Ensembl

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
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  license_evidence:
    not_product:
    - ensembl/ensembl-rest
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: low
  source:
  - pricing
  - repository-not-product
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  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://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/ensembl.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
position: Producing
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: '0.23'
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: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/ensembl-rest/issues
- type: CodeOfConduct
  url: https://github.com/Ensembl/.github/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- 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