Project Gutenberg Book Search: Free eBooks with EPUB Links

Search Project Gutenberg's free public-domain eBooks by title, author or topic and get the ID, authors, subjects, bookshelves, languages, download count and direct EPUB/HTML/text/cover links. Filter by language. Uses the free Gutendex API, no key needed.

What does Project Gutenberg Book Search do?

Search 70,000+ public-domain eBooks: authors, subjects, languages, download counts and EPUB/text links.

What can you use it for?

• Build reading apps and reading lists of free classics.
• Collect public-domain texts for NLP and education.
• Find popular books by download count.
• Get EPUB links for offline libraries.

Why use this Actor?

• Fast and cheap: lightweight HTTP-based Actor with no browser, so runs finish in seconds and cost very little.
• No API keys or accounts needed for the data source (see notes below).
• Clean, structured JSON that you can export as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, or pull through the Apify API and integrations.
• Scheduling, webhooks and integrations: run it daily and send results to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, n8n or your own API.

Input

Configure the run in the Input tab (all fields have sensible defaults).

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	yes	-	Title or author, e.g. dickens, pride and prejudice.
language	string	no	-	Language code such as en, fr, de, fi.
maxResults	integer	no	30	Maximum number of results.

Example input

{
  "query": "dickens",
  "maxResults": 30
}

Output

Results are stored in the default dataset. Download them from the Output tab or via the API.

Example result

{
  "id": 564,
  "title": "The Mystery of Edwin Drood",
  "authors": "Dickens, Charles",
  "languages": "en",
  "subjects": "Cathedrals -- Fiction, Choral conductors -- Fiction, England -- Fiction, Missing persons -- Fiction, Mystery fiction, Psychological fiction",
  "bookshelves": "Category: British Literature, Category: Classics of Literature, Category: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery, Category: Novels",
  "downloadCount": 82040,
  "epubUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564.epub3.images",
  "htmlUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564.html.images",
  "coverUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/564/pg564.cover.medium.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564",
  "license": "Public domain in the USA (Project Gutenberg)",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-26T00:46:00.167Z"
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Example
id	number	564
title	string	"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
authors	string	"Dickens, Charles"
languages	string	"en"
subjects	string	"Cathedrals -- Fiction, Choral conductors -- Fiction, Eng...
bookshelves	string	"Category: British Literature, Category: Classics of Lite...
downloadCount	number	82040
epubUrl	string	"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564.epub3.images"
htmlUrl	string	"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564.html.images"
coverUrl	string	"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/564/pg564.cover.med...
url	string	"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564"
license	string	"Public domain in the USA (Project Gutenberg)"
scrapedAt	string	"2026-09-26T00:46:00.167Z"

How much does it cost?

The Actor is billed by Apify according to the pricing shown on the Pricing tab of this page. Runs are small and fast, and the Apify Free plan includes monthly platform credits so you can try it at no cost. You can set a maximum cost per run, and the Actor stops cleanly when that limit is reached.

Notes and limitations

• Books are public domain in the USA; rules in other countries may differ. Data via gutendex.com.

Tips

• Start with a small test run, then scale up the input.
• Use Schedules to automate recurring runs and Webhooks or Integrations to deliver the data where you need it.
• Call the Actor from your code with the Apify API or the official JavaScript and Python clients.

FAQ

How do I filter by language?

Enter a language code such as en, fr, de, ko in the language field.

Feedback

Found a bug or need an extra field? Open an issue from the Issues tab of this Actor and it will be looked at quickly.

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