The Guardian Open Platform API
Full-text articles, metadata and tags from The Guardian since 1999
Freemium
✓ Verified
🇪🇺 European
The Guardian’s Open Platform API provides free access to over 2.7 million articles published by The Guardian and The Observer since 1999. The API returns full article body text (unlike many news APIs that only provide snippets), rich metadata, tags, contributors, and section classifications. Widely used by researchers, academics, and developers building news analysis tools, NLP training datasets, and media monitoring applications. The rate limit of 12 requests/second is generous for most use cases. A rare example of a major publisher offering full-text article access for free.
API Details
Auth Method
API Key
Pricing Model
Freemium
Free Tier
Yes — 12 requests/second free
Rate Limit
12 requests/second (free tier)
Format
REST / JSON
Versioning
v1
SLA / Uptime
99%
Compliance
GDPR
Geographic Restrictions
Global (primarily UK/International focus)
Last Verified
2026-02-20
Categories
Frequently Asked Questions
You can explore every single article, picture, podcast, and video published by The Guardian since 1999. It is essentially a massive digital library of news and media that you can pull directly into your own projects using just one access key.
Yes, they offer a completely free developer key that is perfect for personal projects, research, and testing. However, if you plan to build an app or website that generates money, you will need to sign up for their commercial tier to discuss licensing.
Getting started is very straightforward. You just need to visit The Guardian Open Platform website and fill out a short registration form with your email address and a few details about your project. They will then generate a unique key for you to use right away.
With the free developer key, there are some daily limits to keep the system running smoothly for everyone. You are allowed to make up to 5,000 requests per day and a few requests per second, which is usually more than enough for building and testing most everyday applications.