ORCID Public API

ORCID offers a public API that allows organizations (not ORCID members) to connect their systems (website) and applications to the ORCID registry with machine-to-machine communications.

The public API can be used for the following functions:

Sign into your system with ORCID
Get a user’s verified ORCID iD
Retrieve public data from a user’s ORCID record
Search public ORCID registry data

Sign into your ORCID record:
Production server: https://orcid.org/signin
Sandbox testing server: https://sandbox.orcid.org/signin (recommended to test the API)
Click on your name in the top right hand corner
Click Developer Tools from the menu option
Note: In order to access Developer Tools, you must verify your email address. If you have not already verified your email address, you will be prompted to do so at this point.
Click the “Register for the free ORCID public API” button
Register an application
- Name: Name of your organization or service (e.g. a journal name).
- Website: The website the user can visit to learn more about your application.
- Description: This will be displayed to users on the OAuth screen.
- Redirect URIs: For testing, you can automatically add Google OAuth Playground URI by clicking “+Google OAuth2 Playground” under Test redirect URIs, or the ORCID Public API Swagger by clicking “+ORCID public swagger interface”. (see About redirect URIs.)
- Click the Save icon at the bottom of the form to generate your API credentials.
To view your API credentials, click Show Details.

Your API credentials – Client ID and Client Secret – are shown just beneath your redirect URIs. Below your credentials are sample URLs and API calls with your credentials pre-filled.

Now that you have your credentials, it’s time to start using the ORCID Public API!