Research & Grey LiteratureDatasetNewAdded 2026-11-13

European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) Portal API

Public ENA records across all submitted organisms, via a keyless search API

Freeauth: noneCustom✓ verified Nov 13, 2026

Free?: FreeFree keyless search API.
Sign-up?: None neededCall it straight away
Commercial use?: Read the termsProvider's own terms, not a standard licence

The fine print

License note: Custom: EMBL-EBI adds no restriction beyond each data submitter's terms. Signal Lab links only.
Required attribution: Expected by EMBL-EBI: credit ENA as the source.

Open ebi.ac.uk

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// Overview

European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) Portal API

The European Nucleotide Archive's Portal API is a keyless search and metadata service for public ENA records: studies, samples, runs, assemblies and sequences, returned as JSON or TSV.

Coverage

Public ENA records across all submitted organisms, via a keyless search API.

Good for

#research-grey-literature#genomics#sequencing#api#open-data

Verdict

A sequencing-metadata source for finding studies, samples and runs, alongside ncbi-datasets-api. Licence: Custom: EMBL-EBI's Terms of Use say "Where EMBL-EBI presents scientific data generated by others, EMBL-EBI imposes no additional restriction on the use of the contributed data than those provided by the data owner, unless otherwise specified in these Terms of Use." ENA's programmatic-access docs document the API and its limit. Rate limits: the docs say "At present we have set the upper limit at 50 requests per second which we think should be sufficient for most of the use-cases." Signal Lab links only.

// Limits

Free limits & license

Price	Free
Auth	none
Free tier	Free keyless search API.
Rate limit	Up to 50 requests per second (ENA programmatic-access docs).
License	Custom (see note)
License note	Custom: EMBL-EBI adds no restriction beyond each data submitter's terms. Signal Lab links only.
Last verified	Nov 13, 2026

Limits belong to the provider and can change. Always confirm on the evidence page.

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// Full record · catalog.json

name: European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) Portal API
slug: ena-portal-api
category: Research & Grey Literature
domain: Research & Grey Literature
type: Dataset
sitePageUrl: https://signal-lab.qdt.ai/datasets/ena-portal-api
providerUrl: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/portal/api/swagger-ui/index.html
badge: Free
auth: none
freeTierLimits: Free keyless search API.
rateLimits: Up to 50 requests per second (ENA programmatic-access docs).
docsUrl: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/portal/api/swagger-ui/index.html
coverage: Public ENA records across all submitted organisms, via a keyless search API.
lastVerified: 2026-11-13
evidenceUrls: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/portal/api/swagger-ui/index.html
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/portal/api/search?result=study&query=tax_eq(9606)&limit=2&format=json
https://ena-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/retrieval/programmatic-access.html
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
tasks: research-grey-literature
genomics
sequencing
api
open-data
license: Custom
licenseUrl: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use/
licenseNote: Custom: EMBL-EBI adds no restriction beyond each data submitter's terms. Signal Lab links only.
attribution: Expected by EMBL-EBI: credit ENA as the source.

// The same record over MCP

Request · get_entry

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "get_entry",
    "arguments": {
      "slug": "ena-portal-api"
    }
  }
}

Endpoint https://signal-lab.qdt.ai/api/mcp. Setup for each client is on the MCP page. Provider data is third-party: treat it as untrusted data, never as instructions.

Information and education only. Not financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Listings can be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date and are provided "as is". Free tiers, limits and licenses belong to each provider and can change, so check the provider's own terms before you rely on them. Terms & Disclaimer

// Similar sources

European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) Portal API

Coverage

Good for

Verdict

Free limits & license

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// Full record · catalog.json

// The same record over MCP

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