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IOL API endpoint
IOL section headlines API
Returns recent IOL headlines for one section path. `section` is required and takes a value such as `news`, `news/south-africa/gauteng`, `sport/rugby/springboks`, `business/economy` or `entertainment/music`. Each item has its title, URL, summary, publication time and image, plus the author when the outlet names one. Unlisted values are rejected.
GETapiKey1 credit/requestIOLpublicnews.headlinesResponseDoc
IOL/iol/headlinesEndpoint facts
- Method
- GET
- API path
- /iol/headlines
- Auth
- apiKey
- Credits
- 1 credit/request
- Charged on
- Successful 2xx responses only
- Platform
- IOL
- Response schema
- #/definitions/publicnews.headlinesResponseDoc
How this endpoint behaves
Query parameter: section is required and must be one of news, news/africa, news/brics, news/crime-and-courts, news/education, news/energy, news/environment, news/feel-good, news/opinion, news/partnered, news/politics, news/politics/opinion, news/south-africa, news/south-africa/eastern-cape, news/south-africa/free-state, news/south-africa/gauteng, news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal, news/south-africa/limpopo, news/south-africa/mpumalanga, news/south-africa/north-west, news/south-africa/northern-cape, news/south-africa/western-cape, news/world, sport, sport/athletics, sport/betting, sport/boxing, sport/cricket, sport/cricket/domestic, sport/cricket/international, sport/cricket/proteas, sport/cricket/proteas-women, sport/golf, sport/horse-racing, sport/mma, sport/opinion, sport/rugby, sport/rugby/imbokodo, sport/rugby/international, sport/rugby/springboks, sport/rugby/super-rugby, sport/rugby/urc, sport/soccer, sport/soccer/bafana, sport/soccer/la-liga, sport/soccer/premier-league, sport/soccer/psl, sport/soccer/uefa-champions-league, sport/swimming, sport/tennis, business, business/economy, business/jobs, business/property, business/window-on-china, personal-finance, opinion, opinion/letters, entertainment, entertainment/books, entertainment/celebrity-news, entertainment/events, entertainment/movies, entertainment/music, entertainment/opinion, entertainment/royals, entertainment/streaming, entertainment/tv, entertainment/whats-on, entertainment/whats-on/cape-town, entertainment/whats-on/durban, entertainment/whats-on/joburg, entertainment/whats-on/pretoria, lifestyle, lifestyle/competitions, lifestyle/family, lifestyle/family/parenting, lifestyle/food-drink, lifestyle/food-drink/recipes, lifestyle/health, lifestyle/love-sex, lifestyle/love-sex/relationships, lifestyle/opinion, lifestyle/style-beauty, lifestyle/style-beauty/beauty, lifestyle/style-beauty/fashion, technology, technology/esports, technology/gadgets, technology/gaming, technology/mobile-apps, technology/opinion, technology/software-and-internet, motoring, motoring/f1-grand-prix, motoring/industry-news, motoring/latest-launches, motoring/motorsport, motoring/partnered, motoring/road-tests, travel, travel/africa, travel/partnered, travel/south-africa, travel/travel-tips, travel/world, matric, g20, government-at-work, capeargus, capeargus/news, capeargus/opinion, weekend-argus, weekend-argus/news, dailynews, dailynews/news, the-star, the-star/news, sunday-tribune, saturday-star, pretoria-news, pretoria-news/news, pretoria-news/opinion. Use iol-sections to list them with display names. Results contain up to 30 stories from the section; links that are not stories are dropped. Invalid values return a 400 error.
