Collectors · Research & science

World Bank API in Python

Development indicators per country and year — GDP, population, inflation and ~16k more. One POST from Python with indicator and countries, rows back as JSON with 10 fields, $0.0002 per delivered datapoint. 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 world_bank collector returns one dict per datapoint, at $0.0002 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/world_bank/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "indicator": "<indicator>",
        "countries": "<countries>",
    },
    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("country"), row.get("country_code"), row.get("year"), row.get("value"))

Python: one World Bank indicators run, printing country, country_code, year, value

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 World Bank indicators collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`indicator`	string	yes	World Bank indicator code.
`countries`	array	yes	ISO2/ISO3 country codes.
`year_from`	integer	no	First year (default: all).
`year_to`	integer	no	Last year (default: latest).
`include_empty`	boolean	no	Keep rows whose value is null.
`max_results`	integer	no	How many datapoints to deliver at most (1–200). You pay only for delivered datapoints.

Response fields

10 fields per datapoint.

Fields of each row (datapoint)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`country`	string, nullable	Country name.
`country_code`	string, nullable	ISO3 code.
`year`	string, nullable	Year.
`value`	number, nullable	Indicator value.
`indicator`	string	Indicator code.
`indicator_name`	string, nullable	Indicator label.
`country_iso2`	string, nullable	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.
`unit`	string, nullable	Unit, when the Bank states one.
`obs_status`	string, nullable	Observation status flag, when present.

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/world_bank/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"indicator":"<indicator>","countries":"<countries>"}, "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

$0.0002 per delivered datapoint.

What World Bank indicators rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0002
1,000	$0.20
10,000	$2.00

Up to 200 datapoints per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 10,000 datapoints. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free World Bank indicators API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 10,000 datapoints of this collector at $0.0002 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 200 datapoints 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. $0.0002 per delivered datapoint, no subscription.

Get an API key World Bank API