Stack Exchange

Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The network includes over 170 communities including Stack Overflow (programming), Server Fault (system administration), Super User (computing), and many others. The Stack Exchange API v2.3 provides programmatic access to questions, answers, comments, users, tags, badges, and search across all sites in the network.

Stack Exchange publishes 8 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Answers API, Badges API, Comments API, and 5 more. Tagged areas include Answers, Code, Community, Developer Tools, and Knowledge Base.

The Stack Exchange catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Stack Exchange’s developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, signup flow, and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

48.3/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 34/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

8 APIs

AnswersCodeCommunityDeveloper ToolsKnowledge BaseQ&AQuestionsStack Exchange

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 48.3/100 · developing

Contract Quality 16.5 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.6 / 20

Commercial Clarity 10.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 4.1 / 13

Governance 8.3 / 12

Discoverability 6.9 / 10

Agent readiness — 34/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 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/stack-exchange: 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 8

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

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Stack Exchange Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

JSON Schema 1

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

Examples 1

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

Stack Exchange Scopes

3 scopes · authorizationCode

3 scopes

SCOPES

Agentic Access 1

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

Stack Exchange Agentic Access

24 operations

24 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Signup

Signup

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

JSONSchema

JSONSchema

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

JSONLD

JSONLD

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

SpectralRules

SpectralRules

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHub Topics

GitHub Topics

Access & Security 4

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

Authentication

OAuthScopes

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Applications

Applications

Source (apis.yml)

aid: stack-exchange
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/stack-exchange.png
name: Stack Exchange
description: Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a
  specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The network includes over
  170 communities including Stack Overflow (programming), Server Fault (system administration), Super User (computing), and
  many others. The Stack Exchange API v2.3 provides programmatic access to questions, answers, comments, users, tags, badges,
  and search across all sites in the network.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/stack-exchange/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- Answers
- Code
- Community
- Developer Tools
- Knowledge Base
- Q&A
- Questions
- Stack Exchange
created: '2023-11-15'
modified: '2026-05-19'
apis:
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-answers-api
  name: Stack Exchange Answers API
  description: Operations for retrieving and managing answers to questions on Stack Exchange sites.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Answers
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-answers-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-badges-api
  name: Stack Exchange Badges API
  description: Operations for retrieving badge definitions and badge awards on Stack Exchange sites.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Badges
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-badges-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-comments-api
  name: Stack Exchange Comments API
  description: Operations for retrieving and managing comments on questions and answers.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Comments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-comments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-questions-api
  name: Stack Exchange Questions API
  description: Operations for retrieving, searching, and managing questions across the Stack Exchange network.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Questions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-questions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-search-api
  name: Stack Exchange Search API
  description: Operations for searching questions and content across the Stack Exchange network.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-sites-api
  name: Stack Exchange Sites API
  description: Operations for retrieving information about Stack Exchange network sites.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Sites
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-sites-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-tags-api
  name: Stack Exchange Tags API
  description: Operations for retrieving and managing tags used to categorize questions.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Tags
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-tags-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
- aid: stack-exchange:stack-exchange-users-api
  name: Stack Exchange Users API
  description: Operations for retrieving user profiles, activity, and reputation on Stack Exchange sites.
  humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/
  baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
  tags:
  - Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/stack-exchange-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  - type: Signup
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  - type: Applications
    url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/stack-exchange-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/stack-exchange-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/stack-exchange-authentication.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/stack-exchange-scopes.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stack-exchange
- url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/authentication
  type: Authentication
- url: https://stackoverflow.blog/
  type: Blog
- url: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
  type: TermsOfService
- url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle
  type: RateLimits
- url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register
  type: Signup
- url: http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth
  type: Applications
- url: https://github.com/topics/stackexchange-api
  type: GitHub Topics
- url: json-ld/stack-exchange-context.jsonld
  type: JSONLD
- url: json-schema/stack-exchange-question-schema.json
  type: JSONSchema
- url: vocabulary/stack-exchange-vocabulary.yml
  type: Vocabulary
- url: rules/stack-exchange-rules.yml
  type: SpectralRules