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Google Books API

Google Books API for Book Search, Volume Details with ISBNs and Categories, and ISBN Lookup

Scrappa's Google Books API returns structured JSON from Google Books. Search books by keyword, author, title, publisher, subject or ISBN with pagination and a free-to-read filter, open any volume for title, authors, publisher, date, description, page count, ISBNs, categories, rating, price, cover, preview and buy links, and look up up to ten ISBNs at once. No Google API key and no quota to manage.

500 free credits
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From $0.20 / 1k
Pay as you go
Structured JSON
Ready for apps
API key access
Test in minutes
Start for free View documentation
Browse endpoints Try first endpoint
3
Endpoints
20
Books per page
$0.20
Per 1k requests

Try it now

Make one request. Inspect structured JSON.

Use the first endpoint in this API family with a Scrappa API key. Every account includes 500 free monthly credits, so you can validate the response shape before buying credits.

Get free API key Try in Playground Open docs
Request preview
Request 
curl -X GET "https://scrappa.co/api/google/books/search?author=frank%20herbert&title=dune&limit=2" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY"
JSON response 
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "query": "inauthor:\"frank herbert\" intitle:dune",
    "total_results": 104,
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 2,
    "has_next": true,
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "nrRKDwAAQBAJ",
        "title": "Dune",
        "authors": ["Frank Herbert"],
        "publisher": "Penguin",
        "published_date": "2019-10-01",
        "page_count": 704,
        "print_type": "book",
        "isbn_13": "9780441172719",
        "language": "en",
        "categories": ["Fiction"],
        "viewability": "partial",
        "cover_url": "https://books.google.com/books/content?id=nrRKDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1",
        "info_url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=nrRKDwAAQBAJ"
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": { "endpoint_family": "search", "billable": true, "credits": 1 }
}

What you can build

Structured data for real applications. Here are some ideas.

Book Catalog Enrichment

Add title, authors, publisher, page count, categories and covers to your own book records by volume id.

ISBN Matching

Turn ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 values into Google Books volume ids with preview state and cover links.

Author and Publisher Research

List the books of an author or a publisher and page through the results.

Free Book Discovery

Find books you can read in full for free, filtered by keyword or subject.

Google Books scraper API

Google Books API for book search, details and ISBN lookup

The Google Books API is built for catalog enrichment, ISBN matching and book research. Each book carries title, subtitle, authors, publisher, publication date, description, page count, ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, language, categories, rating when Google shows one, price when the book is for sale, viewability, cover, preview and buy links. Search pages are real pages: page 3 never repeats page 1.

Search by keyword, author, title, publisher, subject or ISBN, alone or together.

The free-to-read filter is always honoured: only books readable in full are returned.

Filters Google Books does not offer here (language, print type, ebooks only, sort order) are rejected with a clear error, never ignored.

Failed requests are never billed.

Choose the right Google Books API endpoint

Use Search to find books

Combine author, title, publisher or subject, then page through the results.

Open Google Books Search API docs

Use Volume Details for the full record

Pass a volume id from search to get the description, ISBNs, categories and links.

Open Google Books Volume API docs

Use ISBN Lookup to match your records

Send up to ten ISBNs and get the volume id, preview state and cover of each.

Open Google Books ISBN API docs

Available endpoints

Everything you need in one API.

Related resources

Google Scholar API overview

Add scholarly publications and citations.

Goodreads API overview

Compare with reader reviews and ratings.

Scrappa vs Official Google Books API

See how Scrappa compares to Official Google Books API.

Works without a Google API key
Scrappa
Official Google Books API
Key and daily quota
Search by author, title, publisher, subject, ISBN
Scrappa
Official Google Books API
ISBN lookup for ten books in one call
Scrappa
Official Google Books API
One per call
Price per 1k requests
Scrappa
From $0.20
Official Google Books API
Free within quota
Unified API key
Scrappa
Yes (80+ APIs)
Official Google Books API
Google services only
Free tier
Scrappa
500 credits/month
Official Google Books API
1,000 requests per day

Key features

Search, volume details and ISBN lookup routes as JSON
ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, categories, page count, language, rating and price when Google shows them
Cover, preview and buy links built for every book
Free-to-read filter and real pagination, no Google API key and no quota
No browser, no login: public data served through a single Scrappa API key

Frequently asked questions

No. Scrappa is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. The Google Books API returns structured JSON from public book data through a Scrappa API key.

Not yet. Google Books does not honour these filters on the data this API uses, so the request is rejected with a clear error instead of returning unfiltered books.

Google Books shows a rating or a price only for some books. A field that Google does not show is left out of the answer.

No. Only successful responses are billed. A valid empty result is successful and billable.

Start using the Google Books API

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