Query Project Gutenberg's free ebook catalog with the Gutendex API
domain: gutendex.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Call GET https://gutendex.com/books to list catalog entries; no authentication or API key is required.
Retrieve a specific title with GET https://gutendex.com/books/{id}, where {id} is the Project Gutenberg book ID.
Filter results with query parameters such as ids= (comma-separated Gutenberg IDs), languages= (two-letter codes), and mime_type= (e.g., text/ for text formats).
Paginate through results using the count/next/previous/results fields returned in each JSON response.
Note that Gutendex is a third-party, open-source project (not run by Project Gutenberg itself), so treat availability as best-effort; self-hosting is an option for guaranteed uptime.
Known gotchas
Gutendex is unofficial -- it mirrors Project Gutenberg catalog data but is not an official Project Gutenberg service, so don't attribute it to Project Gutenberg in user-facing copy.
It exposes catalog metadata and download links, not full-text search inside book bodies.
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