OpenAlex technical documentation
  • Overview
  • Quickstart tutorial
  • API Entities
    • Entities overview
    • 📄Works
      • Work object
        • Authorship object
        • Location object
      • Get a single work
      • Get lists of works
      • Filter works
      • Search works
      • Group works
      • Get N-grams
    • 👩Authors
      • Author object
      • Get a single author
      • Get lists of authors
      • Filter authors
      • Search authors
      • Group authors
      • Limitations
      • Author disambiguation
    • 📚Sources
      • Source object
      • Get a single source
      • Get lists of sources
      • Filter sources
      • Search sources
      • Group sources
    • 🏫Institutions
      • Institution object
      • Get a single institution
      • Get lists of institutions
      • Filter institutions
      • Search institutions
      • Group institutions
    • 💡Topics
      • Topic object
      • Get a single topic
      • Get lists of topics
      • Filter topics
      • Search topics
      • Group topics
    • 🗝️Keywords
    • 🏢Publishers
      • Publisher object
      • Get a single publisher
      • Get lists of publishers
      • Filter publishers
      • Search publishers
      • Group publishers
    • 💰Funders
      • Funder object
      • Get a single funder
      • Get lists of funders
      • Filter funders
      • Search funders
      • Group funders
    • 🌎Geo
      • Continents
      • Regions
    • Concepts
      • Concept object
      • Get a single concept
      • Get lists of concepts
      • Filter concepts
      • Search concepts
      • Group concepts
    • Aboutness endpoint (/text)
  • How to use the API
    • API Overview
    • Get single entities
      • Random result
      • Select fields
    • Get lists of entities
      • Paging
      • Filter entity lists
      • Search entities
      • Sort entity lists
      • Select fields
      • Sample entity lists
      • Autocomplete entities
    • Get groups of entities
    • Rate limits and authentication
  • Download all data
    • OpenAlex snapshot
    • Snapshot data format
    • Download to your machine
    • Upload to your database
      • Load to a data warehouse
      • Load to a relational database
        • Postgres schema diagram
  • Additional Help
    • Tutorials
    • Report bugs
    • FAQ
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  • Client Libraries
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  1. How to use the API

API Overview

The API is the primary way to get OpenAlex data. It's free and requires no authentication. The daily limit for API calls is 100,000 requests per user per day. For best performance, add your email to all API requests, like mailto=example@domain.com.

Learn more about the API

  • Get single entities

  • Get lists of entities — Learn how to use paging, filtering, and sorting

  • Get groups of entities — Group and count entities in different ways

  • Rate limits and authentication — Learn about joining the polite pool

  • Tutorials — Hands-on examples with code

Client Libraries

There are several third-party libraries you can use to get data from OpenAlex:

  • openalexR (R)

  • OpenAlex2Pajek (R)

  • KtAlex (Kotlin)

  • PyAlex (Python)

  • diophila (Python)

  • OpenAlexAPI (Python)

If you're looking for a visual interface, you can also check out the free VOSviewer, which lets you make network visualizations based on OpenAlex data:

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Last updated 1 month ago