Open Library offers a suite of APIs to help developers get up and running with its data. This includes RESTful APIs that make Open Library data available in JSON, YAML, and RDF/XML formats, plus a Search Inside full-text search service, cover image endpoints, and read-protocol library lookup APIs. Most resources also expose machine-readable representations by appending .json, .yml, or .rdf to any Open Library URL.
Open Library publishes 14 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Search API, Works API, Editions API, and 11 more. Tagged areas include Authors, Books, Catalog, Covers, and Libraries.
Open Library’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, and 8 more developer resources.
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the
Government & Public Sector 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 does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare
no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's
denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to
upsert.
The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them,
because the conditional facet above carries the other
15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped
maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal
weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.
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 github.com/api-evangelist/open-library: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts.
Submit an artifact on GitHub — free →Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →
Search Open Library's catalog of books, authors, lists, and subjects. Returns JSON results for full-text and faceted queries, with options for pagination, field selection, and l...
Legacy partner API that returns availability and read URLs for books matched by ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, or OLID identifiers across libraries and the Internet Archive.
aid: open-library
name: Open Library
description: Open Library offers a suite of APIs to help developers get up and running with its data. This includes RESTful
APIs that make Open Library data available in JSON, YAML, and RDF/XML formats, plus a Search Inside full-text search service,
cover image endpoints, and read-protocol library lookup APIs. Most resources also expose machine-readable representations
by appending .json, .yml, or .rdf to any Open Library URL.
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: unknown
trial: false
try_now: false
public: false
label: Freemium
confidence: medium
source:
- plans
generated: '2026-07-22'
method: derived
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/open-library.png
tags:
- Authors
- Books
- Catalog
- Covers
- Libraries
- Open Data
- Reading Lists
- Search
- Subjects
tags_raw:
- Authors
- Books
- Catalog
- Covers
- Libraries
- Open Data
- Reading Lists
- Search
- Subjects
created: '2025-02-06'
modified: '2026-04-28'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/open-library/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: open-library:open-library-search-api
name: Open Library Search API
description: Search Open Library's catalog of books, authors, lists, and subjects. Returns JSON results for full-text and
faceted queries, with options for pagination, field selection, and language filtering.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Books
- Catalog
- Search
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
- aid: open-library:open-library-search-inside-api
name: Open Library Search Inside API
description: Full-text search across the millions of digitized books in the Internet Archive's collection, returning matching
passages and book identifiers.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search_inside
tags:
- Books
- Full Text
- Search
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search_inside
- aid: open-library:open-library-works-api
name: Open Library Works API
description: Retrieve work-level records (the abstract concept of a book independent of edition) by Open Library Work ID.
Returns JSON, YAML, or RDF/XML.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/books
tags:
- Books
- Catalog
- Works
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/books
- aid: open-library:open-library-editions-api
name: Open Library Editions API
description: Retrieve edition-level records (specific printings, ISBNs, formats) by Open Library Edition ID, ISBN-10, ISBN-13,
OCLC, or LCCN.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/books
tags:
- Books
- Catalog
- Editions
- ISBN
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/books
- aid: open-library:open-library-authors-api
name: Open Library Authors API
description: Fetch author records and their works by Open Library Author ID. Supports JSON, YAML, and RDF/XML representations.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/authors
tags:
- Authors
- Catalog
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/authors
- aid: open-library:open-library-subjects-api
name: Open Library Subjects API
description: Retrieve books, works, and metadata grouped by subject (genre, topic, place, time, person) with paging and
faceting.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/subjects
tags:
- Catalog
- Subjects
- Taxonomy
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/subjects
- aid: open-library:open-library-covers-api
name: Open Library Covers API
description: Retrieve book and author cover images by Open Library ID, ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, or Goodreads ID, in small, medium,
and large sizes.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/covers
tags:
- Covers
- Image
- Media
tags_raw:
- Covers
- Images
- Media
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/covers
- aid: open-library:open-library-lists-api
name: Open Library Lists API
description: Read and manage user-curated reading lists. Authenticated patrons can create lists and add or remove works,
editions, and subjects.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/lists
tags:
- List
- Reading Lists
- User Data
tags_raw:
- Lists
- Reading Lists
- User Data
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/lists
- aid: open-library:open-library-mybooks-api
name: Open Library My Books API
description: 'Access a patron''s public reading log: Want to Read, Currently Reading, and Already Read shelves for a given
Open Library account.'
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/mybooks
tags:
- Reading Log
- User Data
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/mybooks
- aid: open-library:open-library-recent-changes-api
name: Open Library Recent Changes API
description: Stream recent edits across the Open Library catalog including works, editions, authors, lists, and subjects,
with filtering by kind and time range.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/recentchanges
tags:
- Activity
- Changes
- Feed
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/recentchanges
- aid: open-library:open-library-read-api
name: Open Library Read API
description: Legacy partner API that returns availability and read URLs for books matched by ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, or OLID identifiers
across libraries and the Internet Archive.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/read
tags:
- Availability
- Libraries
- Lookup
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/read
- aid: open-library:open-library-authors-api
name: Open Library Authors API
description: The Authors API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for authors.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Authors
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-authors-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-editions-api
name: Open Library Editions API
description: The Editions API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for editions.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Editions
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-editions-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-lists-api
name: Open Library Lists API
description: The Lists API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for lists.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- List
tags_raw:
- Lists
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-lists-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-recentchanges-json-api
name: Open Library Recentchanges.json API
description: The Recentchanges.json API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for recentchanges.json.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Recentchanges.json
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-recentchanges-json-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-search-api
name: Open Library Search API
description: The Search API from Open Library — 2 operation(s) for search.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Search
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-search-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-search-json-api
name: Open Library Search.json API
description: The Search.json API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for search.json.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Search.json
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-search-json-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-subjects-api
name: Open Library Subjects API
description: The Subjects API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for subjects.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Subjects
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-subjects-api-openapi.yml
- aid: open-library:open-library-works-api
name: Open Library Works API
description: The Works API from Open Library — 1 operation(s) for works.
humanURL: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/search
tags:
- Works
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/open-library-works-api-openapi.yml
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
url: capabilities/open-library-capability-edges.yml
name: Open Library Business Capability Map
- type: AgenticAccess
url: agentic-access/open-library-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
url: security/open-library-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
url: https://openlibrary.org/
- type: Documentation
url: https://openlibrary.org/developers/api
- type: Bulk Data Dumps
url: https://openlibrary.org/developers/dumps
- type: GitHubOrganization
url: https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary
- type: Issues
url: https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary/issues
- type: Blog
url: https://blog.openlibrary.org/
- type: TermsOfService
url: https://archive.org/about/terms.php
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com
Discovery needs no key. Ratings and market analysis are Pro.
Get an API key
Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we
store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another
provider. See our Privacy Policy and
Terms.
Kin Score
How this is scored →