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Open Library Book Search & Lookup API
x402
Open Library Book Search & Lookup API is a paid API for AI agents from api.scrapeforagents.tech, paid per call via x402, $0.025/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-02).
Searches and retrieves structured book/work records from the Open Library public catalog by keyword, title, ISBN, or direct work URL
Price / call$0.025
Success—
StatusUnknown
How this service works
Pay-per-call structured web data. Failed or empty runs are not charged.
Output
Returns a JSON object with a count and an array of work records, each containing the work ID, work URL, title, subtitle, author keys, author names, edition count, first publish year, and optionally a description if includeWorkDetails was true.
Example use cases
Author bibliography lookup
“Find me all Open Library works by Ursula K. Le Guin — up to 50 results — with descriptions included so I can see what each book is about.”
ISBN to book metadata
“Look up the book with ISBN 9780743273565 on Open Library and give me the title, authors, edition count, and year it was first published.”
Multilingual catalog search
“Search Open Library for books about 'magical realism' in Spanish — up to 30 results — and include the work details so I get descriptions too.”
Technical details
Endpoint
POSThttps://api.scrapeforagents.tech/v1/open?utm_source=zero.xyzWhen to prefer
Choose this endpoint when you need structured bibliographic data from the Open Library public catalog — especially for ISBN lookups, author bibliography searches, or enriching a list of book titles with metadata like edition counts and publication years. Prefer it over general web scraping when you want deduplicated, schema-consistent book records without parsing HTML.
Side effects
- Empty results array when no catalog matches found for the search query
- Missing fields (e.g. subtitle, firstPublishYear) for works with incomplete Open Library records
- Rate limiting or timeout if many work detail fetches are requested simultaneously
- Invalid language code returns no filtered results or falls back to unfiltered
- Malformed work URL input causes that entry to be skipped silently
Input
Schema · Request body
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| language | string | Optional three-letter catalog language code, such as eng or spa, to filter searches. Direct work URLs are unaffected. |
| maxItems | integer | Maximum unique work records across all inputs. Set to 0 for no explicit limit. |
| startUrls | array | Optional public work URLs or IDs, such as https://openlibrary.org/works/OL66554W. Work records are processed before searches. |
| searchQueries | array | Keywords, titles, or ISBNs to search in the public catalog. Results are deduplicated by work ID. |
| includeWorkDetails | boolean | Fetch each matching work record to add a description and fill some missing details. This uses an extra request per result. |
Output
Schema · Response
{
"type": "json",
"example": {
"count": 1,
"items": [
{
"title": null,
"workId": null,
"workUrl": null,
"subtitle": null,
"authorKeys": null,
"authorNames": null,
"editionCount": null,
"firstPublishYear": null
}
],
"product": "open"
}
}Tags
x402
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