Overview

Gutendex exposes the full Project Gutenberg catalogue—over 70,000 free ebooks—as a clean JSON API. Search by title, author, or language with no sign-up required.

Beginner Tip

Start with https://gutendex.com/books/?search=shakespeare to browse results instantly. The response is paginated; follow the "next" URL to get more books.

Available Data

The kind of data this API exposes, based on its documentation. We could not call the endpoint to confirm the exact field names.

book title and author
ISBN and publisher
cover image URL
page count
publication date

Example Response

Illustrative shape only — we were not able to call this endpoint (it requires credentials or exposes no public sample URL), so the fields below show the kind of data this API returns rather than a recorded response.

JSON Response · Illustrative
{
  "title": "The Great Gatsby",
  "authors": [
    "F. Scott Fitzgerald"
  ],
  "publishedDate": "1925-04-10",
  "pageCount": 218,
  "categories": [
    "Fiction"
  ],
  "imageLinks": {
    "thumbnail": "https://books.google.com/..."
  },
  "averageRating": 4
}

Field Reference

count Total number of books matching the query.
next URL of the next page of results, or null on the last page.
results Array of book objects matching the search.
results[].id Project Gutenberg book ID, usable in ebook download URLs.
results[].title Full title of the book.
results[].authors List of author objects each with "name" and life-date fields.

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://gutendex.com/books/?search=twain&languages=en";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

Empty results array Misspelled search term or language code (e.g. "en" not "english")
✓ Check spelling and use ISO 639-1 two-letter language codes in the languages= parameter.
CORS error in browser Gutendex does not advertise CORS headers on all endpoints
✓ Proxy the request through your backend or use a CORS-friendly fetch wrapper during development.
"next" page returns 404 Manually editing the page= query param to a page that does not exist
✓ Always follow the exact "next" URL returned in the response instead of incrementing the page number manually.

Metadata Score Breakdown

Estimated from metadata — endpoint not independently tested

This score is estimated from observable metadata — HTTPS support, authentication model, declared CORS, and documentation reachability — because the API requires authentication or exposes no publicly testable endpoint. The five-signal breakdown is only shown for live-tested APIs.

Metadata estimate · endpoint not independently tested

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS UNKNOWN
Category Books
Difficulty Beginner
Listing details not endpoint-verified

Related Tags

Alternatives to Gutendex

Technical alternatives for different use cases.

Free public domain books from Project Gutenberg

Better For

Modern book metadata and cover images

Trade-off

Accessing full-text public domain ebooks

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