Ensembl website screenshot

Ensembl

Ensembl is a genome annotation database and browser maintained by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. It provides comprehensive genome data for vertebrates and other eukaryotic organisms, covering gene annotation, variant data, regulatory features, comparative genomics, and evolutionary analysis across hundreds of species. The Ensembl REST API offers language-agnostic HTTP access to this genome data without requiring local database installations or Perl API dependencies.

Ensembl publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Genomics, Bioinformatics, Genome Annotation, Variant Annotation, and Comparative Genomics.

Ensembl’s developer surface includes documentation, tutorials, and 11 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
21.3/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFree
1 APIs
GenomicsBioinformaticsGenome AnnotationVariant AnnotationComparative GenomicsLife SciencesREST API

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 21.3/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 0.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 1.7 / 20
Commercial Clarity 10.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 3.4 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.9 / 10
Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 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/ensembl: 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 1

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

Ensembl REST API

The Ensembl REST API (v15.12) provides language-agnostic HTTP access to genome annotation data across hundreds of vertebrate and eukaryotic species. It exposes 19 endpoint categ...

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Ensembl Plans Pricing

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Ensembl Rate Limits

2 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Ensembl Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 1

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

Ensembl Domain Security

TLSv1.3

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 GitHubRepository
GitHubRepository

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Learn 1

Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance

Tutorial
Tutorial

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits
RateLimits
 RateLimits
RateLimits

Commercial 5

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

License
License
 TermsOfService
TermsOfService
 PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy
 Plans
Plans
 FinOps
FinOps

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website
Website

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: ensembl
name: Ensembl
description: Ensembl is a genome annotation database and browser maintained by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)
  and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. It provides comprehensive genome data for vertebrates and other eukaryotic organisms,
  covering gene annotation, variant data, regulatory features, comparative genomics, and evolutionary analysis across hundreds
  of species. The Ensembl REST API offers language-agnostic HTTP access to this genome data without requiring local database
  installations or Perl API dependencies.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/ensembl.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
position: Producer
tags:
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Genome Annotation
- Variant Annotation
- Comparative Genomics
- Life Sciences
- REST API
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ensembl/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: ensembl:rest-api
  name: Ensembl REST API
  description: The Ensembl REST API (v15.12) provides language-agnostic HTTP access to genome annotation data across hundreds
    of vertebrate and eukaryotic species. It exposes 19 endpoint categories covering genome sequences, gene and transcript
    lookups, variant effect prediction (VEP), comparative genomics (gene trees, homology, alignments), coordinate mapping
    between assemblies, regulatory features, linkage disequilibrium, ontology and taxonomy queries, phenotype annotations,
    and GA4GH-compliant genomic data access. Both GET and POST methods are available; POST endpoints support batch operations
    for multiple identifiers. No authentication is required for public use.
  humanURL: https://rest.ensembl.org
  baseURL: https://rest.ensembl.org
  tags:
  - Genomics
  - Gene Annotation
  - Variant Effect Prediction
  - Comparative Genomics
  - Sequence Retrieval
  - VEP
  - GA4GH
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://rest.ensembl.org/documentation
  - type: Website
    url: https://rest.ensembl.org
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest/wiki/Change-Log
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest/wiki/Rate-Limits
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/ensembl-rest-api.json
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/ensembl-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.ensembl.org
- type: Documentation
  url: https://rest.ensembl.org/documentation
- type: RateLimits
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest/wiki/Rate-Limits
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest
- type: Tutorial
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/rest-api-jupyter-course
- type: License
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest/blob/main/LICENSE
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.ensembl.org/info/about/legal/index.html
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/data-protection/ensembl/privacy-notice
- type: Plans
  url: plans/ensembl-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/ensembl-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/ensembl-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com