Netflix API Developer Blog

Introducing the Netflix API

On behalf of the Netflix API team, I’m very excited to announce the release of the Netflix API and to launch this site for our developer community.  We have been impressed with the applications developers have managed to build using our RSS feeds or by screen-scraping the web site, so we can’t wait to see what you’ll do with a supported API!

The Netflix API includes a JavaScript API, REST API and ATOM feeds.  Use of the API is free and we even allow commercial use.

Web applications can use the JavaScript API to easily integrate basic Netflix service capabilities, such as allowing a subscriber to add a title to his queue without visiting the Netflix web site or start watching a title instantly. 

The REST API provides finer-grained access to a very wide range of Netflix service capabilities and lets your application control the user experience.  If you can perform a function on the Netflix website, it’s likely available via the REST API.  Use this API to access rich metadata around our 100,000 title catalog, tap into rich user activity, manipulate DVD and instant queues and get title recommendations. 

The REST API uses standard OAuth authentication to allow applications to safely access the Netflix service on a subscriber’s behalf without requesting his user name or password.  A simpler subset of OAuth can be used to access REST API resources that do not require subscriber authorization, such as the catalog.

The API also includes a variety of ATOM feeds that allow easier sharing of subscriber activity including queue usage, ratings, reviews and rental history.  The feeds can be accessed programmatically using the REST API, which means your users no longer must cut-and-paste feed URLs or security tokens into your applications.  While OAuth is required to access a subscriber’s list of feeds, the feeds URLs themselves have embedded security tokens making them accessible to applications that don’t support OAuth.

To get started with the API, sign up for a developer account and an application key and secret, and browse our documentation.  Sign up for free test accounts on the My Account page (no, they don't receive DVDs or instant watching).   Also check out the Resources section to find developer resources like OAuth documentation and code libraries, and the Flixo tool, which lets you “browse” the REST API without writing a line of code.

Given this is a new API, we’re eager to get your feedback, help you with any issues you may encounter, and hear your ideas for new features.  Please use our forum or the comment sections on pages throughout the site to keep in touch.

Thank you in advance for creating new applications to delight our subscribers and happy coding!

Michael Hart

Director of Engineering
API Team

13 Comments

  1. revof11 – 9 months ago

    Along with Amazon, Google, etc. it's nice to see another company providing its services to the creative, adventurous and extremely bored. Rock on, Netflix... rock on.

  2. caludio – 9 months ago

    I'm about to integrate netflix API with my web application ( scrive.it ). Netflix API is GREAT news for us. Thank you!
    P.S.: maybe it'd be useful to have a link to the "term and conditions" page on the documentation front page, I think.

  3. Hans Granqvist – 9 months ago

    Michael, congrats. I'm happy to see you went with OAuth. Nice!
    -Hans Granqvist

  4. Pete – 9 months ago

    Michael, this is great. We would like to explore the commercial side of this and the possibilities of using the API to add a feature in our QUiiQ MOVIES product in North America. Could you please let me know where I can find Terms and conditions and the revenue models available? Thank you.

  5. OwlBoy – 9 months ago

    This will just make Netflix more useful and popular in my view. I expect real solid and stable iPhone/iPod Touch apps to come out of this. No more breaking when the website layout changes!

  6. XOXCO – 9 months ago

    We at XOXCO are very excited about this! We are about to launch a new version of one of our sites, and we've been making do with the RSS feeds. This will make our lives so much easier.

  7. Bart – 9 months ago

    Michael,

    This is outstanding news! Well done. Question - is there integration, either in place or planned, with the Linkshare Netflix Affiliate program? There are some very compelling integrations that we'd like to do as a Netflix Affiliate. Thanks. Bart

  8. matt pinner – 9 months ago

    Michael, Just what we've all been needing. Is there any plan to support "friends" and "recommend to friends" features?
    Thanks, Matt Pinner

  9. Mike Seminaro – 9 months ago

    Michael, great work on the API. Your team obviously worked hard to build an elegant RESTful API. I'd be interested in hearing about your experience with Mashery. Would be a great topic for a future blog entry.

  10. N-Cube – 9 months ago

    Hey Mike, congrats and good stuff. We'd be looking into creating a Netflix module on My MSN ...

  11. Michael Hart – 9 months ago

    @matt, the API team supports community as well. Now that the API is out some of our focus is returning to friends/community and we'll surely be looking for tie-ins with the API. Stay tuned.

  12. Michael Hart – 9 months ago

    @Mike. Thank you for your kind words.

    Given the focus of this blog, I probably won't ever blog about Mashery here. I will say briefly that they are a great bunch of people to work with and we would have never got our API launched this quickly with quality without their support. You should also check out the video I posted a couple postings back for more Mashery-related comments. I'll also be speaking more about our experience with Mashery at the upcoming Business of APIs conference (http://www.apiconference.com/).

  13. trevor_d – 9 months ago

    Is there a way to provide access to the instant streaming API calls?