ISBN Book Metadata Lookup

What does ISBN Book Metadata Lookup do?

ISBN Book Metadata Lookup is an Apify actor that retrieves complete book metadata from ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 numbers. It queries the Open Library API and Google Books API to return structured data including title, authors, publisher, publication date, page count, subjects, description, cover image URL, ratings, and more.

No browser, no proxy, no API key required. Just provide a list of ISBNs and get structured book data back in JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Who is ISBN Book Metadata Lookup for?

• Librarians and catalogers building or enriching digital catalogs with standardized book metadata
• Book retailers and resellers who need to populate product listings with accurate titles, authors, descriptions, and cover images
• Researchers and academics compiling reading lists or bibliographic databases at scale
• Content platforms auto-enriching book references with descriptions, subjects, and cover art
• Developers building book recommendation engines, reading trackers, or inventory management systems
• Data analysts studying publishing trends, subject classification, or author networks

Why use ISBN Book Metadata Lookup?

• Two data sources merged — Open Library for rich metadata (publishers, subjects, page counts) plus Google Books for ratings, categories, and preview links
• Zero proxy cost — uses free public APIs, no scraping, no anti-bot detection
• Handles both ISBN formats — ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 with automatic hyphen stripping
• Graceful error handling — invalid ISBNs and not-found entries are flagged, not crashed
• Structured flat output — every field is a top-level key, ready for CSV/Excel export without nested objects

What data can you get with ISBN Book Metadata Lookup?

Field	Type	Description
isbn13	string	ISBN-13 identifier
isbn10	string	ISBN-10 identifier
title	string	Book title
authors	string	Comma-separated author names
publisher	string	Publisher name
publishDate	string	Publication date
pageCount	number	Number of pages
subjects	string	Comma-separated subject tags (up to 10)
description	string	Book description or synopsis
language	string	Language code (e.g., "eng")
coverImageUrl	string	URL to cover image (Open Library or Google Books)
googleBooksUrl	string	Google Books preview link
openLibraryUrl	string	Open Library edition page
googleRating	number	Average Google Books rating (1-5)
googleRatingsCount	number	Number of Google Books ratings
inputIsbn	string	The original ISBN you provided
source	string	Data source: open_library, google_books, or both
error	string	Error message if ISBN was invalid or not found

How much does it cost to look up book metadata by ISBN?

ISBN Book Metadata Lookup uses Apify's pay-per-event pricing model. You only pay for what you use:

Charge Event	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM	DIAMOND
Actor start (per run)	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005
ISBN looked up (per ISBN)	$0.00345	$0.003	$0.00234	$0.0018	$0.0012	$0.00084

Example costs (FREE tier):

• Look up 10 books: ~$0.040 (start + 10 lookups)
• Look up 100 books: ~$0.350 (start + 100 lookups)
• Look up 1,000 books: ~$3.455 (start + 1,000 lookups)

Apify Free plan gives you $5/month in credits — enough to look up ~1,440 books per month at no cost.

Higher Apify plans get tiered discounts of up to 76% off per-ISBN pricing (DIAMOND tier: $0.00084/ISBN).

How to look up book metadata by ISBN

1. Go to the ISBN Book Metadata Lookup actor page on Apify
2. Click Start to open the input form
3. Enter your ISBNs in the ISBNs field — one per line, ISBN-10 or ISBN-13, hyphens optional
4. Toggle Include Google Books data on/off depending on whether you want ratings and preview links
5. Click Start to run the lookup
6. Download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect via API

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
isbns	string[]	Yes	—	List of ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 numbers
includeGoogleBooks	boolean	No	true	Merge additional metadata from Google Books API
skipNotFound	boolean	No	false	Skip ISBNs not found in any database

