kbb.com APIkbb.com ↗
Access KBB vehicle ratings, OBD-II codes, lease deals, and make/model/year data via the Kelley Blue Book API. 6 endpoints, no KBB account required.
No input parameters required.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/e0fde739-face-4146-af0b-8ddb1b14e20e/get_years' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Get list of available vehicle years from Kelley Blue Book. Returns years ranging from 1992 to the latest available model year.
No input parameters required.
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"years": "array of integers representing available vehicle years"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"years": [
2027,
2026,
2025,
2024,
2023,
2022,
2021,
2020
]
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the kbb.com API
The KBB API exposes 6 endpoints covering vehicle catalog lookup, expert ratings, OBD-II diagnostic codes, and current lease deals from Kelley Blue Book. Use get_car_ratings to pull expert scores across dimensions like performance, comfort, reliability, and value for any make/model/year combination dating back to 1992, or call get_lease_deals to retrieve national lease offers with monthly payment, down payment, and MSRP details.
Vehicle Catalog Endpoints
Three endpoints let you traverse KBB's vehicle catalog top-down. get_years returns the full integer array of supported model years (1992 through the current year). Feed a year into get_makes to receive an array of make objects — each with a makeId, makeName, and atcMake slug. Then pass a year and make_id to get_models to get the corresponding model list, where every object includes modelId, modelName, makeId, and makeName. These three calls together give you the complete KBB vehicle catalog tree without any prior knowledge of IDs.
Ratings and Diagnostic Codes
get_car_ratings accepts a make, year, and model in lowercase slug format (e.g. toyota, 2024, camry) and returns a ratings object with fields including expert_overall, overall_rating, performance, comfort, quality, reliability, styling, and value. Note that ratings may be empty for some vehicles — particularly older or lower-volume models. get_obd_codes returns an array of OBD-II diagnostic trouble code objects, each with a code, title, and description. Currently only powertrain (P) codes are available; the category parameter defaults to P when omitted.
Lease Deals
get_lease_deals returns a deals array where each entry includes car, down_payment, monthly, duration_months, msrp, and an expires date. An optional zip_code parameter is accepted, but the deals are national listings and may not vary meaningfully by location. This endpoint is useful for tracking which vehicles have active manufacturer-backed lease promotions and comparing their effective monthly costs relative to MSRP.
- Build a car comparison tool that surfaces KBB expert scores for reliability, comfort, and value side-by-side across competing models
- Populate a vehicle selector UI by chaining get_years → get_makes → get_models to give users valid, structured KBB catalog choices
- Aggregate current lease deals from get_lease_deals to flag vehicles with below-average monthly payments relative to MSRP
- Power an OBD-II code lookup tool that maps P-code identifiers to plain-English titles and descriptions from KBB
- Track how KBB expert ratings change year-over-year for a specific model by querying get_car_ratings across multiple years
- Alert users when a target vehicle appears in the lease deals feed below a specified monthly payment threshold
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Kelley Blue Book offer an official developer API?+
What rating fields does get_car_ratings return, and are they always populated?+
ratings object can include expert_overall, overall_rating, performance, comfort, quality, reliability, styling, and value. However, ratings may be empty for certain vehicles — particularly older models or those with limited editorial coverage. Always check whether the ratings object contains values before using them downstream.Does get_obd_codes support codes other than powertrain (P) codes?+
Does the API return KBB trade-in or private-party vehicle valuations?+
Do lease deals vary by ZIP code?+
zip_code parameter is accepted by get_lease_deals but the returned deals are national listings. In practice, results may not differ between ZIP codes — the deals reflect manufacturer-level promotions rather than regional inventory.