United States National Library of Medicine website screenshot

United States National Library of Medicine

The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the world's largest biomedical library. It serves as a vital resource for researchers, healthcare professionals, and the general public by providing access to a vast collection of biomedical literature and resources. The NLM offers a wide range of services and resources including online databases, digital archives, and research tools that support medical research, education, and patient care. Key APIs include the NCBI E-Utilities (PubMed, Entrez), NCBI Datasets (genomes, genes), BLAST sequence alignment, and the ClinicalTrials.gov API.

United States National Library of Medicine publishes 10 APIs on the APIs.io network, including BLAST API, Fetch API, Gene API, and 7 more. Tagged areas include Federal-Government, Biomedical Research, Healthcare, Genomics, and Literature.

The United States National Library of Medicine catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

United States National Library of Medicine’s developer surface includes authentication, developer portal, and 7 more developer resources.

39.2/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 25/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0
AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try
4 APIs
Federal-GovernmentBiomedical ResearchHealthcareGenomicsLiterature

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Health 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 applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.
The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% 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/united-states-national-library-of-medicine: 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 →

APIs 10

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

United States National Library of Medicine BLAST API

BLAST sequence search submission and retrieval

United States National Library of Medicine Fetch API

Retrieve records from Entrez databases

United States National Library of Medicine Info API

Database information and statistics

United States National Library of Medicine Link API

Find linked records across databases

United States National Library of Medicine Studies API

Clinical trial study search and retrieval

Scroll for all 10

Open Collections 15

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

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI BLAST URL API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI Datasets REST API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI E-Utilities API

OPEN COLLECTION

ClinicalTrials.gov API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Fetch API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Gene API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Genome API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Info API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Link API

OPEN COLLECTION

NCBI URL BLAST Search API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 15

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

FinOps 1

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

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

United States National Library Of Medicine Context

4 classes · 19 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

United States National Library of Medicine API Rules

7 rules · 3 errors 4 warnings

SPECTRAL

United States National Library of Medicine API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 2

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

NCBI PubMed Article

12 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ClinicalTrials.gov Study

17 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Ncbi Pubmed Article Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 3

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Security Posture 2

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

United States National Library Of Medicine Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

United States National Library Of Medicine Agentic Access

17 operations · 1 acting

17 operations · 1 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
apis:
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-blast-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine BLAST API
  description: BLAST sequence search submission and retrieval
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - BLAST
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-blast-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-fetch-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Fetch API
  description: Retrieve records from Entrez databases
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Fetch
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-fetch-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-gene-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Gene API
  description: Gene records and sequence data
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Gene
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-gene-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-genome-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Genome API
  description: Genome assembly data and metadata
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Genome
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-genome-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-info-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Info API
  description: Database information and statistics
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Info
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-info-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-link-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Link API
  description: Find linked records across databases
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Link
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-link-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-metadata-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Metadata API
  description: API metadata and field definitions
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Metadata
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-metadata-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-search-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Search API
  description: Search Entrez databases
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-studies-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Studies API
  description: Clinical trial study search and retrieval
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Studies
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-studies-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
- aid: united-states-national-library-of-medicine:united-states-national-library-of-medicine-taxonomy-api
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Taxonomy API
  description: NCBI taxonomy information
  humanURL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  baseURL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  tags:
  - Taxonomy
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-taxonomy-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/united-states-national-library-of-medicine/refs/heads/main/rules/ncbi-e-utilities-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/
  - type: SwaggerUI
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/api/rest-api/
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/doc/blast-help/developerinfo.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
  - type: Portal
    url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api#introduction
name: United States National Library of Medicine
tags:
- Federal-Government
- Biomedical Research
- Healthcare
- Genomics
- Literature
tags_raw:
- Federal Government
- Biomedical Research
- Healthcare
- Genomics
- Literature
kind: contract
deliveryModel:
  model: unknown
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: false
  callable_host: true
  label: Delivery model not determined — needs a product licence on record
  confidence: low
  source:
  - openapi
  - repository-unlicensed
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-09-03'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/united-states-national-library-of-medicine.png
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-capability-edges.yml
  name: United States National Library of Medicine Business Capability Map
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets/issues
- type: Releases
  url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets/releases
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/ncbi/datasets/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/united-states-national-library-of-medicine-authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-library-of-medicine-nlm
- url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
  type: Portal
created: 2024/01/01
modified: '2026-05-19'
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
description: The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the world's largest biomedical library. It serves as
  a vital resource for researchers, healthcare professionals, and the general public by providing access to a vast collection
  of biomedical literature and resources. The NLM offers a wide range of services and resources including online databases,
  digital archives, and research tools that support medical research, education, and patient care. Key APIs include the NCBI
  E-Utilities (PubMed, Entrez), NCBI Datasets (genomes, genes), BLAST sequence alignment, and the ClinicalTrials.gov API.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.23'

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