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Survey of API doc sites

Chapter 10: Publishing API docs 27% complete

Topic 3 of 11

Last updated: Oct 17, 2026

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Rather than approach the topic of publishing prescriptively, let’s begin with some concrete examples and move towards the formulation of general principles. The following are nearly 100 openly accessible API doc sites that you can browse as a way to look at patterns and examples.

List of API doc sites

Browse a few of these documentation sites to get a sense of the variety, but also try to identify common patterns. In this list, I include not only impressively designed docs but also docs that look like they were created by a department intern just learning HTML. The variety in the list demonstrates the many options for publishing tools and approaches, as well as terminology. I first put this list together years ago, so I’ve removed APIs that have since shut down (such as AddThis and the ESPN API) and added some newer doc sites at the end. It seems that almost everyone does their API docs their own way, with their own site, branding, organization, and style.

  1. Shopgate API docs
  2. Google Places API docs
  3. X (formerly Twitter) API docs
  4. Flickr API docs
  5. Facebook’s Graph API docs
  6. YouTube Data API docs
  7. eBay API docs
  8. Amazon EC2 API docs
  9. Twilio API docs
  10. Last.fm API docs
  11. Azure Maps docs (successor to Bing Maps)
  12. gpodder.net Web Service docs
  13. Google App Engine docs
  14. Foursquare developer docs
  15. Walmart API docs
  16. Dropbox API docs
  17. Splunk API docs
  18. Revit API docs
  19. DocuSign API docs
  20. GeoNames web services docs
  21. Adsense API docs
  22. Box API docs
  23. LinkedIn API docs
  24. Instagram Platform docs
  25. Google Analytics Admin API docs
  26. Yelp API docs
  27. Concur API docs
  28. PayPal API docs
  29. Bitly API docs
  30. Callfire API docs
  31. Reddit API docs
  32. DonorsChoose API docs
  33. SendGrid API docs
  34. Mailchimp API docs
  35. Basecamp API docs
  36. NYTimes API docs
  37. USPS API docs
  38. National Weather Service API docs
  39. Evernote API docs
  40. Stripe API docs
  41. Parse API docs
  42. OpenSecrets API docs
  43. News API docs
  44. CTA Train Tracker API docs
  45. Mapbox API docs
  46. Crunchbase API docs
  47. Zendesk API docs
  48. Pushover API docs
  49. Pusher Channels client API docs
  50. Pingdom API docs
  51. Jive docs
  52. BigCommerce API docs
  53. Indivo API 2.0 docs
  54. Socrata API docs
  55. GitHub REST API docs
  56. Mailgun API docs
  57. Riot Games API docs
  58. Swiftype API docs
  59. Snipcart API docs
  60. Vimeo API docs
  61. Crowdsignal (formerly Polldaddy) API docs
  62. Gumroad API docs
  63. Formstack API docs
  64. Salesforce Connect REST API docs
  65. The Movie Database API docs
  66. SoundCloud API docs
  67. CouchDB docs
  68. Smart Home API (Amazon Alexa) docs
  69. Coinbase Developer Platform docs
  70. Shopify API docs
  71. Authorize.net API docs
  72. Tripadvisor Content API docs
  73. Pinterest API docs
  74. Spotify Web API docs
  75. Trello API docs
  76. Yext API docs
  77. Strava API docs
  78. Plaid API docs
  79. TheRundown API docs
  80. Zype API docs
  81. Edamam API docs
  82. Veracode docs
  83. SAP BusinessObjects REST API docs
  84. Dwolla API docs
  85. Slack Web API docs
  86. Discord developer docs
  87. Square API reference
  88. Adyen API Explorer
  89. Notion API docs
  90. Algolia Search REST API docs
  91. Cloudflare API docs
  92. OpenAI API reference
  93. Claude API docs
  94. Jira Cloud REST API docs
  95. Vercel REST API docs
  96. Resend API reference
  97. Supabase API docs

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Activity: Look for common patterns in API doc sites

In this activity, identify common patterns in API documentation sites.

  1. Go to the list of API documentation sites.
  2. Select about three different APIs (choose any of those listed on the page).

  3. Look for several patterns or commonalities among the API doc sites. For example, you might look for any of the following patterns:

    • Structure and templates
    • Seamless branding (between docs and the marketing site)
    • Abundant code samples and syntax highlighting
    • Lengthy pages
    • API Interactivity (such as an API Explorer)
    • Docs as code tooling
    • Markdown versions of pages or an llms.txt file for AI tools

  4. Note any non-patterns, such as the following:

    • PDF
    • Translation
    • Video tutorials
    • Commenting features
    • Multiple outputs by role
  5. Make some notes in an API log or journal (or share them in the comments below).

In the next section, we’ll look at Design patterns with API doc sites. From your notes, look to see if the patterns I highlight match the ones you observed in the API doc sites you analyzed.

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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