Semantic Scholar website screenshot

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered academic search engine developed by the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) that indexes over 214 million scholarly papers with 2.49 billion citations and 79 million authors. The platform provides a public REST API organized into three services: Academic Graph (papers, authors, citations, venues, and SPECTER2 embeddings), Recommendations (paper similarity and interest-based suggestions), and Datasets (bulk downloadable corpus snapshots updated monthly). API access is available without authentication at a shared rate limit, or with a free API key obtained via request for a dedicated 1 RPS allowance. Semantic Scholar supports AI agent integrations through multiple community-built MCP servers that expose its academic graph to LLM-based toolchains.

Semantic Scholar publishes 6 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Author Data API, Incremental Updates API, Paper Data API, and 3 more. Tagged areas include Academic, Research, Papers, Citations, and Authors.

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

Semantic Scholar’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, pricing, tutorials, and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
51.6/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 32/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
6 APIs
AcademicResearchPapersCitationsAuthorsScientific LiteratureAIRecommendations

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 51.6/100 · developing
Contract Quality 14.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20
Commercial Clarity 14.2 / 20
Operational Transparency 6.8 / 13
Governance 7.0 / 12
Discoverability 7.4 / 10
Agent readiness — 32/100 · 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 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 7 / 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/semantic-scholar: 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 6

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

Semantic Scholar Author Data API

The Author Data API from Semantic Scholar — 4 operation(s) for author data.

Semantic Scholar Incremental Updates API

The Incremental Updates API from Semantic Scholar — 1 operation(s) for incremental updates.

Semantic Scholar Paper Data API

The Paper Data API from Semantic Scholar — 9 operation(s) for paper data.

Semantic Scholar Paper Recommendations API

The Paper Recommendations API from Semantic Scholar — 2 operation(s) for paper recommendations.

Semantic Scholar Release Data API

The Release Data API from Semantic Scholar — 3 operation(s) for release data.

Semantic Scholar Snippet Text API

The Snippet Text API from Semantic Scholar — 1 operation(s) for snippet text.

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Semantic Scholar Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Semantic Scholar Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Semantic Scholar Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

Semantic Scholar Context

0 classes · 40 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Semantic Scholar API Rules

6 rules · 4 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 4

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

AuthorWithPapers

10 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Citation

5 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Release Metadata

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

FullPaper

26 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 3

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Semantic Scholar Datasets Releases Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Semantic Scholar Paper Search Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Semantic Scholar Recommendations Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

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

Semantic Scholar Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DMARC

SECURITY

Semantic Scholar Vulnerability Disclosure

security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Semantic Scholar Agentic Access

20 operations · 3 acting

20 operations · 3 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 GitHubRepository
GitHubRepository

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure
VulnerabilityDisclosure
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Learn 1

Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance

Tutorial
Tutorial

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

StatusPage
StatusPage
 RateLimits
RateLimits

Commercial 5

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing
Pricing
 PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy
 TermsOfService
TermsOfService
 Plans
Plans
 FinOps
FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

X
X

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: semantic-scholar
name: Semantic Scholar
description: 'Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered academic search engine developed by the Allen Institute for AI (AI2)
  that indexes over 214 million scholarly papers with 2.49 billion citations and 79 million authors. The platform provides
  a public REST API organized into three services: Academic Graph (papers, authors, citations, venues, and SPECTER2 embeddings),
  Recommendations (paper similarity and interest-based suggestions), and Datasets (bulk downloadable corpus snapshots updated
  monthly). API access is available without authentication at a shared rate limit, or with a free API key obtained via request
  for a dedicated 1 RPS allowance. Semantic Scholar supports AI agent integrations through multiple community-built MCP servers
  that expose its academic graph to LLM-based toolchains.

  '
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/semantic-scholar.png
tags:
- Academic
- Research
- Papers
- Citations
- Authors
- Scientific Literature
- AI
- Recommendations
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/semantic-scholar/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-12'
modified: '2026-06-12'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-author-data-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Author Data API
  description: The Author Data API from Semantic Scholar — 4 operation(s) for author data.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Author Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-author-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-incremental-updates-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Incremental Updates API
  description: The Incremental Updates API from Semantic Scholar — 1 operation(s) for incremental updates.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Incremental Updates
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-incremental-updates-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-paper-data-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Paper Data API
  description: The Paper Data API from Semantic Scholar — 9 operation(s) for paper data.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Paper Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-paper-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-paper-recommendations-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Paper Recommendations API
  description: The Paper Recommendations API from Semantic Scholar — 2 operation(s) for paper recommendations.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Paper Recommendations
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-paper-recommendations-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-release-data-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Release Data API
  description: The Release Data API from Semantic Scholar — 3 operation(s) for release data.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Release Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-release-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
- aid: semantic-scholar:semantic-scholar-snippet-text-api
  name: Semantic Scholar Snippet Text API
  description: The Snippet Text API from Semantic Scholar — 1 operation(s) for snippet text.
  humanURL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
  baseURL: https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1
  tags:
  - Snippet Text
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/semantic-scholar-snippet-text-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/recommendations
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/semantic-scholar-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/semantic-scholar-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/semantic-scholar-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/allenai
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/allenai/s2-folks
- type: Blog
  url: https://medium.com/ai2-blog/semantic-scholar/home
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.api.semanticscholar.org/
- type: X
  url: https://twitter.com/SemanticScholar
- type: Pricing
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org/privacy-policy
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api/license
- type: Tutorial
  url: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api/tutorial
- type: Plans
  url: plans/semantic-scholar-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/semantic-scholar-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/semantic-scholar-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com