CONTENT

Random Quote API

GET/quote

Get a real quote and its author from public-domain books.

No signup or API key required.

Parameters

No endpoint-specific parameters. Use format to choose the response representation.

formatenumoptional · query: Response format. Defaults to json.
jsontext

No request body. Unknown or repeated query parameters return HTTP 400.

Returns 200 OK

A JSON object with the following fields.

quotestring: A real excerpt from a public-domain book.
authorstring: The author to attribute alongside the quote.

Plain text

With format=text: The quote followed by its author in parentheses.

Errors

Validation and service errors always return JSON, including when format=text.

errorstring: A machine-readable error code, such as invalid_parameter or rate_limited.
messagestring: A description of the problem.

400 Invalid parameters.

414 Query string exceeds 2048 characters.

429 Rate limit reached. Wait the seconds in Retry-After before retrying.

Usage notes

375 real excerpts from public-domain books, with real authors. Source works and translations are recorded in the repository. Text includes the author in parentheses.

Display an attributed passage in a reading widget or prototype. Preserve the author alongside the quote; the plain-text format includes attribution in parentheses.

Responses are not cached. Browser requests are supported through open CORS.

120 requests per minute per IP, with up to 30 per 10 seconds, shared across APIs. Limits are approximate per Cloudflare location. Full usage limits ↗