National Library of Medicine website screenshot

National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the world's largest biomedical library. It collects, organizes, and provides access to medical literature and information to support research and decision-making in healthcare, including PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov.

National Library of Medicine publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Discovery API, History API, Retrieve API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Federal Government, Health, Library, and Medicine.

National Library of Medicine’s developer surface includes developer portal and 5 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
29.7/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 22/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFreemium
4 APIs
Federal GovernmentHealthLibraryMedicine

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 29.7/100 · thin
Contract Quality 12.7 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 1.7 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.8 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.5 / 10
Agent readiness — 22/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 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/national-library-of-medicine: 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 4

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

National Library of Medicine Discovery API

Discover database metadata, related records, and citations.

National Library of Medicine History API

Manage server-side history sets via the Entrez History server.

National Library of Medicine Retrieve API

Retrieve full or summary records from Entrez databases.

National Library of Medicine Search API

Search Entrez databases for matching records.

Open Collections 1

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

NCBI E-utilities API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

National Library Of Medicine Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

National Library Of Medicine Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

National Library Of Medicine Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 1

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

National Library Of Medicine Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

National Library Of Medicine Agentic Access

9 operations · 1 acting

9 operations · 1 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Portal
Portal

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Website
Website

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: national-library-of-medicine
name: National Library of Medicine
description: The National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the world's largest biomedical
  library. It collects, organizes, and provides access to medical literature and information to support research and decision-making
  in healthcare, including PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/national-library-of-medicine.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2024-12-03'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
tags:
- Federal Government
- Health
- Library
- Medicine
apis:
- aid: national-library-of-medicine:national-library-of-medicine-discovery-api
  name: National Library of Medicine Discovery API
  description: Discover database metadata, related records, and citations.
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Discovery
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/national-library-of-medicine-discovery-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
- aid: national-library-of-medicine:national-library-of-medicine-history-api
  name: National Library of Medicine History API
  description: Manage server-side history sets via the Entrez History server.
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - History
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/national-library-of-medicine-history-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
- aid: national-library-of-medicine:national-library-of-medicine-retrieve-api
  name: National Library of Medicine Retrieve API
  description: Retrieve full or summary records from Entrez databases.
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Retrieve
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/national-library-of-medicine-retrieve-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
- aid: national-library-of-medicine:national-library-of-medicine-search-api
  name: National Library of Medicine Search API
  description: Search Entrez databases for matching records.
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/national-library-of-medicine-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/national-library-of-medicine-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/national-library-of-medicine-domain-security.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/NIH-NLM
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-library-of-medicine-nlm
- type: Website
  url: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com