Semantic Scholar API
Free scholarly API over 200M+ papers: citation graphs, TLDRs, open-access PDFs.
About
The Semantic Scholar Academic Graph API, run by the nonprofit Allen Institute for AI, is core scholarly infrastructure: 200M+ papers (provider-claimed) with semantic search, citation graphs (references/citations endpoints), TLDR summaries, and open-access PDF links, plus DOI/PMID/arXiv crosswalks. Free; API keys raise rate limits (100 req/5min with key).
The unauthenticated pool is heavily shared (429s common) — get a free key for real workloads. Bulk datasets (S2AG) available for modeling. A natural starting point for zero-budget literature pipelines.
What it can do
- Semantic paper search over 200M+ papers
- Full citation graph endpoints
- TLDR summaries and influential-citation signals
- Open-access PDF links; external ID crosswalks
- Free bulk datasets (S2AG)
Setup
- Get a free API key at semanticscholar.org/product/api.
- Call
https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?query=...with your key. - Use
fieldsOfStudy,openAccessPdf,tldr, and the references/citations endpoints. - For bulk work, download the S2AG datasets.
Prerequisites
Free API key (recommended); HTTP client.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier). Nonprofit-operated core infrastructure with a genuinely free API and bulk data, but closed API terms and the shared unauthenticated pool is unreliable (429s documented). High adoption as infrastructure. Capped below 8 by the 8+ verified rule — metrics tier.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 5.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 4.8/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 9.0/10
- · provider-tier estimate — thinner evidence (no public adoption metric)
- · core scholarly infra; Allen Institute nonprofit; 200M+ papers — provider-tier estimate
- · no release date — neutral maintenance score
- · manual review: nonprofit operator; free API with keys for higher limits; TLDR + citation graph verified; license: closed API, free tier (Allen Institute for AI)
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.