<!-- Wikimedia Enterprise docs. Canonical page: https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/ -->

# Getting Started

**Welcome** to the Wikimedia Enterprise API Documentation and Reference Guide. Wikimedia Enterprise provides a [suite of APIs](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/api/) designed for high-volume read-only access to Wikipedia and other [supported Wikimedia projects](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/project-data/). These APIs have been developed and are maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation. All endpoints return data in a consistent schema, so you can combine articles from Snapshot, On-demand, or Realtime without creating separate parsers. Our Snapshot and Realtime: Batch download endpoints return tar.gz files and an NDJSON header. All other API endpoints return JSON by default.

Two kinds of documentation live here: the **guides** in the sidebar cover concepts, workflows, and decision guidance, while the [**API reference**](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/) documents every endpoint and response field. Read our [Data Primer](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/data-primer/) to understand how data from Wikimedia projects is created and maintained.

## Which API fits?

- **Bulk data for a whole project**: the [Snapshot API](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/snapshot/) downloads every article in a project as one compressed NDJSON file.
- **The current live version of specific articles**: the [On-demand API](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/on-demand/) returns individual articles by name, as they stand right now.
- **Updates pushed to you as they happen**: the [Realtime API](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/realtime/) streams every change (firehose) or delivers hourly batch files. Paid plans only.
- **Parsed, machine-readable JSON** instead of raw HTML/wikitext: the beta [Structured Contents](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/api/structured-contents/) endpoints provide pre-parsed JSON output for On-demand and Snapshot payloads.

Whichever API you pick, every payload includes [Credibility Signals](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/api/credibility-signals/) for judging content trust; the [tuning guide](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/credibility-signals/) shows how to put them to work.

To weigh quota, format, and freshness trade-offs across these options, see [Choose the right API for the job](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/best-practices/#choose-the-right-api-for-the-job) in Best Practices. For the product-level view (free and paid accounts, feature comparison), see the [API overview](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/api/).

## First step: sign up

> **Note:** If you are a Wikimedia community member, you can get exclusive access to Wikimedia Enterprise APIs. [Request community access on Meta](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise#Access).

To get started, [sign up for a free account](https://dashboard.enterprise.wikimedia.com/signup/?utm_source=website\&utm_medium=cta\&utm_campaign=signup\&utm_content=docs-start) (*no credit card required*), verify your email, then follow the next steps on this page.

## Getting your API keys

Now that you've set up and verified your account, send the **username** (*all lowercase*) **and password you created** as input to the [Login](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/#tag/authentication/POST/v1/login) endpoint to receive your tokens.

Wikimedia Enterprise **APIs use JWT authentication passed in the header** for access verification. All API requests must be made over HTTPS and must pass that Bearer access token in the `Authorization` header; without it your request will return a `401 - Unauthorized` error. Access tokens last 24 hours, refresh tokens last 90 days. The [Authentication guide](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/authentication/) covers the full token lifecycle.

```bash
curl -L https://auth.enterprise.wikimedia.com/v1/login -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"username":"yourusername", "password":"secret"}'
```

> **Caution:** Your credentials carry many privileges related to your account, so be careful to keep them secure. Do not share your credentials in publicly accessible areas such as GitHub, client-side code, etc.

## Example API calls

Now you are ready to make your first call. Start by running this cURL command using your valid `access_token`. You'll receive a list of all [supported projects](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/project-data/) available to you in our APIs, including the project name, identifier, language, and more.

> **Note:** The [project identifier](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/identifiers/#identifier-by-resource) (e.g. "`enwiki`" for English Wikipedia) is the identifier you will use to identify the project and language in requests.

```bash
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" -L https://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com/v2/projects
```

Next, try using the [Snapshot API](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/#tag/snapshots/GET/v2/snapshots/{identifier}/download). Run this cURL command to download a compressed file (*HTML dump*) containing every article in English Wikipedia (*it's large*).

> **Note:** The [snapshot identifier](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/identifiers/#how-a-snapshot-identifier-is-built) is constructed with 3 items from our [metadata endpoints](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/metadata/): `<language><project_code>_namespace_<number>`

```bash
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" -L https://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com/v2/snapshots/enwiki_namespace_0/download --output enwiki.tar.gz
```

Uncompress the tar.gz file to get an NDJSON file with each line representing a single article in the project. An [example of an article's payload](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/api/#production-api-payload-example) can be seen on our API page, and to learn more about each field in the payload, see the [article model in the API reference](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/#models/article).

Next, try calling the [On-demand API](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/#tag/articles/GET/v2/articles/{name}) to get a single article (page) of interest. Let's use NASA in English Wikipedia as an example, with this cURL command.

```bash
curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://api.enterprise.wikimedia.com/v2/articles/NASA' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "filters": [
    {
      "field": "is_part_of.identifier",
      "value": "enwiki"
    }
  ],
  "limit": 1
}'
```

You'll receive a JSON response containing the same article data and format represented in the Snapshot API's file. The main difference here (*besides being able to query pages individually*) is that this response returns the live version of the article that is actively on the project today, whereas the Snapshot updates daily (*for paid users*) or once a month (*for free users*).

## Software development kits (SDKs)

We have built software development kits (SDK) in Go and Python to help you get started:

[Go SDK](https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise/wme-sdk-go)

[Python SDK](https://github.com/wikimedia-enterprise/wme-sdk-python)

## Next steps

There you have it! You've created your account and made your first calls to Wikimedia Enterprise. To integrate properly:

- Work through the guides for the APIs that fit your use case: [Metadata](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/metadata/), [Snapshot](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/snapshot/), [On-demand](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/on-demand/), and [Realtime](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/realtime/).
- [Fields, Filters, and Limit](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/filtering/) shows how to request exactly the data you need.
- [Identifiers](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/identifiers/) is the reference page for what each endpoint's `{identifier}` expects, since the format differs per resource.
- [Tuning Credibility Signals](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/credibility-signals/) walks through recommended thresholds, an evaluation strategy, and field-by-field reference tables.
- The [Best Practices](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/best-practices/) page collects the key takeaways per API.
- The [API reference](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/) documents every endpoint and response field, and you can [download the OpenAPI definition](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/api/wme-api.yaml) for Postman, codegen, or any other API tooling.
- Working with a coding agent? [AI Agents and MCP](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/docs/agents/) covers the markdown versions of these pages and the docs MCP server.

If you have some additional questions, look through the [FAQs](https://helpcenter.enterprise.wikimedia.com/) or use [your account dashboard](https://dashboard.enterprise.wikimedia.com/) to contact support or provide feedback.

Wikimedia Enterprise operates a status page at [status.enterprise.wikimedia.com](https://status.enterprise.wikimedia.com/) displaying uptime history and current status.

If you are interested in daily Snapshot dumps, Realtime firehose, or additional egress, [contact us](https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/contact/).