Google Books

The Google Books API allows you to perform full-text searches and retrieve book information, viewability, and eBook availability. You can search for volumes, access detailed metadata including authors, publishers, and ISBNs, manage personal bookshelves, and determine content accessibility.

Google Books publishes 3 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network: Users API, Volumes API, and My Library API. Tagged areas include Books, Ebooks, Google, Library, and Publishing.

The Google Books catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Google Books’ developer surface includes authentication, getting-started guide, pricing, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

34.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 25/100 agent aware saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Books Ebooks Google Library Publishing Reading Search

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 34.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.6 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 3.6 / 15

Access Clarity 2.8 / 15

Operational Transparency 1.8 / 10

Contract Governance 0.9 / 9

Discoverability 5.0 / 8

Regulatory Posture 4.9 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 25/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 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

Delegated User Identity 6 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Education & Research 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 applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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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
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
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

8 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 18.4 — up to +16.3 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 23.8 — up to +15.2 composite points
Contract Quality scores 56.3 — up to +10.9 composite points

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/google-books/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/google-books 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.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Book Publishing (ONIX / ISBN / EPUB supply chain)	covered	9.6 (thin)	-	-
Raycast Store Extensions (first-party publishers + community-wrapped products)	covered	9.6 (thin)	-	-

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 2

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.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

OAuth 2.0

measured — observed by APIs.io (declared)

APIs 3

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

Google Books Users API

The Users API from Google Books — 3 operation(s) for users.

Google Books Volumes API

The Volumes API from Google Books — 2 operation(s) for volumes.

Google Books My Library API

The My Library API from Google Books — 3 operation(s) for my library.

Open Collections 4

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

Google Books API

OPEN COLLECTION

Google Books Mylibrary API

OPEN COLLECTION

Google Books Mylibrary Users API

OPEN COLLECTION

Google Books Mylibrary Volumes API

OPEN COLLECTION

Google Books API pricing

Not yet checked against Google Books's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-05-04; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Free freemium	Free
Professional paid	Free
Enterprise enterprise	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Free Tier Default: 10 requests per minute
Free Tier Monthly Quota: 1000 requests per month
Professional Tier Default: 100 requests per minute

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against Google Books's documentation. All 5 limits →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Google Books Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Google Books Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

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

Google Books

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Google Books Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Books Context

21 classes · 1 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Google Books — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

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

Google Books Volume

7 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Security Posture 3

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

Google Books Authentication

apiKey/oauth2 · 2 schemes

SECURITY

Google Books Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Google Books Vulnerability Disclosure

security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

Google Books Scopes

1 scope · authorizationCode

1 scopes

SCOPES

Agentic Access 1

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

Google Books Agentic Access

8 operations · 2 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 1

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

JSONLD

JSONLD

Access & Security 4

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

OAuthScopes

OAuthScopes

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Pricing

Pricing

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: google-books
name: Google Books
description: The Google Books API allows you to perform full-text searches and retrieve book information, viewability, and
  eBook availability. You can search for volumes, access detailed metadata including authors, publishers, and ISBNs, manage
  personal bookshelves, and determine content accessibility.
type: Index
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: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/google-books.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/google-books/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-13'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
tags:
- Books
- Ebooks
- Google
- Library
- Publishing
- Reading
- Search
tags_raw:
- Books
- eBooks
- Google
- Library
- Publishing
- Reading
- Search
apis:
- aid: google-books:google-books-users-api
  name: Google Books Users API
  description: The Users API from Google Books — 3 operation(s) for users.
  humanURL: https://developers.google.com/books
  baseURL: https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1
  tags:
  - User
  tags_raw:
  - Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/google-books-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/books.json
- aid: google-books:google-books-volumes-api
  name: Google Books Volumes API
  description: The Volumes API from Google Books — 2 operation(s) for volumes.
  humanURL: https://developers.google.com/books
  baseURL: https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1
  tags:
  - Volumes
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/google-books-volumes-api-openapi.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/books.json
- aid: google-books:google-books-my-library-api
  name: Google Books My Library API
  description: The My Library API from Google Books — 3 operation(s) for my library.
  humanURL: https://developers.google.com/books
  baseURL: https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1
  tags:
  - My Library
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/google-books-my-library-api-openapi.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/books.json
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/google-books-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/google-books-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/google-books-finops.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.google.com/
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/google-books-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/google-books-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/google-books-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/google-books-authentication.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/google-books-scopes.yml
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://developers.google.com/books/docs/v1/getting_started
- type: Pricing
  url: https://developers.google.com/books/docs/v1/using
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/books.jsonld
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
x-parent: google
x-relationship: product

Google Books API — frequently asked questions

Does Google Books have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 3 APIs from Google Books, including Google Books Users API, Google Books Volumes API and Google Books My Library API.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Google Books API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 3 OpenAPI specifications for Google Books, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Google Books API?

Google Books documents its authentication (apiKey/oauth2 · 2 schemes). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Google Books Authentication.

How much does the Google Books API cost?

APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for Google Books, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Google Books API ready for AI agents?

Google Books has a Kin Score of 34.1 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 25.4 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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