DEVELOPER TOOLS

Search Stack Exchange API

What is the Stack Exchange API on upAPI?

The Stack Exchange API on upAPI searches questions across Stack Overflow and any other Stack Exchange site, returning titles, tags, scores and answer counts as JSON. No Stack Exchange key of your own is needed, only one upAPI key. The Free plan includes 1,000 weighted units a month.

Full-text search over any Stack Exchange site (stackoverflow, superuser, askubuntu, etc.). Returns question id, title, tags, score, answer count, accepted-answer flag, asker, timestamps.

stackoverflowstackexchangesearchpython

Try it free Get an API key

How to call it

Send one POST to api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get with your key in the X-Api-Key header and the parameters below as a JSON body. Each call spends 1 weighted unit of your monthly quota. The operation times out after 15 seconds. Identical requests are served from cache for 60 seconds, unbilled.

endpoint

POST https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get

Search Stack Exchange API reference

Request parameters

site: string — Stack Exchange site slug (stackoverflow, superuser, askubuntu, serverfault, etc.)
sort: string
query: stringrequired — Full-text search query
pageSize: integer

Response fields

hits: arrayrequired
hits[].link: stringrequired
hits[].tags: arrayrequired
hits[].score: integerrequired
hits[].title: stringrequired
hits[].askedBy: stringrequired
hits[].createdAt: stringrequired
hits[].viewCount: integerrequired
hits[].isAnswered: booleanrequired
hits[].questionId: integerrequired
hits[].answerCount: integerrequired
hits[].lastActivity: stringrequired
hits[].hasAcceptedAnswer: booleanrequired
site: stringrequired
query: stringrequired
hasMore: booleanrequired
fetchedAt: stringrequired
totalReturned: integerrequired
quotaRemaining: integerrequired

Example request and response

The example response is generated from this operation’s published output schema — it shows the shape and field names, not values from a recorded call.

json — example request body

{
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "sort": "relevance",
  "query": "typescript",
  "pageSize": 10
}

json — example response shape

{
  "hits": [
    {
      "link": "example",
      "tags": [
        "example"
      ],
      "score": 1,
      "title": "Alan Turing",
      "askedBy": "example",
      "createdAt": "example",
      "viewCount": 1,
      "isAnswered": false,
      "questionId": 1,
      "answerCount": 1,
      "lastActivity": "example",
      "hasAcceptedAnswer": false
    }
  ],
  "site": "example",
  "query": "typescript",
  "hasMore": false,
  "fetchedAt": "example",
  "totalReturned": 1,
  "quotaRemaining": 1
}

Code snippets

cURL

curl

curl -X POST https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -d '{ "site": "stackoverflow", "sort": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "pageSize": 10 }'

JavaScript

javascript

const response = await fetch('https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "sort": "relevance",
  "query": "typescript",
  "pageSize": 10
}),
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Python

python

import requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get',
    headers={
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    },
    json={
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "sort": "relevance",
  "query": "typescript",
  "pageSize": 10
},
)

print(response.json())

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	payload := []byte(`{ "site": "stackoverflow", "sort": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "pageSize": 10 }`)

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get", bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	var result map[string]any
	json.Unmarshal(body, &result)
	fmt.Println(result)
}

PHP

php

<?php

$payload = json_encode([
    'site' => 'stackoverflow',
    'sort' => 'relevance',
    'query' => 'typescript',
    'pageSize' => 10,
]);

$ch = curl_init('https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST           => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS     => $payload,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER     => [
        'Content-Type: application/json',
        'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY',
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);
var_dump($data);

Ruby

ruby

require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'json'

uri = URI('https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get')
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.path)
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
request.body = { "site": "stackoverflow", "sort": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "pageSize": 10 }.to_json

response = http.request(request)
puts JSON.parse(response.body)

Java

java

import okhttp3.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import java.util.Map;

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

String json = "{ \"site\": \"stackoverflow\", \"sort\": \"relevance\", \"query\": \"typescript\", \"pageSize\": 10 }";

RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(json, MediaType.get("application/json"));
Request request = new Request.Builder()
    .url("https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get")
    .post(body)
    .addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
    .addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
    .build();

try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
    Map<?, ?> result = mapper.readValue(response.body().string(), Map.class);
    System.out.println(result);
}

csharp

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Text.Json;

using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY");

var payload = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<object>("{ \"site\": \"stackoverflow\", \"sort\": \"relevance\", \"query\": \"typescript\", \"pageSize\": 10 }");
var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync("https://api.upapi.io/stackexchange-search.get", payload);

var result = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>();
Console.WriteLine(result);

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Search Stack Exchange API cost per call?

Each call spends 1 weighted unit of your plan's monthly quota. Full pricing is at https://upapi.io/pricing.

How do I authenticate to the Search Stack Exchange API?

Send your key in the X-Api-Key header. A free guest key is available without creating an account.

Are Search Stack Exchange API responses cached?

Yes — identical requests are served from cache for 60 seconds, and a cache hit is not billed.

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