Request a tool
All toolsGuidesMCP serverRequest a toolPlatformsCategories
Books Scraper (Google Books + Open Library) icon

Find Books on Open Library by Subject

Search Open Library for books by subject, author or title — get ISBNs, authors, publish years and cover images as structured JSON. Free and keyless.

$0.001 per book ($1 / 1,000)
Run this use case nowRun on Apify →

How it works

  1. 1
    Open it on Apify

    Hit Run on Apify — it opens the tool in the cloud, no install.

  2. 2
    Set the inputs

    Adjust source, query, googleApiKey (sensible defaults are pre-filled).

  3. 3
    Click Run

    The tool runs on Apify’s cloud and collects the data for you.

  4. 4
    Export the results

    Download as JSON, CSV or Excel, or pipe straight into your app, Google Sheets, or an AI agent.

Pricing

$0.001 per book = $1 per 1,000

You are charged forWhenPrice
Book returnedCharged per book returned.$0.001

Pay-per-event pricing: you are billed per result, not per subscription — a run that returns nothing costs nothing beyond the start fee. Billing is handled by Apify on your own account. These are the live Apify store prices, in effect since 2026-06-12, and they are what you are actually charged.

Inputs

FieldWhat it doesType
sourceWhich book catalog to search. Open Library is the reliable keyless source. Google Books returns descriptions and prices but its keyless mode shares one global Google project whose daily quota is usually exhausted (HTTP 429) - supply your own free API key below, or the actor falls back to Open Library automatically. Output is normalized identically for both.string
queryKeywords to search for, e.g. "clean code", "the hobbit", or "isbn:9780132350884". Required.string
googleApiKeyOptional. Only used when Source = Google Books. Keyless Google Books calls are metered against one shared anonymous Google project used by the whole internet, and its daily quota is usually already spent (HTTP 429 from every IP - a proxy does not help). A free key from console.cloud.google.com (enable the Books API, create an API key) puts the requests on your own quota. Leave empty to use Open Library instead.string
maxItemsMaximum number of unique books to return. Results are paginated automatically and deduplicated by ISBN (or title + author).integer
notionConnectorOptional. Write each result as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless.string
notionParentIdOptional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead.string

What you get

A structured dataset — each result includes fields like:

authorsaverageRatingcategoriescoverImagedescriptiondetailsisbnlanguagepageCountpricepublishedDatepublisherqueryratingsCounttitleurl

Export every run as JSON, CSV or Excel, or send it to your app, a database, Google Sheets, or an AI agent.

More use cases for Books Scraper (Google Books + Open Library)

Open Library Sci-Fi Books Scraper: ISBN, Author, Year

Science fiction book metadata from Open Library: titles, authors, first publish year, language, and ISBNs for building a genre reading list.

Google Books Scraper: Machine Learning Titles + Prices

Comparing machine learning books to buy? Get Google Books titles, list price, and rating side by side so you can spot the editions worth your money.

Search Book Metadata by Title or Author

Look up book metadata from Google Books — title, authors, ISBN, publisher, publish date, description and cover image. Structured JSON, no API key.

Built on Books Scraper (Google Books + Open Library) — see every input, output field and price on the tool page.