Hacker News Search (Algolia) API

Free Algolia-powered Hacker News search API with no key: full-text search across all stories and comments with filtering by points, date and author. Tested.

No API key requiredCORS enabledHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 20 Aug 2026

What is the Hacker News Search (Algolia) API?

The Hacker News Search API, powered by Algolia, is a free key-free API providing full-text search across every Hacker News story and comment, with filtering by points, comment count, date range and author.

The official Hacker News Firebase API can fetch items by id but cannot search at all. This Algolia-backed API fills that gap with genuine full-text search across the entire history of stories and comments.

The numeric filters are what make it powerful: `numericFilters=points>100,created_at_i>1700000000` narrows to high-scoring recent items in one request. That is how you build a useful topic monitor rather than a firehose.

Quick facts

Base URL: https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1
Authentication: No API key required.
Rate limit: 10,000 requests per hour per IP.
Pricing: Free, provided by Algolia.
CORS: Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript
Official docs: Read the docs

How to use the Hacker News Search (Algolia) API

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.

1. Search Hacker News stories

GET https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=typescript&hitsPerPage=1

curl

curl 'https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=typescript&hitsPerPage=1'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=typescript&hitsPerPage=1");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python (requests)

import requests

res = requests.get("https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=typescript&hitsPerPage=1", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response — HTTP 200 (truncated)

{
  "exhaustive": {
    "nbHits": false,
    "typo": false
  },
  "exhaustiveNbHits": false,
  "exhaustiveTypo": false,
  "hits": [
    {
      "_highlightResult": {
        "author": {
          "matchLevel": "none",
          "matchedWords": [],
          "value": "DanRosenwasser"
        },
        "title": {
          "fullyHighlighted": false,
          "matchLevel": "full",
          "matchedWords": [
            "typescript"
          ],
          "value": "A 10x Faster <em>TypeScript</em>"
        },
        "url": {
          "fullyHighlighted": false,
          "matchLevel": "full",
          "matchedWords": [
            "typescript"
          ],
          "value": "https://devblogs.microsoft.com/<em>typescript</em>/<em>typescript</em>-native-port/"
        }
      },
      "_tags": [
        "story",
        "author_DanRosenwasser",
        "story_43332830"
      ],
      "author": "DanRosenwasser",
      "children": [
        43332890,
        43332903,
        43332959,
        43332974,
        43332979,
        43333009,
        43333016,
        43333040,
        43333047,
        43333053,
        43333067,
        43333080,
        43333085,
        43333093,
        43333095,
        43333117,
        43333156,
        43333238,
        43333254,
        43333261,
        43333321,
        43333408,
        43333461,
        43333479,
        43333483,
        43333498,
        43333518,
        43333533,
        43333605,
        43333606,
        43333838,
        43333851,
        43333906,
        43333914,
        43333984,
        43334009,

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	Optional	Full-text search term. `typescript`
`tags`	string	Optional	story, comment, poll, show_hn, ask_hn or author_x. `story`
`numericFilters`	string	Optional	Filters such as points>100 or created_at_i>timestamp. `points>100`
`hitsPerPage`	integer	Optional	Results per page, max 1000. `20`
`search_by_date`	path	Optional	Use /search_by_date for chronological rather than relevance order. `search_by_date`

Response fields

nbHitsinteger: Total matching items.
hits[].titlestring: Story title, or null for comments.
hits[].urlstring: Linked URL, null for text posts.
hits[].pointsinteger: Score at index time.
hits[].authorstring: Username of the submitter.
hits[].created_at_iinteger: Unix timestamp, used for numeric date filtering.
hits[].objectIDstring: HN item id — use it with the official Firebase API for live data.

What you can build with the Hacker News Search (Algolia) API

Monitor Hacker News for mentions of a product or topic
Build a search interface over HN history
Find the highest-scoring discussions on a subject
Analyse trends in what the HN community discusses

Common errors and how to fix them

Stale points and comment counts

Values are from index time, not live.

Fix: Use objectID with the official Firebase API when you need current scores.

Comments returned when you wanted stories

No tags filter was applied.

Fix: Pass tags=story to restrict results.

429

Exceeded 10,000 requests per hour.

Fix: Cache searches; results for historical queries do not change.

Hacker News Search (Algolia) API — frequently asked questions

Is the Hacker News search API free?

Yes, free with no API key, at 10,000 requests per hour. It is provided by Algolia.

Why can't I search with the official HN API?

The official Firebase API only fetches items by id — it has no search capability at all. This Algolia API exists specifically to provide search.

How do I find only high-scoring stories?

Use numericFilters, for example numericFilters=points>100, combined with tags=story. You can add date filters with created_at_i.

Are the point counts current?

No, they reflect the value when the item was indexed. For live scores, take the objectID and query the official Firebase API.

Tools that pair with this API

JSON Formatter

Format, beautify and minify JSON online with 2-space, 4-space or tab indentation. Sort keys alphabetically and catch syntax errors instantly — free and private.

Timestamp Converter

Convert timestamps to human-readable dates and dates back to timestamps. Auto-detects seconds vs milliseconds, shows local, UTC and ISO 8601 formats.

Alternatives to Hacker News Search (Algolia) API

If Hacker News Search (Algolia) does not fit, these news & open data 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.

API	What it does	Auth	CORS	Last verified
Hacker News	Official Hacker News API with no key: top stories, comments, users and live item feeds via Firebase. Extremely stable. Tested curl example and live JSON.	No key	Yes	19 Aug 2026
disease.sh	Free open disease and health statistics API with no key: global and per-country case data, historical time series and vaccination figures. Tested example.	No key	Yes	19 Aug 2026
Spaceflight News	Free spaceflight news API with no key: articles, blogs and reports from major space outlets, with search, filtering and pagination. Tested curl example.	No key	Yes	19 Aug 2026
Lobsters	Free Lobsters API with no key: hottest and newest technology stories with tags, scores, comments and submitter data as plain JSON. No signup. Tested.	No key	No	20 Aug 2026
Noozra	Free news headlines API with no key: articles from 200+ curated sources with headline, source, category, image URL and its pixel dimensions. Tested example included.	No key	Yes	21 Aug 2026
RSS to JSON	Free RSS to JSON API with no key: convert any RSS or Atom feed into clean JSON, with feed metadata, items, thumbnails and publication dates. Tested example.	No key	Yes	20 Aug 2026

All News & Open Data APIs

Hacker News Search (Algolia) is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 20 Aug 2026; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.