Get Singleton

Retrieve a single entity by ID

Use GET /{entity_type}/{id} to retrieve a single entity. The response is the full entity object.

curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/W2741809807"

Cost: Free

OpenAlex IDs

Every entity has a unique OpenAlex ID with a letter prefix indicating the type:

Prefix	Entity
W	Work
A	Author
S	Source
I	Institution
T	Topic
K	Keyword
P	Publisher
F	Funder

You can use the full URL or just the key:

# Full URL
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/https://openalex.org/W2741809807"

# Key only (recommended)
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/W2741809807"

IDs are case-insensitive: W2741809807 and w2741809807 are equivalent.

External ID lookups

You can look up entities using external identifiers. Pass the full external ID URL or use shorthand notation.

# DOI
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375"

# ORCID
curl "https://api.openalex.org/authors/https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6187-6610"

# ROR
curl "https://api.openalex.org/institutions/https://ror.org/02y3ad647"

# ISSN
curl "https://api.openalex.org/sources/issn:0028-0836"

# PMID
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/pmid:29456894"

Short-form IDs

For convenience, you can use prefix notation instead of full URLs:

curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:10.7717/peerj.4375"
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/pmid:29456894"

Canonical external IDs

Each entity type has a primary external identifier:

Entity	Canonical ID
Works	DOI
Authors	ORCID
Sources	ISSN-L
Institutions	ROR
Topics	Wikidata ID
Publishers	Wikidata ID

Merged entities

When duplicate entities are merged, requesting the old ID returns a 301 redirect to the new one:

$ curl -i https://api.openalex.org/authors/A5092938886
HTTP/1.1 301 MOVED PERMANENTLY
Location: https://api.openalex.org/authors/A5006060960

Most HTTP clients follow redirects automatically, so you will receive the merged entity’s data without extra handling.