Wikidata API

www.wikidata.org · Data

Data No Auth Free & Open Knowledge Linked Data Open Data

Structured knowledge graph — 100M+ machine-readable facts about people, places, events, and things. Query with SPARQL or REST. Powers Siri, Alexa, and Google Knowledge Graph. Free.

Authentication

No authentication requiredFree to use with no key needed.

Sample Requests

GET Search entities

Search Wikidata for entities matching a name.

https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?limit=3&action=wbsearchentities&format=json&search=Marie Curie&language=en

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?limit=3&action=wbsearchentities&format=json&search=Marie%20Curie&language=en"

import requests
params = {
    "limit": "3",
    "action": "wbsearchentities",
    "format": "json",
    "search": "Marie Curie",
    "language": "en"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php');
url.searchParams.set('limit', '3');
url.searchParams.set('action', 'wbsearchentities');
url.searchParams.set('format', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('search', 'Marie Curie');
url.searchParams.set('language', 'en');

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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("limit", "3")
	q.Set("action", "wbsearchentities")
	q.Set("format", "json")
	q.Set("search", "Marie Curie")
	q.Set("language", "en")
	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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "limit" => "3",
  "action" => "wbsearchentities",
  "format" => "json",
  "search" => "Marie Curie",
  "language" => "en"
})

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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?" . http_build_query([
    "limit" => "3",
    "action" => "wbsearchentities",
    "format" => "json",
    "search" => "Marie Curie",
    "language" => "en"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

GET SPARQL query

Find people born in New York City using SPARQL.

https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps:/query.wikidata.org/sparql?query=SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5&format=json

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql?query=SELECT%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ5%20%3B%20wdt%3AP19%20wd%3AQ60%20.%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%22%20%7D%20%7D%20LIMIT%205&format=json"

import requests
params = {
    "query": "SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5",
    "format": "json"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql');
url.searchParams.set('query', 'SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5');
url.searchParams.set('format', 'json');

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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("query", "SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5")
	q.Set("format", "json")
	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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "query" => "SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5",
  "format" => "json"
})

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://www.wikidata.org/w/api.phphttps://query.wikidata.org/sparql?" . http_build_query([
    "query" => "SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 ; wdt:P19 wd:Q60 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 5",
    "format" => "json"
]);
$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
Search: GET https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?action=wbsearchentities&search=Einstein&language=en&format=json
Get item: GET https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?action=wbgetentities&ids=Q937&format=json (Q937=Einstein)
SPARQL: POST https://query.wikidata.org/sparql with query param
Use Wikidata Query Service UI at query.wikidata.org to build queries

What can you build with Wikidata API?

Wikidata API is a Data API. Developers commonly use data APIs for:

enriching your app with third-party datasets
building data pipelines and ETL workflows
querying and searching large datasets
powering research, analysis, and reporting tools
syncing reference data into your own systems

No authentication required. This API is open — no signup or key needed. Ideal for quick prototypes and public-facing features. Wikidata API is free to use, making it a low-risk choice to experiment with.

New to APIs? Read our beginner's guide

Open documentation ↗