Books API
Books API
New York Times Books API provides NYT bestseller list data — weekly-updated rankings across categories (fiction, non-fiction, children's, etc.).
NYT bestseller list is publishing industry gold standard
US-market focused
GET /svc/books/v3/lists/current/{list-name}.json?api-key=... for current ranking. GET /lists/names.json for all list categories.
Uptime · 30-day window
About this API
The NYT bestseller list is the publishing industry's most influential ranking — making the list dramatically affects a book's sales (publishers include "NYT bestseller bonus" in contracts). Books API exposes this data: current ranking, historical ranking for specific dates, a book's ranking trajectory over time, book ISBN/author metadata. Most common uses: book apps showing "this week's bestsellers", book clubs picking next read, publishers doing internal trend analysis. vs. Open Library / Goodreads: NYT Books API is more refined (focused on rankings and ratings), but doesn't return reviews and detailed metadata.
What you can build
- 1Book apps displaying bestseller lists
- 2Book clubs picking from rankings
- 3Trend analysis for publishing industry
- 4LLM book recommendations
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- NYT bestseller list is publishing industry gold standard
- Deep historical data (decades)
- Free
Limitations
- US-market focused
- Does not return book content (metadata + ratings only)
Example request
curl https://nytimes.com/<endpoint>Getting started
GET /svc/books/v3/lists/current/{list-name}.json?api-key=... for current ranking. GET /lists/names.json for all list categories.
FAQ
Can I check whether a specific book made the list?+
Yes. GET /lists/best-sellers/history.json?isbn=... returns all the book's appearance records.
Technical details
- Auth type
- unknown
- Pricing
- unknown
- Protocols
- REST
- SDKs
- python, javascript, go
- Response time
- 295 ms
- Last health check
- 5/12/2026, 7:37:58 AM
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