Apache ORC

Apache ORC is a self-describing, type-aware columnar file format designed for Hadoop workloads. It provides high compression ratios and fast read performance for large-scale data processing with support for complex data types.

Apache ORC publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: Conversion API, Files API, and Operations API. Tagged areas include Big Data, Columnar Storage, Compression, File Format, and Hadoop.

The Apache ORC catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Apache ORC’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, and 7 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

40.5/100 thin ▼ -9.0 Agent 25/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessFreemium

3 APIs 6 Features 4 Use Cases

Big DataColumnar StorageCompressionFile FormatHadoopApacheOpen Source

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 40.5/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.9 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20

Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20

Operational Transparency 4.8 / 13

Governance 8.3 / 12

Discoverability 6.5 / 10

Agent readiness — 25/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/apache-orc: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Apache Orc Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Apache Orc Finops

FINOPS

Features 6

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

Columnar Storage

Stores data by column for efficient compression and query performance

Predicate Pushdown

Skip reading data that does not match query predicates

Column Projection

Read only the columns needed for a query

ACID Support

Full ACID transactional support when used with Apache Hive

Schema Evolution

Add, rename, and remove columns while preserving backward compatibility

Compression

Supports ZLIB, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, and ZSTD compression codecs

JSON Schema 12

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Scroll for all 12

JSON Structure 12

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Scroll for all 12

Examples 12

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Scroll for all 12

Use Cases 4

What developers build with this provider.

Hive Data Warehousing

Store Hive tables in highly efficient ORC format

Spark Analytics

Process large ORC datasets with Apache Spark SQL

Presto/Trino Queries

Fast analytical queries over ORC files with Presto or Trino

Data Lake Storage

Efficient columnar storage for data lake architectures

Integrations 5

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

Apache Hive

Native ORC support as default Hive storage format

Apache Spark

ORC data source support in Spark SQL

Presto/Trino

Fast ORC reading with native vectorized reader

Apache Flink

ORC file format support for batch and streaming

Apache Arrow

ORC to Arrow conversion for in-memory analytics

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

SpectralRules

SpectralRules

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

JSONLD

JSONLD

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: apache-orc
name: Apache ORC
description: Apache ORC is a self-describing, type-aware columnar file format designed for Hadoop workloads. It provides high
  compression ratios and fast read performance for large-scale data processing with support for complex data types.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/apache-orc.png
tags:
- Big Data
- Columnar Storage
- Compression
- File Format
- Hadoop
- Apache
- Open Source
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-05-19'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/apache-orc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: apache-orc:apache-orc-conversion-api
  name: Apache ORC Conversion API
  description: The Conversion API from Apache ORC — 1 operation(s) for conversion.
  humanURL: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
  tags:
  - Conversion
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-orc-conversion-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
- aid: apache-orc:apache-orc-files-api
  name: Apache ORC Files API
  description: The Files API from Apache ORC — 4 operation(s) for files.
  humanURL: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
  tags:
  - Files
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-orc-files-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
- aid: apache-orc:apache-orc-operations-api
  name: Apache ORC Operations API
  description: The Operations API from Apache ORC — 1 operation(s) for operations.
  humanURL: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
  tags:
  - Operations
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-orc-operations-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/apache-orc-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/apache-orc-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/apache-orc-domain-security.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/apache/orc
- type: Documentation
  url: https://orc.apache.org/
- type: SpectralRules
  url: rules/apache-orc-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/apache-orc-vocabulary.yaml
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/apache-orc-context.jsonld
- type: Blog
  url: https://orc.apache.org/news/
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Columnar Storage
    description: Stores data by column for efficient compression and query performance
  - name: Predicate Pushdown
    description: Skip reading data that does not match query predicates
  - name: Column Projection
    description: Read only the columns needed for a query
  - name: ACID Support
    description: Full ACID transactional support when used with Apache Hive
  - name: Schema Evolution
    description: Add, rename, and remove columns while preserving backward compatibility
  - name: Compression
    description: Supports ZLIB, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, and ZSTD compression codecs
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Hive Data Warehousing
    description: Store Hive tables in highly efficient ORC format
  - name: Spark Analytics
    description: Process large ORC datasets with Apache Spark SQL
  - name: Presto/Trino Queries
    description: Fast analytical queries over ORC files with Presto or Trino
  - name: Data Lake Storage
    description: Efficient columnar storage for data lake architectures
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Apache Hive
    description: Native ORC support as default Hive storage format
  - name: Apache Spark
    description: ORC data source support in Spark SQL
  - name: Presto/Trino
    description: Fast ORC reading with native vectorized reader
  - name: Apache Flink
    description: ORC file format support for batch and streaming
  - name: Apache Arrow
    description: ORC to Arrow conversion for in-memory analytics

Apache ORC

APIs 3

Pricing Plans 1

Rate Limits 1

FinOps 1

Features 6

Columnar Storage

Predicate Pushdown

Column Projection

ACID Support

Schema Evolution

Compression

Semantic Vocabularies 1

Spectral Rules 2

JSON Schema 12

JSON Structure 12

Examples 12

Security Posture 2

Agentic Access 1

Use Cases 4

Hive Data Warehousing

Spark Analytics

Presto/Trino Queries

Data Lake Storage

Integrations 5

Apache Hive

Apache Spark

Presto/Trino

Apache Flink

Apache Arrow

Documentation 1

Agent Surfaces 1

Design & Contract 3

Build 1

Access & Security 2

Company 1

Source (apis.yml)