Stack Exchange API

api.stackexchange.com · Developer Tools

Developer Tools No Auth Free & Open Developer Tools Q&A Community

Stack Overflow and all Stack Exchange sites — questions, answers, comments, users, tags, and badges. Free, no API key for 300 req/day (10,000 with free key).

Authentication

No authentication requiredFree to use with no key needed.

Sample Requests

GET Search questions

Search Stack Overflow questions.

https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced?q=how to use REST API&site=stackoverflow&sort=relevance&order=desc&pagesize=5

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced?q=how%20to%20use%20REST%20API&site=stackoverflow&sort=relevance&order=desc&pagesize=5"

import requests
params = {
    "q": "how to use REST API",
    "site": "stackoverflow",
    "sort": "relevance",
    "order": "desc",
    "pagesize": "5"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced');
url.searchParams.set('q', 'how to use REST API');
url.searchParams.set('site', 'stackoverflow');
url.searchParams.set('sort', 'relevance');
url.searchParams.set('order', 'desc');
url.searchParams.set('pagesize', '5');

const response = await fetch(url); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("q", "how to use REST API")
	q.Set("site", "stackoverflow")
	q.Set("sort", "relevance")
	q.Set("order", "desc")
	q.Set("pagesize", "5")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "q" => "how to use REST API",
  "site" => "stackoverflow",
  "sort" => "relevance",
  "order" => "desc",
  "pagesize" => "5"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced?" . http_build_query([
    "q" => "how to use REST API",
    "site" => "stackoverflow",
    "sort" => "relevance",
    "order" => "desc",
    "pagesize" => "5"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

GET Get top questions by tag

Get top JavaScript questions on Stack Overflow.

https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions?site=stackoverflow&sort=votes&order=desc&tagged=javascript&pagesize=5

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions?site=stackoverflow&sort=votes&order=desc&tagged=javascript&pagesize=5"

import requests
params = {
    "site": "stackoverflow",
    "sort": "votes",
    "order": "desc",
    "tagged": "javascript",
    "pagesize": "5"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions');
url.searchParams.set('site', 'stackoverflow');
url.searchParams.set('sort', 'votes');
url.searchParams.set('order', 'desc');
url.searchParams.set('tagged', 'javascript');
url.searchParams.set('pagesize', '5');

const response = await fetch(url); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("site", "stackoverflow")
	q.Set("sort", "votes")
	q.Set("order", "desc")
	q.Set("tagged", "javascript")
	q.Set("pagesize", "5")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "site" => "stackoverflow",
  "sort" => "votes",
  "order" => "desc",
  "tagged" => "javascript",
  "pagesize" => "5"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions?" . http_build_query([
    "site" => "stackoverflow",
    "sort" => "votes",
    "order" => "desc",
    "tagged" => "javascript",
    "pagesize" => "5"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

Postman Setup Guide

Get Postman ↗

No API key needed for 300 req/day
Try GET https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/questions?tagged=python&order=desc&sort=votes&site=stackoverflow&pagesize=5
Responses are gzip-compressed — Postman handles this automatically
Get a free key at stackapps.com for 10,000 req/day
site param: stackoverflow, serverfault, superuser, askubuntu, etc.

Open documentation ↗