Wikipedia / MediaWiki

aid: wikipedia
name: Wikipedia / MediaWiki
description: 'Wikipedia is the free, multilingual online encyclopedia operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The
  platform exposes its content and structured data through several public APIs: the original MediaWiki Action API (action=query|edit|parse|upload),
  the MediaWiki Core REST API (page CRUD, search, transforms), the Wikimedia REST API (page summaries, mobile HTML, math,
  citation, reading lists, recommendations), the Wikidata Query Service SPARQL endpoint (structured knowledge graph queries),
  and the Wikimedia Enterprise APIs (commercial Snapshot, On-demand, Realtime). All free APIs are governed by the Wikimedia
  API usage guidelines: contactable User-Agent, serial requests, maxlag for bots.'
url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/120px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-05-28'
modified: '2026-05-29'
x-source: public-apis/public-apis
x-type: opensource
x-category: Open Data
x-tier: 1
x-tier-reason: Most prominent open-knowledge API in the world; non-profit Wikimedia Foundation
tags:
- Open Data
- Public APIs
- Open Knowledge
- Encyclopedia
- Knowledge Graph
- Open Source
- Non-Profit
apis:
- name: MediaWiki Action API
  description: The original programmatic interface to MediaWiki, exposed at /w/api.php on every MediaWiki installation. Operations
    are dispatched via the action= query parameter (query, parse, edit, upload, login, patrol, ...). JSON is the recommended
    format. Primary write surface for Wikimedia projects.
  humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
  baseURL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php
  tags:
  - Action API
  - Read
  - Write
  - Edit
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/wikipedia-mediawiki-action-api-openapi.yaml
  - type: Tutorials
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Tutorial
  - type: Etiquette
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Etiquette
- name: MediaWiki Core REST API
  description: Modern REST surface on every MediaWiki installation under /w/rest.php/v1/. Provides page CRUD, full-text search,
    file metadata, history, individual revision retrieval, revision comparison, and wikitext <-> HTML transforms. Mirrored
    at api.wikimedia.org/core/v1/wikipedia/{lang}/.
  humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:REST_API
  baseURL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/rest.php/v1
  tags:
  - REST API
  - Core
  - Pages
  - Search
  - Transforms
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:REST_API/Reference
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/wikipedia-mediawiki-core-rest-openapi.yaml
  - type: APIPortal
    url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/Core_REST_API
- name: Wikimedia REST API v1
  description: Caching-optimized REST API for high-volume, anonymous read traffic. Provides page summaries, mobile-tailored
    HTML, media lists, citation extraction, math rendering, content transforms, page recommendations, and reading lists. Limit
    clients to no more than 200 requests/s and provide a contactable User-Agent.
  humanURL: https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/
  baseURL: https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1
  tags:
  - REST API
  - Cached
  - Summaries
  - Mobile
  - Citation
  - Math
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/wikipedia-rest-v1-openapi.yaml
  - type: Specification
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/?spec
- name: Wikidata Query Service (SPARQL)
  description: SPARQL 1.1 endpoint for Wikidata - the structured knowledge graph behind Wikipedia infoboxes, Commons captions,
    and 100M+ items. Single endpoint /sparql accepts SELECT, ASK, CONSTRUCT, DESCRIBE queries. 60s query timeout, 5 concurrent
    queries per IP. Has a 'main' / 'scholarly' graph split available at separate hostnames for heavy workloads.
  humanURL: https://query.wikidata.org
  baseURL: https://query.wikidata.org
  tags:
  - SPARQL
  - Knowledge Graph
  - Linked Data
  - Wikidata
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/wikipedia-wikidata-sparql-openapi.yaml
  - type: QueryHelp
    url: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/Wikidata_Query_Help
  - type: Editor
    url: https://query.wikidata.org
- name: Wikimedia Enterprise API
  description: Commercial, SLA-backed Wikimedia data feed run by Wikimedia LLC (the Foundation's subsidiary). Provides Snapshot
    (bulk twice-monthly or daily), On-demand (per-article structured contents), and Realtime (streaming updates) APIs. Free
    developer tier includes 5,000 on-demand requests/month and 15 snapshot/month. Paid plans add unlimited usage and realtime
    streams.
