Your Official Guide to the Unofficial Medium Dotcom API for Fetching Data

Hey guys!

This is the "Getting Started" Guide for the Medium API (Unofficial Version), listed on the RapidAPI Platform.

This REST API helps you to quickly extract data from Medium Dotcom, without any hassle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc8TKG9EQfE&embedable=true

Using our Unofficial Medium Dotcom API, you can get-

User's - Info, Articles, Top Articles, Followers, Following, Interests, Lists, Publications
Article's - Info, Responses, Content, Markdown, HTML, Fans, Related Articles
Publication's - Info, Articles, Newsletter
Top Feeds, Latest Posts, Top Writers, Tag Info, Related Tags
List's - Info, Articles, Responses
Search - Articles, Publications, Users, Lists, Tags

💡 Checkout our swagger documentation for the details on each endpoint!

Before getting started, you must first get your API Key to authenticate your calls. You'll need to pass it in the headers, along with the requests, to use the API smoothly.

Header -

x-rapidapi-key: [RAPIDAPI_KEY]

Wondering how to subscribe to our API and get an API Key? Watch the following video –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MM1C6mb-mc&embedable=true

API's Base URL:

https://medium2.p.rapidapi.com

GET User ID

Every Medium user has one unique hash ID associated with his/her account. Usually, we only deal with usernames that we choose while registering on the Medium Platform.

You can find your username in the sub-domain of your profile page URL or at the end of it. Like -

https:// username .medium.com
https:// medium.com/@ username

Once you get your username, like mine is nishu-jain, you can use the following endpoint to get your user_id.

Endpoint -

GET /user/id_for/{username}

Usage -

Once you have the user_id, you can invoke other user-related endpoints using it.

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/ac33f3d869ea8a859052fbb98e988385?embedable=true

GET User Info

Once you've got the user_id, you can use it to get user-related information such as - Full name, Username, Bio, Followers and Following count, Twitter username, Profile-image, top writer status, etc ...

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}

If you don't have the user_id, see the GET User ID endpoint above.

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/c26f5b68a01c5482f5a712e0a652fdd3?embedable=true

GET User's Articles

This endpoint returns a list of articles (article_ids) written by the Medium user.

💡 You can then use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information, such as title, subtitle, author, claps, voters, tags, topics, publication, etc..., related to your desired article.

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/articles

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/c0c133d64268a9ef2a4eb62e0408f474?embedable=true

GET User's Top Articles

This endpoint returns a list of aritcle_ids of the top 10 posts/articles on the user's profile (usually in chronological order - most recent posts), for the given user (user_id).

💡 You can then use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual articles.

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/top_aritcles

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/c64fb4791441951deeaaac458672879b?embedable=true

GET User's Following

This endpoint returns a list of user_ids of the given user's following.

You can fetch this list and use the GET User Info endpoint to retrieve information related to the individual users.

Note: Currently, this list does not contain the publication_ids of the publications that the user is following.

Query Parameters (Optional): -

count: To limit the number of results. (count <= 1500)

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/following

Usage —

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/7f3d13b52205e5b48a0edba8a8677bfe?embedable=true

GET User's Followers

This endpoint returns a list of user_ids of the followers for the given user.

Note: The length of followers' list might be different from what you get in the Get User Info Endpoint. It's because, this list doesn't include Medium Users who left the platform.

If you really need the exact followers' count, use this endpoint to get the followers' list and take its length as the exact followers' count

You can use the GET User Info endpoint to retrieve information related to the individual users.

Query Parameters (Optional): -

count: To limit the number of results. (count <= 1500)

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/followers

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/66e7ee163f48e426dec93fbded420802?embedable=true

GET User's Interests

This endpoint returns a list of tags that the given user follows on Medium.

All tags are lowercase hyphen-separated strings.

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/interests

Usage —

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/deb68d4ac20f29fae389bc78d2bab6a4?embedable=true

GET User's Lists

This endpoint returns an array of list_ids created by the user.

You can use the GET List Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual Medium Lists.

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/lists

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/42ae06edabb0fc32d8047356b88685ab?embedable=true

GET User's Publications

This endpoint returns a list of publication_ids where the user is the editor and/or creator.

You can use the GET Publication Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual publications.

Endpoint -

GET /user/{user_id}/publications

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/177663bcaf85d98d3504a6df8889714e?embedable=true

GET Article Info

This endpoint returns the article-related information such as Title, Subtitle, Author, Tags, Topics (as assigned by Medium), Publication, Published date and time, Clap Count, Voter Count, Word Count, Responses Count, Reading Time, Language, etc...

For using this endpoint, you'll need an article's unique hash ID, called article_id.

You can find the article_id at the end of any Medium Story's URL. Like -

medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/..67fa62fc1971
nishu-jain.medium.com/the-neutrality-of-dea..20abb01e5c85

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/3946e149d9b99b00e16fca59845ea2d3?embedable=true

GET Article's Content

This endpoint returns the textual content of an article/story, for the corresponding article_id.

