GBIF

About GBIF

GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) provides a RESTful API, based at api.gbif.org, for querying and publishing biodiversity data. It returns results primarily in JSON and is organized into sections covering the Registry (datasets, publishing organizations, networks, and access endpoints, also used by the Global Register of Scientific Collections), Species (taxon discovery and name interpretation), Occurrence (real-time paged search and asynchronous batch downloads of occurrence records), an Occurrence Image API, Maps, Literature (peer-reviewed papers citing GBIF datasets and downloads), a Validator for pre-publication data quality checks, and Vocabularies for controlled terms used in data interpretation.

Most endpoints do not require authentication, but POST, PUT, DELETE, and some GET requests use HTTP Basic Authentication with a GBIF user account, for example when programmatically requesting an occurrence download via curl. The API supports paging via limit/offset parameters, repeatable parameters for matching multiple values, and range queries for parameters such as year. Search endpoints may be rate limited (HTTP 429) under server load, and scripts expected to run longer than 15 minutes are advised to use the download API instead, which accepts up to 100,000 search parameters.

The API is intended for developers building advanced queries not supported by the GBIF website, embedding GBIF data into other sites, or automating repeatable workflows and analyses. It is documented as stable under a v1 versioning policy (no removal or renaming of resources, only additions, with advance notice before any future v2 breaking changes), while the Maps API is already at v2. Endpoints not listed in the documentation or marked experimental may change without warning, and scripted use of the www.gbif.org website itself (as opposed to the API) is not supported and may be blocked.

Key features

• Search and download occurrence records with real-time paged search or asynchronous batch downloads
• Species and taxonomy lookup, including name interpretation and identifier matching
• Registry API for datasets, publishing organizations, and networks (including GRSciColl)
• Occurrence Image API for low/medium resolution images linked to occurrences
• Maps API for visualizing GBIF-mobilized content
• Validator for data structure and quality checks before publishing a dataset

Frequently asked questions