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GBIF

Global biodiversity — species and occurrences

🔭 Science & SpaceUNMONITORED
AUTH NONECORS ✓AGENT ?HTTPS ✓COMMERCIAL ?

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility API serves taxonomic names, species records and billions of occurrence points contributed by museums and researchers worldwide. Keyless JSON with rich filtering — the standard source for biodiversity and mapping tools.

—HOW IT'S SCORED ⓘ
▶ Run liveDocs ↗
Status badge · for your READMEshipapis health badge: — · unmonitored
ON PROBE SCHEDULE

We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Open provider docs ↗

Uptime historystarts after first probe

On our probe schedule. Uptime charts appear after the first check lands.

Example responsefrom provider docs — not verified by us
GET https://api.gbif.org/v1/species?q=Puma&limit=1

{
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 1,
  "endOfRecords": false,
  "results": [
    {
      "key": 0,
      "nubKey": 0,
      "nameKey": 130332213,
      "taxonID": "gbif:0",
      "sourceTaxonKey": 0,
      "kingdom": "incertae sedis",
      "kingdomKey": 0,
      "datasetKey": "d7dddbf4-2cf0-4f39-9b2a-bb099caae36c"
    }
  ]
}
Call itcurl · fetch · python
curl "https://api.gbif.org/v1/species?q=Puma&limit=1"
const res = await fetch("https://api.gbif.org/v1/species?q=Puma&limit=1");
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);
import requests

res = requests.get("https://api.gbif.org/v1/species?q=Puma&limit=1")
print(res.json())
Endpoints · 3On scheduleFULL DOCS ↗
On schedule — GET /species?q=Puma&limit=1 awaits first probe
GET/species?q=Puma&limit=1PROBED

Global biodiversity — species and occurrences

GET/species?limit=5

Species — documented GET route.

GET/species?page=1

Species — documented GET route.

Machine-readable spec

We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Export includes every documented route below.

Response-shape history

Not tracked yet. Shape-change history starts once this API joins our probe schedule.

GBIF: common questions

Is GBIF free to use?

Yes — GBIF is a free science & space API. Free tier: Free — limits not published. Whether the free tier allows commercial use is unclear — check the provider docs.

Does GBIF need an API key?

No — GBIF needs no API key or signup. You can call it straight away; rate limits still apply (Unpublished).

Can I call GBIF from the browser?

Yes — GBIF returns CORS headers over HTTPS, so front-end code can fetch it directly with no backend proxy. Use the fetch snippet on this page, or hit "Run live" to try it now.

Is GBIF up right now?

GBIF is catalogued but not yet on our probe schedule, so we don't publish a live status for it. Check the provider's own status page or docs for its current state.