You can get the article_id from the URL, as shown above in the GET Article Info endpoint.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/content

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/d64a3b2a09ad468abc517949379b1c0b?embedable=true

GET Article's Markdown

This endpoint returns the article content in the markdown format (.md), for the corresponding article_id.

You can get the article_id from the URL, as shown above in the GET Article Info endpoint.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/markdown

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/a692fc43a7f8a85aa25e358baf0544d6?embedable=true

GET Article's HTML

This endpoint returns the article in plain HTML format (.html), for the corresponding article_id.

You can get the article_id from the URL, as shown above in the GET Article Info endpoint.

Query Parameter (Optional):-

Set fullpage parameter to true to get the full HTML page with head, body, title, and meta tags. If fullpage is set to false or not provided, the endpoint will only return the HTML inside the body tag.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/html

GET /article/{article_id}/html?fullpage=true

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/7a2ccc872b043fd0113fe418515a8631?embedable=true

GET Article's Responses

This endpoint returns a list of responses (response_ids, same as article_ids) for a given article (article_id)

Note: You can treat response_id pretty much same as aritcle_id. To see the content of the response, use the Get Article's Content endpoint.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/responses

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/5e7b360bd7e3a03e3035a036a50e22c8?embedable=true

GET Article's Fans

This endpoint returns a list of user_ids of the people who clapped on the article.

You can use the GET User Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual users.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/fans

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/dc15a0310469816a9b0317b975da24a8?embedable=true

GET Related Articles

This endpoint returns a list of article_ids of the related posts. (Length = 5)

Note: If the article is self-published, related posts will belong to the same author. Else, related posts will belong to the publication in which the article is published.

Endpoint -

GET /article/{article_id}/related

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/8157dcb20427892dfe12d06ef3406217?embedable=true

GET Publication ID

Every Medium Publication has one unique hash ID associated with it. Usually, we only deal with publication_slug that is generated when we choose our Publication's Name. You can find your publication_slug in the homepage URL of your publication. Like -

https:// medium.com / publication_slug

Once you get your publication_slug, you can use the following endpoint to get your publication_id.

Endpoint -

GET /publication/id_for/{publication_slug}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/dbd1ee3e532789a662f85b54a9449bdc?embedable=true

GET Publication Info

This endpoint returns publication-related information such as Publication name, Tagline, Description, Tags, Followers Count, Creator, Editors, Twitter username, Instagram username, Facebook Page name, Logo, Domain, etc ... for the corresponding publication_id.

A publication_id is the unique hash ID associated with every Medium Publication. For example, publication_id of TowardsDataScience is "7f60cf5620c9".

If you don't know the publication_id, you can get it from any article published under it. Use the endpoint GET Article Info, to retrieve the publication_id. Or, if you know the publication_slug, use the endpoint GET Publication ID.

Endpoint -

GET /publication/{publication_id}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/e73f4c180b71fed2de9160dff38d25be?embedable=true

GET Publication Articles

This endpoint returns the list of articles_ids of the latest 25 articles, posted recently in that publication.

You can use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual articles.

Query Parameter (Optional): -

from: Use the from query parameter to get the articles before that date and time.

Endpoint -

GET /publication/{publication_id}/articles

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/d4ba88bd29cf3482927e77e87ed236d7?embedable=true

GET Publication's Newsletter

This endpoint returns information related to the associated newsletter for the given publication. This includes their name, description, creator's id, subscriber's count, unique id, image url, etc...

Endpoint -

GET /publication/{publication_id}/newsletter

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/4ed062ced5c2068cec38567f62d497f4?embedable=true

GET Latest Posts

This endpoint returns a list of the latest posts (article_ids) under a topic/niche (as classified and distributed by the Medium platform).

Examples of a topic/niche can be:

blockchain
artificial-intelligence
relationships
mental-health, etc ...

These are known as topic_slugs. (Not same as tags)

At any given moment, this endpoint will return a list of 25 articles (article_ids). You can then GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information related to each article.

Endpoint –

GET /latestposts/{topic_slug}

Usage –

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/dad4f1382928798b5d2dbfd1fd9c8c38?embedable=true

GET Top Writers

This endpoint returns a list of top writers (user_ids) within a particular topic/niche (using topic_slug).

Examples of topic_slug are –

blockchain
relationships
artificial-intelligence, etc ...

You can use an optional query parameter count to specify the number of top writers you want to retrieve.

Note: Maximum number of top writers within a topic will be 250.

After fetching the user_ids, you can use the GET User Info endpoint to extract information related to the individual users.

Endpoint –

GET /top_writers/{topic_slug}

GET /top_writers/{topic_slug}?count={count}

Usage —

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/9217562c854f85a2c949fb497ceb8cbc?embedable=true

GET Top Feeds

This endpoint returns a list of article_ids (default count = 25) for the given tag and mode.

Example of a tag will ‘blockchain', ‘defi', ‘artificial-intelligence', etc...

Mode:

hot : For getting trending articles
new : For getting the latest articles
top_year : For getting the best articles of the year
top_month : For getting the best articles of the month
top_week : For getting the best articles of the week
top_all_time: For getting the best articles of all time

Note: You can use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information related to each article.