Output example

{
    "isbn13": "9780143127741",
    "isbn10": "0143127748",
    "title": "The Body Keeps the Score",
    "authors": "Bessel van der Kolk",
    "publisher": "Penguin Books",
    "publishDate": "Sep 08, 2015",
    "pageCount": 464,
    "subjects": "Post-traumatic stress disorder, Treatment, Therapy, Stress Disorders",
    "description": "Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with...",
    "language": "eng",
    "coverImageUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/14849962-L.jpg",
    "googleBooksUrl": "http://books.google.com/books?id=...",
    "openLibraryUrl": "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26631800M",
    "googleRating": 4.5,
    "googleRatingsCount": 1250,
    "inputIsbn": "9780143127741",
    "source": "open_library+google_books",
    "error": null
}

Tips for best results

• Use ISBN-13 when possible — it is the current international standard and has broader coverage
• Enable Google Books for richer data — ratings, categories, and preview links come from Google
• Batch large lookups — the actor handles thousands of ISBNs in a single run efficiently
• Google Books rate limits — the Google Books API has a daily quota (~1,000 requests). For very large batches, the actor automatically detects quota exhaustion and continues with Open Library data only. Google Books quota resets daily.
• Check the error field — if an ISBN is not found or invalid, the error field explains why
• Hyphens are fine — the actor strips them automatically, so 978-0-14-312774-1 works just like 9780143127741

Integrations

ISBN Book Metadata Lookup connects with 5,000+ apps through Apify integrations:

• Google Sheets — automatically populate a spreadsheet with book metadata from a list of ISBNs
• Airtable — build a book catalog database that auto-enriches when new ISBNs are added
• Zapier / Make — trigger lookups when new books are added to your inventory or reading list
• Slack / Email — get notifications when new book data is available
• Webhooks — pipe results directly into your own API or database

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/isbn-lookup').call({
    isbns: ['9780143127741', '9780061120084', '0451524934'],
    includeGoogleBooks: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('automation-lab/isbn-lookup').call(run_input={
    'isbns': ['9780143127741', '9780061120084', '0451524934'],
    'includeGoogleBooks': True,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~isbn-lookup/runs" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "isbns": ["9780143127741", "9780061120084", "0451524934"],
    "includeGoogleBooks": true
  }'

MCP integration (Claude, Cursor, VS Code)

Use ISBN Book Metadata Lookup directly from AI assistants via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/isbn-lookup"

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code

Add to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/isbn-lookup"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts:

• "Look up the book with ISBN 9780143127741 and tell me the author and page count"
• "Get metadata for these ISBNs: 9780061120084, 0451524934"
• "Find the cover image and description for ISBN 978-0-316-76948-8"

Is it legal to look up book data by ISBN?

Yes. ISBN Book Metadata Lookup uses publicly available APIs (Open Library and Google Books) that are designed for programmatic access. Both APIs are free, require no authentication for basic lookups, and provide data that publishers have made publicly available. The actor does not scrape any website or bypass any access controls.

FAQ

What ISBN formats are supported?

Both ISBN-10 (10 digits) and ISBN-13 (13 digits, starting with 978 or 979) are supported. Hyphens and spaces are stripped automatically.

What happens if an ISBN is not found?

By default, the actor outputs a record with error: "ISBN not found in Open Library or Google Books" and null data fields. Enable Skip not-found ISBNs to omit these records entirely.

Why are some fields null?

Not all books have complete metadata in every source. Older or less popular books may lack descriptions, ratings, or cover images. Enabling Google Books merging improves coverage.

Can I look up thousands of ISBNs at once?

Yes. The actor processes ISBNs sequentially with efficient batching. A run of 1,000 ISBNs typically completes in 5-10 minutes.

Why is the Google Books rating missing for some books?

Google Books only shows ratings for books that have received user reviews. Newer or niche titles may not have ratings yet. Additionally, the Google Books API has daily rate limits — if the quota is exhausted during a run, remaining ISBNs will only have Open Library data (the source field will show open_library instead of open_library+google_books).

The actor timed out — what should I do?

Increase the timeout in the run configuration. For very large batches (10,000+ ISBNs), consider splitting into multiple runs.

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