  humanURL: https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/
  baseURL: https://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com
  tags:
  - Enterprise
  - Commercial
  - Snapshot
  - On-Demand
  - Realtime
  - Structured Contents
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/wikipedia-wikimedia-enterprise-openapi.yaml
  - type: DataDictionary
    url: https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/data-dictionary/
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/pricing/
  - type: SDKs
    title: Python SDK
    url: https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise/wme-sdk-python
  - type: SDKs
    title: Go SDK
    url: https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise/wme-sdk-go
  - type: Postman
    url: https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise/postman
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.wikipedia.org
- type: APIPortal
  url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- type: APICatalog
  url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/API_catalog
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
- type: Foundation
  url: https://wikimediafoundation.org/
- type: Governance
  url: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation
- type: License
  url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
  title: CC BY-SA 4.0 (article content)
- type: License
  url: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  title: CC0 1.0 (Wikidata)
- type: Policy
  url: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Wikimedia_Foundation_API_Usage_Guidelines
  title: API Usage Guidelines
- type: PublicAPIsListing
  url: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/wikimedia
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise
  title: Wikimedia Enterprise GitHub Org
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/wmde
  title: Wikimedia Deutschland (Wikidata) GitHub Org
- type: SourceCode
  url: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/
  title: Wikimedia Gerrit (canonical source)
- type: Status
  url: https://www.wikimediastatus.net/
- type: BulkDownload
  url: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/
  title: Wikimedia Database Dumps
- type: Stream
  url: https://stream.wikimedia.org/v2/stream
  title: EventStreams (SSE)
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikipedia, Python, Rudra-ravi)
  url: https://github.com/Rudra-ravi/wikipedia-mcp
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikipedia, TypeScript, timjuenemann)
  url: https://github.com/timjuenemann/wikipedia-mcp
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikipedia, .NET, ajayindfw)
  url: https://github.com/ajayindfw/WikipediaMcpServer
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikipedia, Vercel HTTP, Ravishka17)
  url: https://github.com/Ravishka17/Wikipedia-MCP
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikipedia caching+batch, 1999AZZAR)
  url: https://github.com/1999AZZAR/wikipedia-mcp-server
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (MediaWiki multi-wiki, shiquda)
  url: https://github.com/shiquda/mediawiki-mcp-server
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (MediaWiki search+edit, olgasafonova)
  url: https://github.com/olgasafonova/mediawiki-mcp-server
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (MediaWiki authoring, mbruton)
  url: https://github.com/mbruton/mediawiki-mcp
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikidata, Wikimedia Deutschland)
  url: https://github.com/wmde/WikidataMCP
- type: Tools
  title: MCP Server (Wikidata SPARQL, cyanheads)
  url: https://github.com/cyanheads/wikidata-mcp-server
- type: Plans
  url: plans/wikipedia-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/wikipedia-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/wikipedia-finops.yml
- type: Rules
  url: rules/wikipedia-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/wikipedia-vocabulary.yaml
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/wikipedia-context.jsonld
features:
- name: 300+ Languages
  description: Wikipedia exists in over 300 languages; every language edition exposes the same API surfaces under {lang}.wikipedia.org.
- name: Page Summaries
  description: Short, plain-text extracts plus thumbnail and Wikidata QID via the /page/summary/{title} endpoint - widely
    used by mobile clients, voice assistants, and search engines.
- name: Wikitext To HTML Transforms
  description: Convert wikitext to rendered HTML (and back) on-demand via /transform/wikitext/to/html/{title} - the same engine
    that powers VisualEditor.
- name: SPARQL Over A Public Knowledge Graph
  description: Query 100M+ Wikidata items with full SPARQL 1.1 including federated SERVICE clauses, label resolution, and
    geo queries.
- name: Real-Time Edit Stream
  description: Server-Sent Events stream at stream.wikimedia.org/v2/stream emits every edit, log, and revision-create across
    all projects.
- name: Bulk Database Dumps
  description: Full periodic XML and SQL dumps of every Wikimedia project at dumps.wikimedia.org - the canonical bulk-research
    format.
- name: Cached Anonymous Reads At 200 RPS
  description: The REST API v1 is heavily Varnish-cached, allowing anonymous reads up to ~200 requests/s per client with a
    contactable User-Agent.
- name: OAuth 2.0 Write Access
  description: Modern write access (page edits, file uploads) is authenticated via OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens issued at meta.wikimedia.org.
useCases:
- name: AI Grounding And RAG
  description: Ground LLM responses in encyclopedic content via page summaries, full HTML, or Wikimedia Enterprise structured
    contents - the primary use case for the proliferating community MCP servers.
- name: Voice Assistants And Smart Speakers
  description: Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant resolve open-domain questions through Wikipedia page summaries and Wikidata.
- name: Encyclopedia Mirrors And Offline Reading
  description: Kiwix and the Wikipedia Apps consume the REST API plus periodic dumps to ship offline-readable copies to schools
    and constrained-connectivity regions.
- name: Knowledge Graph Research
  description: Researchers query the Wikidata SPARQL endpoint to study entity relationships, citation networks, and cross-language
    alignment.
- name: Bot Workflows (Anti-Vandalism, Citation, Categorization)
  description: Tens of thousands of community bots use the Action API to revert vandalism, fix references, and maintain categories.
- name: News Aggregation
  description: Realtime EventStream of edits feeds breaking-news detection - the In-The-News template on Wikipedia main page
    is itself a data product.
- name: Linked Data Publishing
  description: Wikidata is the open-license source-of-truth for identifiers (ISBN, ORCID, GeoNames, MusicBrainz) used across
    linked-data publishers.
integrations:
- name: Wikidata
  description: Structured-data sister project; every Wikipedia page links to a Wikidata QID consumable via the SPARQL endpoint.
- name: Wikimedia Commons
  description: Shared media repository accessed via the same Action API at commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php.
- name: schema.org
  description: Page summaries align with schema.org/Article; Wikidata properties map to schema.org types.
- name: DBpedia
  description: Community knowledge graph built by extracting structured data from Wikipedia infoboxes.
- name: Google Knowledge Graph
  description: Major downstream consumer of Wikipedia + Wikidata content for search result panels.
- name: ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini
  description: All major LLMs were pre-trained on Wikipedia and retrieve via REST API or community MCPs at inference time.
- name: VisualEditor / Parsoid
  description: WYSIWYG editor and the parser that powers the Core REST transforms.
solutions:
- name: Open-Knowledge Foundation
  description: A non-profit, donor-funded resource serving 1.5B+ unique devices/month while keeping every byte free to redistribute
    under CC BY-SA / CC0.
- name: Commercial High-Volume Tier
  description: Wikimedia Enterprise (Wikimedia LLC) offers SLA-backed Snapshot, On-demand, and Realtime APIs - the same content
    packaged for AI labs, search engines, and content platforms that need predictable throughput and update cadence.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com