Getting StartedAPI Documentation
Getting Started
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Using the API

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Build powerful applications and integrate Crunchbase into your web and mobile applications with the REST API. The Crunchbase API is a read-only RESTful service that enables approved developers to leverage the same data that powers www.crunchbase.com.

To get a better sense of what's available through the REST API, you can review our API Reference page for details on our endpoints, some of which contains an example of the output.

Accessing the REST API

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Access to the Full API Requires an Enterprise or Applications License

If you do not already have access to the API, feel free to contact us.

Both Enterprise and Applications licensees have access to the full Crunchbase API.

Licensees that have the "Crunchbase Basic" plan are limited to the Basic APIs

For simple testing / inspection, the Crunchbase API can also be accessed through any web browser capable of displaying JSON.

All API calls require a user key which is emailed to you following registration. If you lose your key, contact [email protected].

Authentication

The Crunchbase API uses token-based authentication, which means that developers must pass their individual API Key parameter with every request. There are two ways you can pass your API key for authentication:

  • user_key in the request's URL
  • X-cb-user-key in the request's header

Below are a couple of example requests for the /organizations endpoint and how you would pass your API key for authentication:

GET https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/entities/organizations/crunchbase?user_key=INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

curl --request GET 'https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4/entities/organizations/crunchbase?user_key=INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

GET /api/v4/entities/organizations/crunchbase HTTP/1.1
X-cb-user-key: INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
Content-Type: application/json

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4/entities/organizations/crunchbase' \
--header 'X-cb-user-key: INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

This API key is used to validate each developer's access to the API and ensure that any rate limits or quotas are respected. If you omit the API key, overrun a rate limit, or exceed a quota, the system will respond with an error message.

HTTPS & API Base URL

All API requests to our platform now require HTTPS. If HTTPS is not used, an error code of "426" will be returned.

The Base URL for our API is https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/...

Collections

The Crunchbase API provides Collection endpoints to retrieve data for a specific entity, to retrieve data for a group of entities / an entire collection, and to search for entities that match certain criteria.

  • Retrieving data for a specific entity: you can use our Entity Lookup APIs
  • Retrieving data for a group of entities / an entire collection: you can use our Search APIs
  • Searching for entities: you can either use our Search APIs to find entities that match your search criteria, or use our Autocomplete API to quickly get a list of suggested entities based on your query

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Rate Limit

We do have a rate limit of 200 calls per minute for our API endpoints to protect our platform and ensure consistent reliability and performance. Our rate limit is based on the number of calls you make per minute against our platform; when you hit the rate limit, the API will respond with an error message.

If you have any questions or you're continuing to hit the rate limit, please reach out to your CSM for further assistance.

Terms & Attribution for using the API

We encourage you to leverage the API for your internal business and research needs. Unless otherwise noted in your license (see License Agreement and Data Access Terms), you may not license, sublicense, sell, offer to sell, distribute or otherwise provide any of the Crunchbase data to any third parties.

Attribution Requirements

When sharing information about the data, follow these attribution requirements.

  • Attribution must be accompanied by a hyperlink to Crunchbase
  • If content being attributed is primarily about one entity, link must point to that entity on Crunchbase.
  • Link must be plainly visible to end user
  • Link must be in close proximity to the attributed data
  • Link must be visible to Internet spiders (e.g. Googlebot)
  • Link cannot include the “nofollow” tag"

Updated 4 months ago

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