Bookshop APIbookshop.org ↗
Search Bookshop.org's catalog, browse BISAC categories, get book metadata, retrieve curated lists, and find indie bookstores near you via a simple REST API.
What is the Bookshop API?
The Bookshop.org API exposes 5 endpoints covering book search, category browsing, full metadata retrieval, curated new-release lists, and local independent bookstore discovery. The search_books endpoint accepts a keyword, author name, or ISBN and returns paginated results with title, author, price (in cents), cover image URL, and a detail URL you can pass directly to get_book_details for publisher, page count, dimensions, language, and full description.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/7b5ed445-ce1b-402b-becd-82c526676c4f/search_books?limit=5&query=Python&format=Hardcover&offset=0' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace bookshop-org-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
from parse_apis.bookshop.org_api import Bookshop, Book, BookDetail, NewBookEntry, Bookstore, BookFormat, Category, BookNotFound
bookshop = Bookshop()
# Search for Python books filtered to paperback format
for book in bookshop.books.search(query="Python programming", format=BookFormat.PAPERBACK, limit=5):
print(book.title, book.author, book.price, book.ean)
# Browse fiction category
for book in bookshop.books.by_category(category=Category.FICTION, limit=3):
print(book.title, book.author, book.format, book.detail_url)
# Get full details for a specific book
detail = bookshop.bookdetails.get(url="https://bookshop.org/p/books/bite-size-python-an-introduction-to-python-programming-april-speight/bcc81ca645b2b40a?ean=9781119643814&next=t")
print(detail.title, detail.author, detail.description)
# List new curated books
for entry in bookshop.newbookentries.list(limit=5):
print(entry.title, entry.author)
# Find nearby bookstores
for store in bookshop.bookstores.nearby(lat=40.7128, lng=-74.006, radius=25, limit=5):
print(store.name, store.city, store.state)
Full-text search over Bookshop.org's catalog by keyword (title, author, or ISBN). Supports pagination via offset/limit and optional format filtering. Returns book summaries including title, author, price, cover image, and detail URL. Prices are in cents (USD). The total is an estimate from the search engine and may exceed actual retrievable results.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | integer | Max results to return per page. |
| queryrequired | string | Search keyword (title, author, or ISBN). |
| format | string | Filter by book format. |
| offset | integer | Offset for pagination. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"books": "array of book summary objects",
"limit": "integer current limit",
"total": "integer estimated total matching results",
"offset": "integer current offset"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"books": [
{
"ean": "9781119643814",
"price": 2516,
"title": "Bite-Size Python",
"author": "April Speight",
"format": "Paperback",
"series": "",
"currency": "usd",
"subtitle": "An Introduction to Python Programming",
"cover_url": "https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781119643814.jpg?v=enc-v1",
"detail_url": "https://bookshop.org/p/books/bite-size-python-an-introduction-to-python-programming-april-speight/bcc81ca645b2b40a?ean=9781119643814&next=t",
"list_price": 2700,
"publish_date": "2020-09-01T00:00:00-04:00"
}
],
"limit": 5,
"total": 1000,
"offset": 0
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Bookshop API
Search and Browse
search_books accepts a required query string (title, author, or ISBN) plus optional format, limit, and offset parameters for paginated, format-filtered results. Each result in the books array includes a detail_url field that feeds directly into get_book_details. get_books_by_category takes a category slug — verified values include fiction, nonfiction, romance, fantasy, mystery, sci-fi, ya, kids, and popular-book — and maps those slugs to BISAC subject codes internally, returning the same book summary shape with pagination support.
Book Details and Curated Lists
get_book_details requires a url from one of the browse endpoints and returns a structured metadata object containing publisher, publish date, pages, language, type, EAN/UPC, and dimensions alongside a full description string. Note that the price field may be empty if the price is not displayed on the source page. get_new_books requires no parameters and returns an editorially curated list of 10–20 recent titles with title, author, and detail URL, plus a list_name field identifying the list.
Bookstore Finder
get_bookstore_listings accepts lat, lng, and radius (in miles) to locate Bookshop.org's independent bookstore partners near a geographic point. The response bookstores array includes each store's name, address, city, state, zip, phone, website, and a profile_url linking to their Bookshop.org page. All three coordinate and radius inputs are optional, so the endpoint can return a default set of stores if no location is provided.
The Bookshop API is a managed, monitored endpoint for bookshop.org — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when bookshop.org changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official bookshop.org API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Build a book discovery app that searches by ISBN and fetches full metadata including publisher and page count via get_book_details.
- Power a genre-browsing feature using get_books_by_category with slugs like 'mystery' or 'sci-fi' and paginate through results with offset and limit.
- Display a 'New This Week' shelf by pulling the curated list from get_new_books and linking each title to its Bookshop.org detail page.
- Create a store-finder widget that maps nearby independent bookstores using lat/lng coordinates from get_bookstore_listings.
- Compare prices across formats by filtering search_books results with the format parameter and reading the price (in cents) field.
- Aggregate book descriptions and metadata for a reading-list tool by chaining search_books results into get_book_details calls.
- Populate a local bookshop directory by querying get_bookstore_listings with varying radius values and surfacing contact info and profile URLs.
| 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 | 100 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 Bookshop.org have an official developer API?+
What does get_book_details return, and when might the price field be empty?+
metadata object with publisher, publish date, pages, language, type, EAN/UPC, and dimensions; a full description string; title; author; and a price string. The price field may be empty when the source page does not display a price — for example, for out-of-stock or pre-order titles where pricing is withheld.How accurate is the total count returned by search_books and get_books_by_category?+
total field described as an estimated total. It should be treated as an approximation for UI purposes such as showing result counts or calculating page numbers, not as an exact figure suitable for inventory or analytics.Does the API return user reviews or ratings for books?+
Can I retrieve a book by ISBN directly without going through search?+
query string in search_books, which will return matching results including the detail_url. There is no dedicated ISBN-lookup endpoint that returns a single record directly. You can fork the API on Parse and revise it to add a dedicated ISBN endpoint if your use case requires a one-step lookup.