Sampled response
- Request, 14 Oct 2026
- GET /iol/headlines?section=news%2Fsouth-africa
- Items in items
- 30
- Fields filled in every checked item
- 5
- Fields empty in some or all items
- 1
| Field | Filled in, of 30 checked | Values in the sample |
|---|---|---|
| title | 30 | median 77 characters |
| url | 30 | iol.co.za |
| summary | 30 | median 186 characters |
| published_at | 30 | 2026-10-12 to 2026-10-13 |
| author | 19 | |
| image_url | 30 | iol-prod.appspot.com |
Request parameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| section | string | Yes | IOL section path Allowed values: news, news/africa, news/brics, news/crime-and-courts, news/education, news/energy, news/environment, news/feel-good, news/opinion, news/partnered, news/politics, news/politics/opinion, news/south-africa, news/south-africa/eastern-cape, news/south-africa/free-state, news/south-africa/gauteng, news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal, news/south-africa/limpopo, news/south-africa/mpumalanga, news/south-africa/north-west, news/south-africa/northern-cape, news/south-africa/western-cape, news/world, sport, sport/athletics, sport/betting, sport/boxing, sport/cricket, sport/cricket/domestic, sport/cricket/international, sport/cricket/proteas, sport/cricket/proteas-women, sport/golf, sport/horse-racing, sport/mma, sport/opinion, sport/rugby, sport/rugby/imbokodo, sport/rugby/international, sport/rugby/springboks, sport/rugby/super-rugby, sport/rugby/urc, sport/soccer, sport/soccer/bafana, sport/soccer/la-liga, sport/soccer/premier-league, sport/soccer/psl, sport/soccer/uefa-champions-league, sport/swimming, sport/tennis, business, business/economy, business/jobs, business/property, business/window-on-china, personal-finance, opinion, opinion/letters, entertainment, entertainment/books, entertainment/celebrity-news, entertainment/events, entertainment/movies, entertainment/music, entertainment/opinion, entertainment/royals, entertainment/streaming, entertainment/tv, entertainment/whats-on, entertainment/whats-on/cape-town, entertainment/whats-on/durban, entertainment/whats-on/joburg, entertainment/whats-on/pretoria, lifestyle, lifestyle/competitions, lifestyle/family, lifestyle/family/parenting, lifestyle/food-drink, lifestyle/food-drink/recipes, lifestyle/health, lifestyle/love-sex, lifestyle/love-sex/relationships, lifestyle/opinion, lifestyle/style-beauty, lifestyle/style-beauty/beauty, lifestyle/style-beauty/fashion, technology, technology/esports, technology/gadgets, technology/gaming, technology/mobile-apps, technology/opinion, technology/software-and-internet, motoring, motoring/f1-grand-prix, motoring/industry-news, motoring/latest-launches, motoring/motorsport, motoring/partnered, motoring/road-tests, travel, travel/africa, travel/partnered, travel/south-africa, travel/travel-tips, travel/world, matric, g20, government-at-work, capeargus, capeargus/news, capeargus/opinion, weekend-argus, weekend-argus/news, dailynews, dailynews/news, the-star, the-star/news, sunday-tribune, saturday-star, pretoria-news, pretoria-news/news, pretoria-news/opinion. | news | |
| x-api-key (header) | string | Yes | API key required |
cURL example
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/iol/headlines?section=news" \ -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"
Example JSON response
{
"code": 200,
"data": {
"section": "sport/rugby",
"items": [
{
"title": "Example headline",
"url": "https://iol.co.za/sport/rugby/urc/2026-09-24-example-story",
"published_at": "2026-09-24T14:33:35Z",
"author": "Mike Greenaway"
}
]
}
}Request schema
No body schema
Response schema
#/definitions/publicnews.headlinesResponseDoc
| Field | Type | Required | Enum | Bounds | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data | newsplatform.HeadlinesResponse | No | ||||
| data.items | array | No | HeadlineItem record, 7 fields: author, image_url, published_at, summary, title, type, url. Described under IOL top stories API. | |||
| data.section | string | No |
Failure responses
| Status | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | #/definitions/app.Response |
Code examples
Use environment variables for secrets and keep Crawlora API keys server-side.
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/iol/headlines?section=news" \
-H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"