PubMed/NCBI API - Biomedical Literature & Citations

Search PubMed's 36M+ biomedical citations and pull full article records straight from NCBI's official E-utilities API. Search by keyword, author, journal, or MeSH term; fetch abstracts, authors, affiliations and MeSH headings by PubMed ID; list the articles that cite a paper; and find similar articles. Useful for literature reviews, pharma and medical-affairs research, and KOL tracking.

No API key is needed. NCBI allows 3 requests per second without a key; the actor paces itself to stay inside that limit. If you have a free NCBI key you can add it to go faster.

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Quick Start

Search articles

{
  "task": "search_articles",
  "searchQuery": "CRISPR gene therapy",
  "dateFrom": "2023/01/01",
  "dateTo": "2025/12/31",
  "limit": 20
}

Full record for one article

{
  "task": "get_article",
  "pmid": "33301246"
}

Preview the output format with sample data

{
  "task": "search_articles",
  "demoMode": true
}

Demo Mode returns made-up placeholder articles marked isSampleData: true. They are not real PubMed records. Demo runs are not charged a task fee.

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Tasks

Task	Required input	What you get
search_articles	searchQuery	Total match count plus article summaries (title, authors, journal, date, DOI, PMCID, publication types, PubMed link)
search_by_author	authorName (e.g. Doudna JA)	Same as above, for one author
search_by_journal	journalName (e.g. Nature)	Same as above, for one journal
search_mesh	meshTerm (e.g. Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2)	Same as above, for one MeSH heading
get_article	pmid (one or more, comma separated)	Full record: abstract, authors with affiliations, MeSH headings, keywords, publication types, DOI, PMCID
get_abstracts	pmid (one or more, comma separated, up to 200)	Title, journal, date, DOI and abstract for each ID
get_citations	pmid	Number of citing articles and summaries of up to limit of them
get_related	pmid	Up to limit similar articles ranked by PubMed's relevance score

All search tasks accept the optional dateFrom, dateTo and articleType filters. searchQuery supports normal PubMed syntax (AND, OR, NOT, field tags like [tiab]).

Citation counts come from PubMed's "cited by" links, which cover citing articles available in PubMed Central. They are lower than Google Scholar or Web of Science counts.

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
task	string	"search_articles"	Which operation to run (see Tasks)
searchQuery	string	-	Search terms for search_articles
pmid	string	-	PubMed ID(s) for get_article, get_abstracts, get_citations, get_related
authorName	string	-	Author for search_by_author, last name plus initials
journalName	string	-	Journal title or abbreviation for search_by_journal
meshTerm	string	-	MeSH heading for search_mesh
dateFrom	string	-	Publication date start (YYYY/MM/DD, YYYY/MM or YYYY)
dateTo	string	-	Publication date end
articleType	string	-	Publication type filter (Review, Clinical Trial, Meta-Analysis, and so on)
limit	integer	100	Max articles returned for search, citation and related tasks (1 to 500)
ncbiApiKey	string	-	Optional NCBI key; raises the rate limit to 10 requests per second
webhookUrl	string	-	Optional URL that receives the results as a POST
demoMode	boolean	false	Return labelled sample data instead of calling PubMed

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Output

Each run writes one row to the dataset. Search tasks return totalCount (all matches in PubMed), returned (how many are in this row), queryTranslation (how PubMed interpreted your query) and an articles array. If something goes wrong, the row has an error field that explains it, for example a missing search term or an unknown PubMed ID.

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Pricing

Pay per event:

Event	When it is charged	Price
Actor start	Once when the run starts, one event per GB of memory (minimum one). At the default 1 GB of memory that is $0.10 per run	$0.10 per GB
Search PubMed Articles	Full-text search across 36M+ biomedical citations. Filter by date, article type, and journal	$0.01
Get Article Details	Retrieve complete article metadata by PubMed ID (PMID). Includes abstract, authors, and MeSH terms	$0.01
Get Citation Data	Retrieve citation counts and citing articles for a publication. Track research impact and influence	$0.01
Search by Author	Find publications by researcher name. Track KOL publication history and research focus areas	$0.01
Search by Journal	Find articles published in a specific journal. Monitor publication activity in target journals	$0.01
Get Article Abstracts	Batch retrieve abstracts for multiple PubMed IDs. Efficient for literature review workflows	$0.01
Search by MeSH Term	Search using Medical Subject Headings for precise topic matching. Find articles by controlled vocabulary	$0.01
Get Related Articles	Find articles related to a specific publication. Discover relevant research and expand literature searches	$0.01
Result	Each item written to the default dataset	$0.00001

No task fee is charged for Demo Mode, for errors, or for searches that match nothing. The actor start and the single dataset row are platform fees that apply to every run. This actor runs fine on 256 MB, which keeps the start fee at one unit.

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Troubleshooting

"searchQuery is required" (or authorName, journalName, meshTerm, pmid)

Each task needs its own input field. See the Tasks table.

"No PubMed record found for PMID ..."

Check the ID. PMIDs are numbers only, for example 33301246.

"HTTP 429"

NCBI's rate limit was hit after several retries. Run again, or add a free NCBI API key.

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Built by John Rippy | Actor Arsenal