ISBN Lookup, Book Metadata & Cover Finder

Look up ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 book data on Apify. This Actor validates ISBNs and enriches each book with titles, authors, publishers, publication dates, descriptions, page counts, languages, categories, cover image URLs, Goodreads ratings when available, source links, and a confidence score.

Use it as an ISBN lookup tool, book metadata API alternative, book cover finder, ISBN validator, and batch catalog enrichment workflow for ecommerce catalogs, libraries, publishers, spreadsheets, research lists, and book data pipelines.

What You Get

For each ISBN, the Actor returns one clean dataset item with fields such as:

• Valid ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 values
• Book title, subtitle, and authors
• Publisher and publication date
• Book description, page count, language, and subjects
• Small, medium, and large cover image URLs when available
• Goodreads average rating, rating count, and review count when available
• Open Library and Goodreads source links
• Status, warnings, errors, and confidence score

Results can be exported from Apify as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML, or consumed directly through the Apify API.

Common Use Cases

• Enrich book catalogs from ISBN lists
• Find missing book cover image URLs
• Validate and normalize ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 values
• Add book titles, authors, publishers, and dates to spreadsheets
• Build product data for bookstore and ecommerce listings
• Create book metadata datasets without paid metadata APIs
• Run scheduled ISBN checks for catalog quality control
• Use Apify as a lightweight ISBN lookup API

No Paid Book APIs

This Actor does not use Google Books API, ISBNdb API, WorldCat API, paid APIs, LLMs, Playwright, or Puppeteer.

It uses lightweight public-source enrichment from Open Library and Goodreads, plus Open Library's public metadata endpoint for large-batch availability checks. This keeps runs simple, fast, and affordable.

Input

Provide ISBNs in the isbns field. Use one list item for one book:

{
  "isbns": ["9780441172719"],
  "maxItems": 1
}

For batch ISBN enrichment, add more values to the same list:

{
  "isbns": [
    "9780441172719",
    "9780143127741",
    "978-0-452-28423-4"
  ]
}

Input options:

Field	Type	Default	Description
isbns	array	required	ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 values. Hyphens, spaces, and labels such as ISBN-13: are normalized.
maxItems	integer	100	Maximum number of unique ISBNs to process.
includeCovers	boolean	true	Return cover image URLs when available. Images are not downloaded.
includeDescription	boolean	true	Return book descriptions when available.
includeGoodreads	boolean	true	Try Goodreads public pages for ratings. Disable for faster runs when ratings are not needed.

Output

Successful results are compact and only include fields that were found:

{
  "input": "9780441172719",
  "normalizedInput": "9780441172719",
  "status": "success",
  "isValidIsbn": true,
  "isbn10": "0441172717",
  "isbn13": "9780441172719",
  "title": "Dune",
  "authors": ["Frank Herbert"],
  "publisher": "Ace Books",
  "publishedDate": "1987",
  "pageCount": 535,
  "language": "English",
  "description": "Set on the desert planet Arrakis...",
  "categories": ["Science Fiction", "Fiction"],
  "coverImages": {
    "small": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/15166231-S.jpg",
    "medium": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/15166231-M.jpg",
    "large": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/15166231-L.jpg"
  },
  "sourceLinks": {
    "openLibrary": "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL22597282M/Dune",
    "goodreads": "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44767458-dune"
  },
  "ratings": {
    "goodreadsAverage": 4.29,
    "goodreadsRatingsCount": 1663898,
    "goodreadsReviewsCount": 85540
  },
  "sourcesUsed": ["openLibrary", "goodreads"],
  "confidence": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-07T14:36:29.934Z"
}

If an ISBN is valid but no metadata is found:

{
  "input": "9799999999990",
  "normalizedInput": "9799999999990",
  "status": "not_found",
  "isValidIsbn": true,
  "isbn13": "9799999999990",
  "sourcesUsed": [],
  "confidence": 0,
  "warnings": [
    "ISBN is valid but no metadata was found from available sources."
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-07T14:36:31.131Z"
}

If an ISBN is invalid:

{
  "input": "12345",
  "normalizedInput": "12345",
  "status": "failed",
  "isValidIsbn": false,
  "errors": [
    {
      "step": "isbn_validation",
      "message": "Invalid ISBN checksum or length."
    }
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-07T14:36:30.357Z"
}

Status values:

Status	Meaning
success	Enough metadata was found for the ISBN.
partial	Some metadata was found, but the record is incomplete.
not_found	The ISBN is valid, but no source metadata was found.
failed	The ISBN is invalid or could not be processed.

Python API Example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run_input = {
    "isbns": [
        "9780441172719",
        "9780143127741",
        "978-0-452-28423-4",
    ],
    "includeCovers": True,
    "includeDescription": True,
    "includeGoodreads": True,
}

run = client.actor("thescrapelab/isbn-book-metadata-enricher-cover-finder").call(
    run_input=run_input
)

dataset_id = run["defaultDatasetId"]
for item in client.dataset(dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Data Sources

The Actor currently uses:

• Open Library ISBN pages
• Open Library public metadata endpoint for large-batch availability checks
• Goodreads public book and search pages

Goodreads data is best-effort. If Goodreads returns an anti-bot challenge, the Actor skips Goodreads for the rest of that run to avoid wasting requests and adds source warnings to the output.

Cost And Speed

This Actor is designed for low-cost batch ISBN enrichment:

• No browser automation
• No image downloads
• No full HTML storage
• Built-in modest concurrency
• Short retries and timeouts
• One dataset item per ISBN
• Batch Open Library checks skip page requests for ISBNs that are not known by the source

Limitations

Public websites can change HTML, block requests, or return incomplete metadata. Goodreads ratings and cover images may not always be available. This Actor is optimized for fast and affordable ISBN enrichment, not for authoritative library cataloging or exhaustive bibliographic coverage.

FAQ

Can I look up one ISBN?

Yes. Enter one item in the ISBN list, for example ["9780441172719"].

Can ISBNs include hyphens or labels?

Yes. Hyphens, spaces, and labels like ISBN-13: are removed before validation.

Does it validate ISBN checksums?

Yes. It validates ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 checksums and converts between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 when possible.

Does it download book covers?

No. It returns cover image URLs only.

Does it use paid APIs?

No. It uses public pages and Open Library's public metadata endpoint only.

Can I use it as a Google Books API alternative?

Yes, for common book catalog enrichment fields such as title, authors, publisher, publication date, description, categories, cover image URLs, and source links.