GitHub repository search API

Developers & tech · v1.1.0 · github_repos

$0.0005 / repository

$0.40 / 1K · pay per delivered repository

A GitHub repository search API turns a repo query into rows: owner/name, description, primary language, star count, topics, the archived flag and the last-update time. Send a query — GitHub's own search syntax works, language:go stars:>500 and all — pick best-match, stars or recently-updated order, and get the ranked list back without holding a token.

By Aldo Morese, founder of QuanticData · Published Aug 21, 2026 · Updated Sep 3, 2026

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$0.0005 per delivered repository · $2 free every month · Failed runs never billed

What it does

What a GitHub repository search API does

Each repository comes back as a typed row: full name, the full description, stars, forks, open issues, license, homepage, creation and update dates. There is no token to provision, and the only thing you size is how many repositories you want back.

Every row is already typed: stars as an integer, topics as an array, archived as a boolean, updated_at as an ISO timestamp. That is the shape you want for filtering a technology landscape — sort by stars to find the incumbents, sort by updated to drop the abandoned forks — without parsing star counts out of a rendered "1.2k" or guessing whether a repo is still alive.

Inputs

The whole request. Anything you leave out falls back to the default shown in the catalog.

Input	Type	Required	What it does
`query`	string	yes	Search query — GitHub syntax works ("web scraper language:python stars:>100").
`sort`	string	no	best_match (default), stars, or updated. One of: `best_match`, `stars`, `updated`.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — proxy exit geo and Google locale (gl). Omit for the default pool.
`max_results`	integer	no	How many repositories to deliver at most (1–50). You pay only for delivered repositories.

Outputs — 19 fields, one row per repository

What one repository looks like

Every delivered repository carries these fields. Nullable means the source did not publish it — the field stays empty instead of being guessed.

Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`repo`	string	owner/name.
`owner`	string · nullable	Owner login.
`name`	string · nullable	Repository name.
`description`	string · nullable	Repo description.
`language`	string · nullable	Primary language.
`stars`	integer · nullable	Star count.
`topics`	string[]	Repo topics.
`archived`	boolean	Archived flag.
`updated_at`	string · nullable	Last update (ISO 8601).
`url`	string	Repository URL.
`forks`	integer · nullable	Fork count.
`open_issues`	integer · nullable	Open issues and pull requests.
`license`	string · nullable	License (SPDX id).
`homepage`	string · nullable	Project homepage.
`created_at`	string · nullable	Repository creation time (ISO 8601).
`default_branch`	string · nullable	Default branch.
`is_fork`	boolean · nullable	Whether the repository is a fork.
`owner_type`	string · nullable	User or Organization.

Integration

One POST, typed rows

Base URL https://api.quanticdata.io/v1, Bearer auth, the same key as every other Data API. Endpoint: POST /v1/scraper/collectors/github_repos/run.

curl -X POST https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/github_repos/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QD_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"web scraper","sort":"stars","max_results":20}'

import requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/github_repos/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {QD_API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "query": "web scraper",
        "sort": "stars",
        "max_results": 20
    },
    timeout=120,
)
for row in r.json()["payload"]["results"]:
    print(row)

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/github_repos/run",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.QD_API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({"query":"web scraper","sort":"stars","max_results":20}),
  },
);
const { payload } = await res.json();
console.table(payload.results);

claude mcp add quanticdata \
  -e QUANTICDATA_API_KEY=qd_live_your_key_here \
  -- npx -y quanticdata-mcp

# then, in the chat:
> run the github_repos collector with query="web scraper" and sort="stars"

Example response

POST /v1/scraper/collectors/github_repos/run

$ curl $QD/github_repos/run \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $QD_API_KEY" \
    -d '{"query": "web scraper", "sort": "stars", "max_results": 20}'
{ "status": "done", "count": 20,
  "results": [
    {
      "repo": "…",
      "owner": "…",
      "name": "…",
      "description": "…" } ],
  "cost": 0.01 }
# 20 repositories × $0.0005 · nothing delivered, nothing charged

Try it

GitHub repository search, running now

Change the input and run it against the live collector — nothing to install, no sign-up.

Run it from your own code, on your own inputs

Same collector, same rows — $2 of free API credit every month, no card.

Get my free API key

GitHub repository search API: from query and sort, QuanticData reads the GitHub search results and returns one row per repository with name, repo and owner, at $0.0005 per delivered repository. — You send query and sort; the run reads the source and comes back as repositories with rank, repo and owner — 19 fields on every row — and you are billed $0.0005 for each repository actually delivered, nothing for a run that delivers none.

