Technical implementation | Wikimedia Attribution Framework (original) (raw)

Wikimedia offers a set of public and commercial APIs that can be used to fetch attribution metadata about its projects’ content. Some API solutions offer a more optimal retrieval path for specific data points than others. In each case, the recommended solutions will be documented under the Data sources section of each attribution signal page. Here’s a general overview of the Wikimedia APIs that reusers can rely on to implement both essential and recommended attribution signals.

Recommended pathways ​

Wikimedia Attribution API Beta ​

Recommended for: Wikimedia technical contributors.

The Wikimedia Attribution API offers a canonical and open retrieval path for both essential and recommended attribution. We encourage the adoption of this public solution to reusers who wish to easily and fairly credit Wikimedia content wherever it is surfaced.

The Attribution API offers endpoints able to fetch attribution information about Wikimedia projects, Wikipedia articles, and Wikimedia Commons media file pages. It is technically possible to use the Attribution API to retrieve information about any Wikimedia project page, but it is likely to return inaccurate or incomplete information due to limited support for additional page and project types. This API also relies on Wikimedia specific services and extensions, meaning it is not available for third party installations of MediaWiki.

The Attribution API is the most comprehensive source for attribution data. Through it, reusers can expose all essential attribution data points, as well as most of the recommended attribution signals in the Trust and relevance and the Ecosystem growth categories. While not every signal is implemented yet, we plan to continue investing and expanding coverage for the Attribution API in the coming months. Check the full list of attribution data that you can retrieve using the Wikimedia Attribution API.

ℹ️ Usage disclaimer: While this API is designed to make attribution easier, we cannot fully guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the data returned. Due to the human nature of Wikimedia projects, there may be cases where the available data may be incomplete or inaccurate. Content reusers are still ultimately responsible for ensuring that what is presented meets all applicable license requirements and reflects fair reuse as defined in the Wikimedia attribution framework.

Reference documentation about the Wikimedia Attribution API can be found in any wiki's REST API sandbox, such as the REST API sandbox on English Wikipedia →

Share feedback on this beta API →

Wikimedia Enterprise APIs ​

Recommended for:

Wikimedia's Enterprise APIs are designed for high-volume read-only access to Wikipedia and other supported Wikimedia projects. Download complete project snapshots with the Snapshot API, or retrieve specific articles with the On-demand API. The On-demand API can be particularly useful for commercial users wanting to retrieve essential attribution information for a given set of articles: On-demand and Snapshot API responses provide cover for most essential attribution signals, as well as some recommended signals. Check the full list of attribution data that you can retrieve using the Wikimedia Enterprise API.

Sign up for a Wikimedia Enterprise Account to get started with the On-demand API for free →

Additional retrieval options ​

MediaWiki Action API ​

Recommended for:

Introduced in 2007, the MediaWiki Action API is the most commonly used API for the Wikimedia community because of its broad coverage and depth of options. It serves as the primary developer interface for Wikimedia projects, enabling users to query data and execute a wide range of wiki operations programmatically. It is included out of the box with every MediaWiki installation, making it universally available across all MediaWiki-powered sites, not just Wikimedia projects. Whether for building tools, bots, or applications, the Action API is a common solution for developers and community users looking to interact with MediaWiki content and services.

Thanks to its close integration with MediaWiki, the Action API can be used to retrieve all essential attribution signals related to project pages, but offers limited coverage of recommended signals. Check the full list of attribution data that you can retrieve using the MediaWiki Action API.

MediaWiki REST API ​

Recommended for:

Like the Action API, the MediaWiki REST API is included out of the box with every MediaWiki installation. It follows modern REST conventions, making it an appealing alternative for developers who are experienced with web development, but less familiar with Wikimedia project patterns. While it offers a narrower scope of functionality compared to the Action API, it is tailored to provide optimized access to page content and metadata, making it particularly well-suited for higher-volume use cases where Wikimedia's caching infrastructure provides a performance and sustainability benefit.

The MediaWiki REST API can be used to retrieve most essential signals, but only a few of the recommended metadata. For Wikimedia projects, the Analytics API may be used to supplement information for the more robust trust and relevance signals through another RESTful model. Check the full list of attribution data that you can retrieve using the MediaWiki REST API.

Wikimedia Analytics API ​

Recommended for:

The Wikimedia Analytics API provides open access to data about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. For example, you can use the API to: get the number of devices that visited Wikipedia in a given month, list the most-viewed or most-edited pages on Wikipedia, compare the number of editors that edited Wikipedia by country. The Analytics API can also be used to supplement specific trust and relevance data points that are not natively included in the MediaWiki REST API, such as the number of page views and top trending information. Check the full list of attribution data that you can retrieve using the Wikimedia Analytics API.

Signal support overview ​

Attribution API Enterprise API MediaWiki Action API MediaWiki REST API Analytics API
Essential signals
Source 🟢 🟢 🟢 - -
Credit 🟢 - 🟢 - -
Link 🟢 🟢 🟢 - -
Title 🟢 🟢 🟢 🟢 -
License 🟢 🟢 🟢 🟢 -
Brand mark 🟢 - 🟢 - -
Modification disclaimer † n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Trust and relevance
Reference count 🟢 - 🟠 [3] 🟠 [3] -
Contributor count - [1] - 🟠 [4] 🟢 -
Page views 🟢 - - - 🟢
Attribution count † n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Trending indicator 🟢 - - - 🟢
Last update 🟢 🟢 🟢 🟢 -
Ecosystem growth
Participation CTA 🟢 [2] - - - -
Donation CTA 🟢 [2] - - - -

† – Must be determined externally by reusers; not available for retrieval.
1 – Included in interface but not yet implemented; expected delivery June 2026.
2 – Currently returns static values intended for demonstration purposes. Can be adopted to display generic actions.
3 – Possible but suboptimal: Rendered page HTML parsing required.
4 – Possible but suboptimal: Client-side counting of the returned list required.