The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) is an integrated database resource for understanding high-level functions and utilities of biological systems from molecular-level information derived from genome sequencing and other high-throughput experiments. The KEGG REST API at rest.kegg.jp provides programmatic access to KEGG databases covering biological pathways, metabolic networks, molecular interactions, drug targets, disease associations, chemical compounds, genomic sequences, and functional orthologs across thousands of organisms. The API exposes seven core operations — info, list, find, get, conv, link, and ddi — enabling identifier conversion, cross-database linking, keyword and structure searches, and full entry retrieval in text, KGML, and JSON formats. Academic use is free via the REST API; FTP and commercial access require subscriptions managed through NPO Bioinformatics Japan and Pathway Solutions.
The KEGG REST API provides unified programmatic access to all KEGG databases through seven operations: INFO (database statistics and release notes), LIST (entry identifiers and ...
name: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)
description: 'The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) is an integrated database resource for understanding high-level
functions and utilities of biological systems from molecular-level information derived from genome sequencing and other
high-throughput experiments. The KEGG REST API at rest.kegg.jp provides programmatic access to KEGG databases covering biological
pathways, metabolic networks, molecular interactions, drug targets, disease associations, chemical compounds, genomic sequences,
and functional orthologs across thousands of organisms. The API exposes seven core operations — info, list, find, get, conv,
link, and ddi — enabling identifier conversion, cross-database linking, keyword and structure searches, and full entry retrieval
in text, KGML, and JSON formats. Academic use is free via the REST API; FTP and commercial access require subscriptions
managed through NPO Bioinformatics Japan and Pathway Solutions.
'
url: https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/rest/
image: https://www.kegg.jp/favicon.ico
tags:
- Bioinformatics
- Genomics
- Life Sciences
- Pathways
- Metabolomics
- Drug Targets
- Disease
- Chemical Compounds
- Enzymes
- Orthology
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- name: KEGG REST API
description: 'The KEGG REST API provides unified programmatic access to all KEGG databases through seven operations: INFO
(database statistics and release notes), LIST (entry identifiers and names), FIND (keyword and molecular weight/formula
search), GET (full entry retrieval in flat-file, KGML, JSON, image, or sequence formats), CONV (identifier conversion
between KEGG and external databases such as NCBI, UniProt, PubChem, and ChEBI), LINK (cross-reference lookup between KEGG
databases), and DDI (adverse drug-drug interaction queries). Databases covered include PATHWAY, BRITE, MODULE, KO, GENES,
GENOME, COMPOUND, GLYCAN, REACTION, ENZYME, DISEASE, DRUG, NETWORK, VARIANT, and DGROUP. The API is restricted to academic
users; commercial use requires a license from Pathway Solutions. Rate limit is 3 requests per second per client.
'
image: https://www.kegg.jp/favicon.ico
humanURL: https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/rest/
baseURL: https://rest.kegg.jp
tags:
- Pathways
- Metabolic Networks
- Genomics
- Drug Targets
- Disease
- Chemical Compounds
- Enzymes
- Identifier Conversion
- Orthology
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/rest/keggapi.html
- type: TermsOfService
url: https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/legal.html
- type: RateLimits
url: https://api-evangelist.github.io/kegg/rate-limits/kegg-rest-api.yml
- type: Plans
url: https://api-evangelist.github.io/kegg/plans/kegg-rest-api.yml
- type: FinOps
url: https://api-evangelist.github.io/kegg/finops/overview.yml
contact:
- FN: KEGG Support
url: https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/feedback.html
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com
