standardebooks.org APIstandardebooks.org ↗
Access Standard Ebooks' catalog via API. Search by title/author, filter by subject, get download links for EPUB, AZW3, and KEPUB formats across 4 endpoints.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/1a44c9f8-3d74-4b09-94c2-e2bcdbd22011/list_ebooks?page=1&limit=5&query=shakespeare&per_page=5' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search and browse ebooks with filters and pagination. Returns a paginated list of ebooks with title, author, URL, and cover image.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Page number for pagination. |
| sort | string | Sort order. Accepted values: 'se-date-desc', 'title-asc', 'title-desc', 'author-asc', 'author-desc', 'reading-ease', 'word-count'. |
| query | string | Search keyword to filter ebooks by title or author. |
| per_page | integer | Number of results per page. |
| subjects | string | Filter by subject. Use the value field from get_ebook_subjects_list (e.g. 'adventure', 'fiction', 'science-fiction'). |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "integer, current page number",
"ebooks": "array of ebook objects with title, url, author, and cover_image_url",
"has_next": "boolean, whether more pages are available"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"page": 1,
"ebooks": [
{
"url": "https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/othello",
"title": "Othello",
"author": "William Shakespeare",
"cover_image_url": "https://standardebooks.org/images/covers/[email protected]"
}
],
"has_next": true
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the standardebooks.org API
The Standard Ebooks API exposes 4 endpoints for browsing and retrieving metadata from Standard Ebooks' curated public domain library. The list_ebooks endpoint returns paginated results with title, author, cover image, and URL, and accepts filters for subject, sort order, and keyword search. get_ebook_details returns per-book subjects and direct download URLs across EPUB, AZW3, KEPUB, and Advanced EPUB formats.
Browse and Search the Catalog
The list_ebooks endpoint accepts a query string to filter by title or author, a subjects parameter (values sourced from get_ebook_subjects_list), and sort options including title-asc, author-desc, se-date-desc, and reading-ease order. Pagination is controlled with page and per_page. Each result object in the ebooks array includes title, author, url, and cover_image_url. The has_next boolean field tells you whether additional pages exist.
Per-Book Details and Download Links
get_ebook_details accepts either a full URL or a relative path like /ebooks/william-shakespeare/othello — the url field returned by list_ebooks works directly as input. The response includes the book's title, author, a subjects array of category strings, and a downloads object with direct file URLs: epub_url, azw3_url, kepub_url, advanced_epub_url, and kindle_cover_thumbnail_url.
Subject Taxonomy and Batch Format Retrieval
get_ebook_subjects_list returns all available subject categories as name/value pairs. Pass the value field directly into list_ebooks's subjects parameter to filter by genre or topic — for example fiction, adventure, or science-fiction. The get_azw3_list endpoint processes multiple listing pages (48 books per page, controlled by limit_pages) and returns AZW3 download URLs, page URLs, and Kindle cover thumbnails in bulk. Because it fetches details per book, response time scales linearly with the number of books requested.
- Build a Kindle-compatible reading list by collecting AZW3 URLs via get_azw3_list for a given number of listing pages.
- Populate a subject-filtered ebook catalog using list_ebooks with the subjects parameter sourced from get_ebook_subjects_list.
- Generate a download page for a specific title by pulling all format links from the downloads object in get_ebook_details.
- Create an author bibliography tool by querying list_ebooks with an author name and iterating paginated results.
- Sync cover images to a local library app using cover_image_url and kindle_cover_thumbnail_url from the API responses.
- Sort a reading queue by estimated reading ease using the reading-ease sort option in list_ebooks.
| 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.