Query Parameters (Optional): -

To get the subsequent top feeds, it can also take a query string parameter called after, where, after < 250.
To limit the number of top feeds, use another query string parameter called count, where count < 25.

Endpoint -

GET /topfeeds/{tag}/{mode}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/8be504accef43976d161cd0b72c23009?embedable=true

Get Tag Info

This endpoint returns tag-related information for the given tag. This includes:

Tag Name
Followers Count
Number of stories
Number of writers
Number of latest stories
Number of latest writers

Note: tags are lowercased, hyphen-separated strings representing a category or niche on Medium Platform

Endpoint -

GET /tag/{tag}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/03c46c14b2e9be11ca61d724dad3694d?embedable=true

Get Related Tags

This endpoint returns a list of related_tags for a given tag.

Example: For the tag blockchain, it will return "cryptocurrency", "bitcoin", "ethereum", "crypto", "ico", "technology", "defi", "nft", "fintech".

Endpoint -

GET /related_tags/{tag}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/6a0628389b1b1b27b9cc893c7c0181f4?embedable=true

GET List Info

This endpoint returns the Medium's list-related information - such as id, name, author, description, thumbnail image url, creation datetime, last modified datetime, number of articles in the list, claps, voters, and comments - for the given list_id.

The list_id is the unique hash ID associated with every Medium List. You can see it at the end of the URL as follows:

https:// nishu-jain.medium.com /list/medium-api-38f9e0f9bea6

Here 38f9e0f9bea6 is the list_id.

Endpoint -

GET /list/{list_id}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/f3c985b9626491950f379d25ea0c7e12?embedable=true

GET List Articles

This endpoint returns an array of article_ids present in the given Medium List.

You can use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual articles.

Endpoint -

GET /list/{list_id}/articles

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/8c5fcebc9b90574209a00fe82651dc8b?embedable=true

GET List Responses

This endpoint returns an array of response_ids for the given Medium List.

Note: You can treat response_id pretty much same as aritcle_id. To see the content of the response, use the Get Article's Content endpoint.

Endpoint -

GET /list/{list_id}/responses

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/e6668982cef713eff2ac41e95013d442?embedable=true

Search Articles

This endpoint returns a list of article_ids that match the search query. The maximum length of this list will be 1000. If no articles are found that match the search query, then an empty list will be returned.

Query Parameter (Required): -

query: A string parameter that specifies the search query for which the articles need to be retrieved.

You can use the GET Article Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual articles.

Endpoint -

GET /search/articles?query={query}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/11c71118c79feeb2deea8552c77ca04c?embedable=true

Search Publications

This endpoint returns a list of publication_ids that match the search query. The maximum length of this list will be 1000. If no publications are found that match the search query, then an empty list will be returned.

Query Parameter (Required): -

query: A string parameter that specifies the search query for which the publications need to be retrieved.

You can use the GET Publication Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual publications.

Endpoint -

GET /search/publications?query={query}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/e24d6a9462175e8df40d11fec1d60a05?embedable=true

Search Users

This endpoint returns a list of user_ids that match the search query. The maximum length of this list will be 1000. If no users are found that match the search query, then an empty list will be returned.

Query Parameter (Required): -

query: A string parameter that specifies the search query for which the users need to be retrieved.

You can use the GET User Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual users.

Endpoint -

GET /search/users?query={query}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/f5e63f8b87fb284d3562390093ac71a5?embedable=true

Search Lists

This endpoint returns an array of list_ids that match the search query. The maximum length of this array will be 1000. If no Medium Lists are found that match the search query, then an empty array will be returned.

Query Parameter (Required): -

query: A string parameter that specifies the search query for which the Medium Lists need to be retrieved.

You can use the GET List Info endpoint to retrieve information on individual Medium Lists.

Endpoint -

GET /search/lists?query={query}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/21a7f30b191462850d236f55afb0fd23?embedable=true

Search Tags

This endpoint returns a list of tags that match the search query. The maximum length of this list will be 1000. If no tags are found that match the search query, then an empty list will be returned.

Query Parameter (Required): -

query: A string parameter that specifies the search query for which the tags need to be retrieved.

Endpoint -

GET /search/tags?query={query}

Usage -

https://gist.github.com/weeping-angel/af8db800bc22ad5b226d58d5314a514b?embedable=true

Final thoughts

As of now, this API consists of 33 endpoints, all of which use the GET method. I'll try to add more endpoints in the future and improve its efficiency to provide you with the best [Unofficial] Medium API possible.

You can subscribe to this API here: Medium API - RapidAPI
Read its Swagger documentation here: API Documentation
And if you're a Python programmer, do pip install medium-api. Visit the following link to learn more about Unofficial Medium API's Python SDK.

GitHub - weeping-angel/medium-api

If you've any thoughts on it, feel free to share them. I'll appreciate your feedback and try to improve it further.

My email ID: [email protected]

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!

PS: We post tutorials, videos, code snippets, and insights related to Medium and Unofficial Medium API. So be sure to follow us on:

Twitter: twitter.com/medium_api
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/medium-api

Also published here.