Europeana APIs, made easy.

Europeana APIs allow you to build applications that use the wealth of our collections drawn from thousands of cultural heritage institutions across Europe.

Request an API key (opens in new window)

Already have an API key? Get inspiration for how to use it here.

a stylised illustration of a person holding a wrench in front of a server-like machine, from which a cable sprouts held up by another person. The second person is plugging in the cable to another electrical cable, which is connected to a large monitor in front of which two people stand, watching the screen.

Europeana APIs and how they work together

Europeana’s APIs allow you to search for cultural heritage items and their metadata in the Europeana collections, directly access this data, display them in IIIF viewers, and more. To use one of the APIs, request a free API key, and then read the documentation on how you can use it. Read about all of Europeana’s APIs here.

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Search API

The Search API provides a way to search for metadata records and media in the Europeana collections.

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Record API

The Record API provides direct access to the Europeana data, which is modelled using the Europeana Data Model (EDM).

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IIIF APIs

The IIIF APIs provide access to structured metadata about objects, and offer ways to visualise 2D objects in an interoperable viewer.

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Get started

If you want to learn how to use APIs for your own project, join our instructor-led training courses on getting started with Europeana APIs. Sign up using the link below for our courses starting in September 2024. Ready to use one of our APIs for your own project? Request an API key at the top of this page.

Register for the Europeana APIs online course (opens in new window)

Try it out

We’ve set up a fully fledged front-end demo using codepen which contains the code to search the Record API.

Find inspiration

Not sure how to use our APIs for your project? Check out these examples of creative projects using our APIs.

a screenshot of the europeana.eu homepage, with a blue background and the hero text saying 'Discover Europe's digital cultural heritage'

APIs on Europeana.eu

Europeana.eu also uses Europeana’s APIs! To see which requests the portal sends to the APIs go to europeana.eu, and click the API requests button in the footer of any Item, Search and Collection page on the Europeana website.

Go to Europeana.eu
a screenshot of the Europeana colour explorer, showing a collage of images in blue and purple with the overlay text 'Medium Slate Blue'

Europeana Colour Explorer

Explore images on Europeana by colour! The colour explorer chooses a random colour and automatically creates a gallery for you. Find your favourite colour, mix & match, share what you discover. This project uses the Europeana Search API.

Go to Europeana colour explorer (opens in new window)
a screenshot of the On This Day website, showing a collage of beige drawings and paintings

On This Day

Explore images taken on this day in history - or choose any day of the year to find historical images related to that day. This project used the Search and Record APIs to download a custom dataset.

Go to On This Day (opens in new window)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Read in more detail about how you can get access to Europeana’s APIs, what APIs Europeana has, and how to properly use the data you get from Europeana’s APIs for your own project.

Go to the Europeana API FAQ (opens in new window)