Querying

Autocomplete

The autocomplete endpoint provides fast typeahead search for building user interfaces. Queries return in ~200ms.

https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete/institutions?q=flori

See it in action at explore.openalex.org.

Request format

/autocomplete/<entity_type>?q=<query>
Parameter Required Description
entity_type Optional works, authors, sources, institutions, concepts, publishers, or funders
q Yes The search string

Response format

{
  "meta": {
    "count": 183,
    "db_response_time_ms": 5,
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 10
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "https://openalex.org/I33213144",
      "display_name": "University of Florida",
      "hint": "Gainesville, USA",
      "cited_by_count": 17190001,
      "entity_type": "institution",
      "external_id": "https://ror.org/02y3ad647"
    }
  ]
}

Result properties

Property Description
id OpenAlex ID
external_id Canonical external ID (DOI, ORCID, ROR, etc.)
display_name Entity name
entity_type work, author, source, institution, concept, publisher, funder
cited_by_count Citation count (for works) or sum of citations for linked works
works_count Number of associated works (null for works)
hint Additional context to help identify the result

The hint property

Hints help users distinguish between similar results:

Entity Hint content
Work Authors’ names (e.g., “R. Alexander Pyron, John J. Wiens”)
Author Last known institution (e.g., “University of North Carolina, USA”)
Source Host organization (e.g., “Oxford University Press”)
Institution Location (e.g., “Gainesville, USA”)
Concept Description (e.g., “the study of plant species and genera”)

ID lookups

Autocomplete detects IDs and matches them directly:

# Find author by ORCID
https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete?q=https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-3176

# Find source by OpenAlex ID
https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete/sources?q=S49861241

Filtering autocomplete

Combine with any filter or search:

# Works from 2010 about frogs, autocomplete on "greenhou"
https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete/works?filter=publication_year:2010&search=frogs&q=greenhou
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