What you can do with our API and how to use it
An API is an interface to communicate with other programs or services. In our case, it lets you access your Datawrapper data without using the Datawrapper web app you’re used to. Data like: When was a visualization created? What data does it show? Which colors does it use? Which chart type? Annotations? Line width? Marker size? Every setting in the Datawrapper app is also a data point in our database, saved somewhere on a server in Frankfurt, Germany.
With the API, you have control over this data. You can read it, and you can write new data points – for example creating a new chart, or overwriting the settings of an old one.
Using the API is free for up to 500 Create operations, 1,000 Publish operations, and 3,000 Export operations per month. After that, you can keep using the API with a flexible, credit-based billing. Find more information on our pricing page.
What's possible with the Datawrapper API
With the Datawrapper API, you can...
- (batch-) create, edit & (un)publish charts, maps & tables
- (batch-) move charts to other folders
- (batch-) add members to a team
- get a list of all your team members, visualizations, folders, etc.
…with a few lines of code, like so:
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.datawrapper.de/v3/charts \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN_HERE>' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \
--data '{ "title": "Where do people live?", "type": "d3-bars-stacked" }'<br>For example, you could write a script that automatically updates the data of a chart & changes the description of the chart so that it states when the chart was updated. Find a tutorial for this use case here.
How to get an API token
The API is available to every Datawrapper user. All you need is a (free) Datawrapper account and an API token you can get (for free) on the API tokens page in your settings.
To get there, click here or on your workspace name in the upper right of the Datwrapper app, then on Settings & Account, and then API tokens ❶.
Note that to create a new access token, you first need to unlock the settings ❷ in the lower right by entering your password:
You can then click on Create new Access Token ❸ to generate an API token and start experimenting with the API.
What to read next
You can find tutorials on how to get started, how to create a chart, and how to integrate the API in our Developer Docs; among other guides. That’s where you will also find the API reference.
If you’re curious to see the underlying code, visit our API Github repo. And to see the official announcement blog post, visit the blog post "Automate your chart creation with our new API" from November 2019.