Wikiquote API

Base URL

https://en.wikiquote.org/w/api.php

Authentication

No API key. A descriptive User-Agent is requested by Wikimedia policy.

Rate limit

Reasonable use; Wikimedia asks that you cache and identify your client.

Pricing

Free. Content is CC BY-SA, so attribution is required.

CORS

Not enabled — call it from your server

Official docs

Read the docs

Every request below was executed against the live API on 20 Aug 2026, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

curl 'https://en.wikiquote.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&list=random&rnnamespace=0&rnlimit=1'

const res = await fetch("https://en.wikiquote.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&list=random&rnnamespace=0&rnlimit=1");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

res = requests.get("https://en.wikiquote.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&list=random&rnnamespace=0&rnlimit=1", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

{
  "batchcomplete": "",
  "continue": {
    "rncontinue": "0.612078488514|0.612124395773|274721|0",
    "continue": "-||"
  },
  "query": {
    "random": [
      {
        "id": 217670,
        "ns": 0,
        "title": "A Treatise on the Art of Brewing"
      }
    ]
  }
}

query.randomarray

Random page results with id and title.

query.searcharray

Search results with snippets.

query.pagesobject

Page content keyed by page id.

continueobject

Continuation token for paging through results.

batchcompletestring

Present when the batch finished.

• Build a sourced quotations feature with proper attribution
• Find verified quotes by a specific person
• Check whether a famous quote is actually misattributed
• Create literature and history teaching resources

If Wikiquote does not fit, these book & dictionary apis cover similar ground. Every one was called before publishing, and each links to its own reference page with a working curl command and the response it returned.