Collectors · Knowledge & reference

Book data API in Python

Book search over the Open Library catalog — ISBN, authors, ratings, covers. One POST from Python with query, rows back as JSON with 22 fields, $0.0004 per delivered book. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the openlibrary_books collector returns one dict per book, at $0.0004 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/openlibrary_books/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "query": "<query>",
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("title"), row.get("authors"), row.get("first_publish_year"), row.get("isbn"))

Python: one Books (Open Library) run, printing title, authors, first_publish_year, isbn

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Books (Open Library) collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	yes	Title, author:…, isbn:…, subject:….
`sort`	string	no	Result order.
`max_results`	integer	no	How many books to deliver at most (1–100). You pay only for delivered books.

Response fields

22 fields per book.

Fields of each row (book)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`title`	string	Title.
`authors`	string[]	Authors (up to 5).
`first_publish_year`	integer, nullable	First publication year.
`isbn`	string, nullable	ISBN (13 preferred).
`publishers`	string[]	Publishers (up to 3).
`languages`	string[]	Language codes.
`pages`	integer, nullable	Median page count.
`rating`	number, nullable	Community rating (0-5).
`ratings_count`	integer, nullable	Number of ratings.
`editions`	integer, nullable	Edition count.
`cover_url`	string, nullable	Cover image.
`url`	string	Open Library page.
`subtitle`	string, nullable	Subtitle.
`work_id`	string	Open Library work id (OL…W).
`want_to_read_count`	integer, nullable	Readers who shelved it as want-to-read.
`already_read_count`	integer, nullable	Readers who shelved it as read.
`subjects`	string[]	Subjects (up to 10).
`author_ids`	string[]	Open Library author ids.
`ebook_access`	string, nullable	public, borrowable, printdisabled or no_ebook.
`read_url`	string, nullable	Internet Archive page of the readable/borrowable copy.
`cover_url_large`	string, nullable	Large cover image.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/openlibrary_books/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"query":"<query>"}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0004 per delivered book.

What Books (Open Library) rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0004
1,000	$0.40
10,000	$4.00

Up to 100 books per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 5,000 books. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Books (Open Library) API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 5,000 books of this collector at $0.0004 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 100 books per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0004 per delivered book, no subscription.

Get an API key Book data API