.
          example: rickys-tacos-san-francisco
        title:
          type: string
          description: Localized category title.
          example: Tacos
        parent_aliases:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Aliases of parent categories.
        country_whitelist:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Countries where this category is available.
        country_blacklist:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Countries where this category is restricted.
    Error:
      type: object
      properties:
        error:
          type: object
          properties:
            code:
              type: string
              description: Machine-readable error code
              e.g. VALIDATION_ERROR.: null
            description:
              type: string
              description: Human-readable error description.
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: The API key is missing or invalid.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    TooManyRequests:
      description: Rate limit exceeded.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    NotFound:
      description: The requested resource was not found.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
  securitySchemes:
    bearerAuth:
      type: http
      scheme: bearer
      description: Yelp Fusion API key passed as a bearer token in the Authorization header.
x-generated-from: https://docs.developer.yelp.com/reference
x-generated-by: api-evangelist-pipeline-2026-06