TOOLS
Search Hacker News API
Full-text + filter search over Hacker News (stories, comments, Show/Ask HN, front page) via Algolia's open API. Ordered by relevance or date.
How to call it
Send one POST to api.upapi.io/hackernews-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 20 seconds. Identical requests are served from cache for 60 seconds, unbilled.
POST https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get
Search Hacker News API reference
Request parameters
- tags
- string — HN Algolia tag filter: story, comment, poll, show_hn, ask_hn, front_page, etc.
- order
- string — Sort order
- query
- stringrequired — Full-text search query
- hitsPerPage
- integer
Response fields
- hits
- arrayrequired
- hits[].id
- stringrequired
- hits[].url
- stringrequired
- hits[].tags
- arrayrequired
- hits[].title
- stringrequired
- hits[].author
- stringrequired
- hits[].points
- integerrequired
- hits[].createdAt
- stringrequired
- hits[].storyText
- stringrequired
- hits[].numComments
- integerrequired
- query
- stringrequired
- fetchedAt
- stringrequired
- totalHits
- 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.
{
"tags": "story",
"order": "relevance",
"query": "typescript",
"hitsPerPage": 20
}{
"hits": [
{
"id": "example",
"url": "https://github.com",
"tags": [
"example"
],
"title": "Alan Turing",
"author": "example",
"points": 1,
"createdAt": "example",
"storyText": "example",
"numComments": 1
}
],
"query": "typescript",
"fetchedAt": "example",
"totalHits": 1
}Code snippets
cURL
curl -X POST https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
-d '{ "tags": "story", "order": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "hitsPerPage": 20 }'JavaScript
const response = await fetch('https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"tags": "story",
"order": "relevance",
"query": "typescript",
"hitsPerPage": 20
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);Python
import requests
response = requests.post(
'https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get',
headers={
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
json={
"tags": "story",
"order": "relevance",
"query": "typescript",
"hitsPerPage": 20
},
)
print(response.json())Go
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
payload := []byte(`{ "tags": "story", "order": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "hitsPerPage": 20 }`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-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
$payload = json_encode([
'tags' => 'story',
'order' => 'relevance',
'query' => 'typescript',
'hitsPerPage' => 20,
]);
$ch = curl_init('https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get');
curl_setopt_array($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
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'json'
uri = URI('https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-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 = { "tags": "story", "order": "relevance", "query": "typescript", "hitsPerPage": 20 }.to_json
response = http.request(request)
puts JSON.parse(response.body)Java
import okhttp3.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import java.util.Map;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
String json = "{ \"tags\": \"story\", \"order\": \"relevance\", \"query\": \"typescript\", \"hitsPerPage\": 20 }";
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(json, MediaType.get("application/json"));
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url("https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-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);
}C#
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>("{ \"tags\": \"story\", \"order\": \"relevance\", \"query\": \"typescript\", \"hitsPerPage\": 20 }");
var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync("https://api.upapi.io/hackernews-search.get", payload);
var result = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>();
Console.WriteLine(result);Frequently asked questions
How much does the Search Hacker News 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 Hacker News API?
Send your key in the X-Api-Key header. A free guest key is available without creating an account.
Are Search Hacker News API responses cached?
Yes — identical requests are served from cache for 60 seconds, and a cache hit is not billed.