# Open Library Book Search

> Open Library Book Search is a paid API for AI agents from books.withzero.ai, paid per call via MPP, $0.001/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Searches the Open Library catalog by title, author, or ISBN and returns book metadata including ratings and cover images

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://books.withzero.ai/run
- Price: $0.001/call
- Payment: MPP
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Provider: books.withzero.ai
- Website: https://books.withzero.ai
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/books-withzero-ai-open-library-book-search-da650393
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_YDRW1tKGMEx3t8VYExNXD

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability books-withzero-ai-open-library-book-search-da650393 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Open Library for books by George Orwell — use author search mode and return up to 10 results with ratings and cover images.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need free, no-auth book metadata including ratings and cover images from the Open Library catalog. Ideal for bibliographic lookups, book discovery, or enriching book data without needing a paid API key. Prefer over alternatives when Open Library coverage is sufficient and cost sensitivity matters.

## Known failure modes

- No results found for obscure or misspelled queries
- ISBN not recognized if format is non-standard
- Cover image URL may be null if no cover exists
- Rating and page count may be null for less-known books
- Network timeout if Open Library API is slow

## How this service works

Search for books by title, author, or ISBN via the Open Library API (free, no key needed). Input: search query with optional limit and search type. Output: books with metadata, ratings, and cover images.

## Output

Returns an array of up to 20 book records, each containing title, authors, first publish year, ISBN, median page count, subject tags (up to 5), cover image URL, Open Library work URL, edition count, average rating, and rating count, along with the original query and total result count.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "required": [
  "query"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 5,
   "maximum": 20,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "Maximum results to return (default: 5)"
  },
  "query": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Search query — title, author name, or ISBN"
  },
  "searchType": {
   "enum": [
    "general",
    "title",
    "author"
   ],
   "type": "string",
   "default": "general",
   "description": "Search mode: 'general' (default), 'title', or 'author'"
  }
 },
 "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "required": [
  "query",
  "resultCount",
  "results"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "query": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "The query that was searched"
  },
  "results": {
   "type": "array",
   "items": {
    "type": "object",
    "required": [
     "title",
     "authors",
     "firstPublishYear",
     "isbn",
     "pageCount",
     "subjects",
     "coverUrl",
     "openLibraryUrl",
     "editionCount",
     "rating",
     "ratingCount"
    ],
    "properties": {
     "isbn": {
      "type": "string",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "First available ISBN"
     },
     "title": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Book title"
     },
     "rating": {
      "type": "number",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "Average rating"
     },
     "authors": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "description": "Author names"
     },
     "coverUrl": {
      "type": "string",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "Medium-size cover image URL"
     },
     "subjects": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "description": "Subject tags (max 5)"
     },
     "pageCount": {
      "type": "number",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "Median page count across editions"
     },
     "ratingCount": {
      "type": "number",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "Number of ratings"
     },
     "editionCount": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Number of editions"
     },
     "openLibraryUrl": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Link to the work on openlibrary.org"
     },
     "firstPublishYear": {
      "type": "number",
      "nullable": true,
      "description": "Year first published"
     }
    },
    "additionalProperties": false
   }
  },
  "resultCount": {
   "type": "number",
   "description": "Number of results returned"
  }
 },
 "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/books-withzero-ai-open-library-book-search-da650393/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from books.withzero.ai](https://www.zero.xyz/host/books.withzero.ai/llms.txt)