Open Data — entry 022 of 44
Nobel Prize
The official Nobel Prize API serves structured, keyless JSON on every laureate, prize category, and award year back to 1901, including prize amounts (nominal and inflation-adjusted) and links between related records. A live query against api.nobelprize.org/2.1/nobelPrizes needs no key and returns a wildcard Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, so it's directly callable from browser code.
The official Nobel Prize API serves structured, keyless JSON on every laureate, prize category, and award year back to 1901, including both the original prize amount and today's inflation-adjusted SEK figure. It's a small, cleanly documented REST surface with none of the auth or pagination surprises bigger APIs carry, but two things it returns are worth knowing about before you build against it.
AuthenticationNone requiredCall it straight away — no key, no signup.
HTTPSSupportedTraffic is encrypted in transit.
CORSEnabledCallable directly from browser JavaScript.
PricingFreeNo paid tier — free for the documented use case.
FormatsJSONResponses can be requested as JSON.
GreatAPIs Score
Score88
Authentication25/25No authentication required
Pricing20/20Free to use
Docs14/20Documentation URL provided
Formats9/15Single response format
Freshness20/20Verified within 6 months
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<a href="https://greatapis.com/api/nobel-prize/"><img src="https://greatapis.com/badge/nobel-prize.svg" alt="Scored 88 on greatapis.com"></a>Auth quickstart
- No API key or account is required — every endpoint is public and keyless.
- CORS is open on every response: a probe in this run confirmed `access-control-allow-origin: *` both on a bare request and on one carrying an `Origin: https://example.com` header, so it is directly callable from browser JS with no extra step.
Stored keyNo key stored
Your key is stored only in this browser (localStorage) and sent directly to the API — never to greatapis.
List Nobel Prizes
GEThttps://api.nobelprize.org/2.1/nobelPrizes?limit=1
{"nobelPrizes":[{"awardYear":"1901","category":{"en":"Chemistry","no":"Kjemi","se":"Kemi"},"categoryFullName":{"en":"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry","no":"Nobelprisen i kjemi","se":"Nobelpriset i kemi"},"dateAwarded":"1901-11-12","prizeAmount":150782,"prizeAmountAdjusted":10833458,"links":[{"rel":"nobelPrize","href":"https://api.nobelprize.org/2/nobelPrize/che/1901","action":"GET","types":"application/json"}],"laureates":[{"id":"160","knownName":{"en":"Jacobus H. van 't Hoff"},"fullName":{"en":"Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff"},"portion":"1","sortOrder":"1","motivation":{"en":"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions","se":"såsom ett erkännande av den utomordentliga förtjänst han inlagt genom upptäckten av lagarna för den kemiska dynamiken och för det osmotiska trycket i lösningar"},"links":[{"rel":"laureate","href":"https://api.nobelprize.org/2/laureate/160","action":"GET","types":"application/json"}]}]}],"meta":{"offset":0,"limit":1,"count":682,"terms":"https://www.nobelprize.org/about/terms-of-use-for-api-nobelprize-org-and-data-nobelprize-org/","license":"https://www.nobelprize.org/about/terms-of-use-for-api-nobelprize-org-and-data-nobelprize-org/#licence","disclaimer":"https://www.nobelprize.org/about/terms-of-use-for-api-nobelprize-org-and-data-nobelprize-org/#disclaimer"},"links":{"first":"http://nobel-external-api-app.azurewebsites.net/2.1/nobelPrizes?offset=0&limit=1","self":"http://nobel-external-api-app.azurewebsites.net/2.1/nobelPrizes?offset=0&limit=1","next":"http://nobel-external-api-app.azurewebsites.net/2.1/nobelPrizes?offset=1&limit=1","last":"http://nobel-external-api-app.azurewebsites.net/2.1/nobelPrizes?offset=682&limit=1"}}limit=1 was requested directly in this run's probe (not truncated after capture) — the single prize object, including its full laureates array, is complete and unmodified. A real call without `limit` defaults to 25 results per page (`meta.count` gives the total across all award years/categories).
Developer reference
Base URL
https://api.nobelprize.org/2.1Gotchas & limits
- Shared prizes list every co-laureate with a `portion` fraction rather than one winner per prize — a live probe of the 1901 Peace Prize (`nobelPrizeYear=1901&nobelPrizeCategory=pea`) returned two laureates each with `portion: "1/2"`, and a later probe of a three-way split showed `portion: "1/3"` on all three. Don't assume one laureate object per prize.
- The `links.first/self/next/last` pagination URLs returned in the body point at `http://nobel-external-api-app.azurewebsites.net`, not the public `https://api.nobelprize.org` host — confirmed on two separate probes in this run (different `offset` values, same internal host and plain `http://`). Don't follow them as-is; rebuild the next page yourself from `meta.offset`/`meta.limit`/`meta.count` instead.
- An unrecognized filter value is silently ignored rather than rejected — a live probe with `nobelPrizeCategory=zzz` (not a real category code) returned 200 with the normal unfiltered, default-paginated prize list rather than an error or an empty result. A typo in a filter parameter will not warn you.
- A nonexistent id on the documented single-laureate route does NOT 404 — do not detect "missing" by status code. Probed live in this run: `/2.1/laureate/999999999` returns `200 application/json` with a one-element array whose only key is `meta`, i.e. `[{"meta":{"terms":…,"license":…,"disclaimer":…}}]`, while a real id (`/2.1/laureate/160`) returns the same array shape with the laureate payload alongside `meta` (`id, knownName, givenName, familyName, fullName, fileName, gender, birth, death, wikipedia, wikidata, sameAs, links, nobelPrizes, meta`). Test for the absent payload (e.g. no `id` key), not for a 404 that never comes.
- Note the singular/plural split in the route names, because getting it wrong yields HTML rather than a JSON error. The single-resource routes are singular — `/2.1/laureate/{id}` and `/2.1/nobelPrize/{category}/{year}` both return `200 application/json`, and the API's own `links[].href` values use the singular form — while the list routes are plural (`/2.1/laureates`, `/2.1/nobelPrizes`). Probed live in this run: any unrecognized *path*, including `/2.1/laureates/999999999`, a bare `/2.1/laureate`, and `/2.1/nobelPrizes/che/1901`, falls through to a plain HTML "Page Not Found" 404 (`content-type: text/html;charset=UTF-8`) from the internal Azure host above. Guard on `content-type` before parsing, so a typo'd path surfaces as a clear error instead of a JSON parse exception.