Goodreads API endpoint
Use Crawlora's Goodreads Genre Shelf API to extract supported public Goodreads data as structured JSON. This page includes request parameters, cURL examples, response schema, error behavior, credit cost, and a Playground link for testing before integration.
/goodreads/genre/{name}Returns up to 50 books on a Goodreads genre/shelf tag page (e.g. fantasy, romance, science-fiction), Goodreads' credential-free per-tag "top books" view: title, author, average rating, ratings count, publication year, and how many times the book was shelved under this specific tag. Goodreads' genre/shelf taxonomy is an open, user-generated folksonomy of thousands of tags, not a small fixed list, so there is no directory endpoint — pass any known tag slug, e.g. from a book's genres[] field or a value seen on goodreads.com. There is no pagination beyond the first 50. Developers commonly use this endpoint for data enrichment, monitoring, research dashboards, internal automation, and agent-native workflows that need repeatable structured public web data. Authentication uses the documented Crawlora headers, and usage is metered with the credit cost shown on this page.
Request parameters are generated from the active endpoint catalog. Required values must be sent before Crawlora can call the upstream public web data source.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| name (path) | string | Yes | Goodreads genre/shelf tag | ||
| x-api-key (header) | string | Yes | API key required |
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/goodreads/genre/%3Cname%3E" \ -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"
Send your scraping API key in the x-api-key header. Use the console API Keys page to rotate or select the active key.
Endpoint usage is metered in credits. The plan prices, included credits, limits, and overage rates below match the active backend billing configuration.
| Plan | Price | Included credits | Daily cap | Rate limit | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 2,000 | 500 daily credits | 5/min | No overage |
| Starter | $9/mo | 20,000 | 5,000 daily credits | 15/min | $0.75/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Growth | $29/mo | 100,000 | 25,000 daily credits | 45/min | $0.45/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Pro | $79/mo | 400,000 | No daily cap | 120/min | $0.30/1,000 overage credits |
| Business | $199/mo | 1,200,000 | No daily cap | 300/min | $0.20/1,000 overage credits |
| Enterprise | $499/mo | 5,000,000 | No daily cap | 1,000/min | $0.12/1,000 overage credits |
This endpoint is executed through Crawlora's managed scraping infrastructure.
Crawlora does not silently return bad data when the upstream page cannot be used.
| Status | Common failure case |
|---|---|
| 400 | Invalid input or missing required parameter |
| 429 | Plan or endpoint rate limit exceeded |
| 500 | Internal execution error |
| 502 | Upstream platform failed, returned unusable HTML, or served a challenge page that could not be resolved |
When possible, Crawlora returns structured error context so your integration can retry, back off, or inspect the request.
| Status | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 404 | Not Found | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 500 | Internal Server Error | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | #/definitions/app.Response |
{
"code": 200,
"msg": "OK",
"data": {
"name": "fantasy",
"books": [
{
"id": "42844155",
"title": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)",
"author": "J.K. Rowling",
"author_id": "1077326",
"average_rating": 4.47,
"ratings_count": 11710306,
"publication_year": 1997,
"shelved_count": 89892,
"uri": "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42844155-harry-potter-and-the-philosopher-s-stone"
},
{
"id": "5907",
"title": "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (Paperback)",
"author": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
"author_id": "656983",
"average_rating": 4.3,
"ratings_count": 4585794,
"publication_year": 1937,
"shelved_count": 73195,
"uri": "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5907.The_Hobbit"
}
]
},
"source_url": "https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/fantasy"
}Request schema
No body schema
Response schema
#/definitions/goodreads.genreResponseDoc
| Field | Type | Required | Enum | Bounds | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| code | integer | No | 200 | |||
| data | goodreads.GenreResponse | No | ||||
| data.books | array | No | ||||
| data.books[].author | string | No | ||||
| data.books[].author_id | string | No | ||||
| data.books[].average_rating | number | No | 4.47 | |||
| data.books[].id | string | No | ||||
| data.books[].publication_year | integer | No | ||||
| data.books[].ratings_count | integer | No | ||||
| data.books[].shelved_count | integer | No | ShelvedCount is how many users have shelved this specific book under this genre tag — a per-genre popularity signal distinct from the book's overall ratings_count. | |||
| data.books[].title | string | No | ||||
| data.books[].uri | string | No | ||||
| data.name | string | No | ||||
| data.source_url | string | No | ||||
| msg | string | No | OK |
Use environment variables for secrets and keep Crawlora API keys server-side.
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/goodreads/genre/%3Cname%3E" \
-H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"Crawlora is designed for responsible structured public web data workflows. Customers are responsible for using Crawlora in compliance with applicable laws, third-party rights, target-platform rules, and Crawlora terms.
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