$0.0005 / repository4,000 repositories on the free $2 every month

Semantic inputquery, sort, country — no URL lists

Up to 50repositories per run, pagination handled for you

No browserread over HTTP/TLS — cheaper and faster than rendering

Pricing

GitHub repository search API pricing

$0.0005 per delivered repository. A run that delivers nothing costs nothing: blocked pages, challenges and retries are on us, and the $2 monthly allowance covers about 4,000 repositories before you spend anything.

$0.0005per delivered repository$0.4 per 1,000 delivered repositories

4,000 repositorieson the free allowance$2 every month, no card

Zero rowszero chargeblocks, captchas and retries are on us

−30%on volume tiersthe catalog returns your key's price

Pay as you go

$0/mo

$2 free credit / month
60 requests / min
List unit prices

Starter

$19/mo

$15 free credit / month
300 requests / min
10% off unit prices

Growth

$79/mo

$50 free credit / month
600 requests / min
20% off unit prices

Scale

$299/mo

$250 free credit / month
1,200 requests / min
30% off unit prices

Same wallet, same key and same $2 monthly allowance as every other Data API. Prices are launch pricing read live from the billing config — GET /v1/scraper/collectors returns the price your key actually pays.

What people build with the GitHub repository search API

Three shapes of work this endpoint was designed around.

Dependency and tooling scouting

Search a problem space, sort by stars, and get the field of libraries that solve it with their language and topics attached — the shortlist an engineer would otherwise assemble tab by tab.

Ecosystem trend tracking

Re-run the same query on a schedule and watch star counts and last-update times move, so a technology that is gaining or going stale shows up as a number rather than a hunch.

Populating a software catalog

Feed queries per language or topic and store owner, description and topics as structured rows, ready to join against your own inventory of what your teams already use.

GitHub repository search API versus rolling your own

The differences that actually cost time when you build this in-house.

	DIY scraper	This collector
Auth	A personal access token per client	None — nothing to provision or rotate
Rate ceiling	The API's per-minute search window	The search page, paginated on our side
Query language	Whatever your client re-implements	GitHub's own syntax, passed straight through

What people search for

Live autocomplete demand around GitHub repository search, pulled with our own Keyword ideas collector.

GitHub repository search API: the POST to the github_repos collector, 20 repositories delivered and the bill, 20 × $0.0005 = $0.01 in usage.cost_usd; zero repositories would cost $0. — The same call you would paste into a terminal: a Bearer key, query, sort and country in the body, and back the envelope every QuanticData endpoint returns — type, message, payload — where count is how many repositories arrived and usage.cost_usd is $0.01, which is 20 × $0.0005. A run that delivers nothing costs nothing. The key is good for 60 req/min on the free tier.

Sources and standards

The platform documentation and standards this collector is built against — check any claim on this page against the primary source:

FAQ

Questions we get about the GitHub repository search API.

Something else? Ask us

Does this use my GitHub token or count against the API?

Neither. It reads the public server-rendered search results page, ten repositories to a page, and paginates for you. There is no token to supply and nothing is drawn from the REST API's search quota, so a broad crawl does not trip the unauthenticated ten-requests-a-minute limit.

Can I use qualifiers like `language:` and `stars:>1000`?

Yes. The query is handed to GitHub verbatim, so the full search syntax works — language:python, stars:>1000, topic:, org: and the rest — and you can order the result by best match, stars or last update.

What fields come back per repository?

owner/name, description, primary language, star count, topics, the archived flag, the last-update timestamp and the repo URL. It is repository-level metadata for search and ranking; it does not open each repo to pull forks, issues, contributors or file contents.

Is there a free GitHub repository search API?

Every account gets $2 of credit every month with no card, which is about 4,000 delivered repositories on this endpoint at $0.0005 each. It renews monthly, and a run that delivers nothing is never billed — so a failed or blocked attempt does not eat the allowance.

How much does one run cost?

Multiply the rows you actually receive by $0.0005. A run capped at 50 repositories — the maximum for this collector — costs $0.025 if every row comes back, and less when the source has fewer. Volume tiers take up to 30% off, and GET /v1/scraper/collectors returns the price your key actually pays.

Run the GitHub repository search API now

$2 of free credit every month, no card. Your key returns its own prices from GET /v1/scraper/collectors.

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