ChEMBL website screenshot

ChEMBL

ChEMBL is a manually curated database of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties, maintained by the EMBL-EBI. It provides a REST API for accessing bioactive molecules, drug targets, bioactivity data, approved drugs, clinical trial compounds, and cheminformatics utilities to support drug discovery research.

ChEMBL publishes 13 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Activities API, Assays API, Drugs API, and 10 more. Tagged areas include Drug Discovery, Bioactivity, Molecules, Cheminformatics, and Life Sciences.

The ChEMBL catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

ChEMBL’s developer surface includes authentication, status page, and 8 more developer resources.

26.7/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 21/100 agent aware saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →
AccessFree
1 published contract
Drug DiscoveryBioactivityMoleculesCheminformaticsLife SciencesBioinformaticsPharmacologyEMBL-EBI

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Drug Discovery Management
BC-1500
ActivityAssayCompound RecordMoleculeTarget

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Health regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.
Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.
The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.
Show this score on your site. Kin Score badge preview for ChEMBL It updates itself when the score changes. Paste this where you link to your API docs:
<a href="https://apis.io/providers/chembl/"><img src="https://apis.io/badge/chembl/card.svg" alt="ChEMBL on APIs.io — Kin Score by API Evangelist"></a>
Other styles, a README pill and a shields.io endpoint are on the badge page.
Raise your score.
Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):
  • MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
  • Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
  • A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
  • Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
  • Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
  • Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented)
6 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.
Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):
Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/chembl/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/chembl to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

MarketPositionDepthRegistered MCP serverDeclares compatibility
Life Sciences (Biotech and Pharma R&D) undeclared - - -

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 13

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

ChEMBL Activities API

Chembl Activities Resource

ChEMBL Assays API

Chembl Assays Resource

ChEMBL Drugs API

Drug Resource

ChEMBL HPO API

HPO Resource

ChEMBL Intact API

Intact Resource

ChEMBL Molecules API

Chembl Molecules Resource

ChEMBL Proteins API

Protein Resource

ChEMBL PubChem Bioassay Sids API

Pubchem Bioassay Sids Resource

ChEMBL PubChem Biossays API

Pubchem Bioassay Resource

ChEMBL PubChem Compounds API

Pubchem Compound Resource

ChEMBL PubChem Substances API

Pubchem Substance Resource

ChEMBL Targets API

Chembl Targets Resource

Scroll for all 13

Open Collections 16

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Scroll for all 16

ChEMBL API pricing

Not yet checked against ChEMBL's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

PlanPrice
Free Open Access free —

Plan details, limits and sources →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Plans

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

ChEMBL

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

ChEMBL — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 3

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

ChEMBL Activity

28 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ChEMBL Molecule

20 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ChEMBL Target

8 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 3

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Activity Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Molecule Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Similarity Search Example

4 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Chembl Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Chembl Agentic Access

30 operations

30 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Design & Contract 1

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Commercial 4

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Other 3

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
name: ChEMBL
description: ChEMBL is a manually curated database of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties, maintained by the EMBL-EBI.
  It provides a REST API for accessing bioactive molecules, drug targets, bioactivity data, approved drugs, clinical trial
  compounds, and cheminformatics utilities to support drug discovery research.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/static/chembl/img/chembl_logo.png
url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: chembl:chembl-activities-api
  name: ChEMBL Activities API
  description: Chembl Activities Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Activities
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-activities-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-assays-api
  name: ChEMBL Assays API
  description: Chembl Assays Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Assays
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-assays-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-drugs-api
  name: ChEMBL Drugs API
  description: Drug Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Drugs
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-drugs-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-efo-disease-terms-api
  name: ChEMBL EFO disease terms API
  description: EFO Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - EFO disease terms
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-efo-disease-terms-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-hpo-api
  name: ChEMBL HPO API
  description: HPO Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - HPO
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-hpo-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-intact-api
  name: ChEMBL Intact API
  description: Intact Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Intact
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-intact-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-molecules-api
  name: ChEMBL Molecules API
  description: Chembl Molecules Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Molecules
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-molecules-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-proteins-api
  name: ChEMBL Proteins API
  description: Protein Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Proteins
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-proteins-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-pubchem-bioassay-sids-api
  name: ChEMBL PubChem Bioassay Sids API
  description: Pubchem Bioassay Sids Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - PubChem Bioassay Sids
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-pubchem-bioassay-sids-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-pubchem-biossays-api
  name: ChEMBL PubChem Biossays API
  description: Pubchem Bioassay Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - PubChem Biossays
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-pubchem-biossays-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-pubchem-compounds-api
  name: ChEMBL PubChem Compounds API
  description: Pubchem Compound Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - PubChem Compounds
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-pubchem-compounds-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-pubchem-substances-api
  name: ChEMBL PubChem Substances API
  description: Pubchem Substance Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - PubChem Substances
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-pubchem-substances-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
- aid: chembl:chembl-targets-api
  name: ChEMBL Targets API
  description: Chembl Targets Resource
  humanURL: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  baseURL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/
  tags:
  - Targets
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/chembl-targets-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/chembl-data-web-services
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chembl.gitbook.io/chembl-interface-documentation/web-services/cheminformatic-utils-web-services
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/plans.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/finops.yml
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/chembl-capability-edges.yml
  name: ChEMBL Business Capability Map
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/chembl-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/chembl-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  value: None - public API, no key required
- type: Formats
  value: JSON, XML, YAML, SDF (compounds), SVG (images)
- type: Pagination
  value: Offset-based pagination with configurable limit (default 20 records per page)
- type: Filtering
  value: URL-friendly query language with operators including exact, contains, startswith, endswith, regex, gt/gte, lt/lte,
    range, in, isnull, and full-text search
- type: License
  url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
  value: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
- type: PythonClient
  url: https://github.com/chembl/chembl_webresource_client
  value: Official Python client available via pip install chembl_webresource_client
- type: Status
  url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/api/data/status/
maintainers:
- FN: ChEMBL Team
  email: chembl-help@ebi.ac.uk
  url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/
tags:
- Drug Discovery
- Bioactivity
- Molecules
- Cheminformatics
- Life Sciences
- Bioinformatics
- Pharmacology
- EMBL-EBI

ChEMBL API — frequently asked questions

Does ChEMBL have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 13 APIs from ChEMBL, including ChEMBL Activities API, ChEMBL Assays API and ChEMBL Drugs API, and 10 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the ChEMBL API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 13 OpenAPI specifications for ChEMBL, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the ChEMBL API?

ChEMBL uses bearer-token authentication.

How much does the ChEMBL API cost?

APIs.io lists 1 pricing plan for ChEMBL, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the ChEMBL API ready for AI agents?

ChEMBL has a Kin Score of 26.7 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 20.7 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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