Metro API endpoint
Returns public Metro article metadata (headline, description, section, authors, publish/update times, lead image) and body paragraphs from a canonical article URL. Metro articles are free to read; live-blog entries are included in the body.
/metro/articleQuery parameter: url (required) is a Metro article URL in the canonical https://metro.co.uk/YYYY/MM/DD/<slug>-<id>/ form. www.metro.co.uk, a missing trailing slash, and tracking query strings are accepted and normalized; section, author, search, and other non-article URLs return 400.
Returns the article's title, description, section (the most specific section, such as EastEnders or Politics), authors, published_at and updated_at (RFC 3339, UTC), image_url, and paragraphs.
Metro articles are free to read, so paragraphs is the full article text. Live-blog articles include their live entries after the introduction, newest first. Shopping round-ups include each product's editorial description. Related-story links, newsletter sign-ups, and deal widgets are left out. Picture-led posts such as the daily cartoon can have only one short paragraph. A Metro URL that no longer exists returns 404.
| Field | In the sample | Value in the sample |
|---|---|---|
| url | Has a value | metro.co.uk |
| title | Has a value | 56 characters |
| description | Has a value | 112 characters |
| published_at | Has a value | 2026-09-24 |
| updated_at | Has a value | 2026-09-24 |
| section | Has a value | “Politics” |
| authors | Has a value | 1 entry |
| image_url | Has a value | metro.co.uk |
| paragraphs | Has a value | 18 entries |
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| url | string | Yes | Canonical Metro article URL | https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/24/andy-burnham-talking-russia-this-week-29649003/ | |
| x-api-key (header) | string | Yes | API key required |
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/metro/article?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2026%2F09%2F24%2Fandy-burnham-talking-russia-this-week-29649003%2F" \ -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"
{
"code": 200,
"data": {
"url": "https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/24/andy-burnham-talking-russia-this-week-29649003/",
"title": "Why Andy Burnham has been talking about Russia this week",
"description": "The Prime Minister was speaking at the UN General Assembly, and took a hard stance against Russia in his speech.",
"published_at": "2026-09-24T07:08:40Z",
"updated_at": "2026-09-24T08:50:38Z",
"section": "Politics",
"authors": [
"Craig Munro"
],
"image_url": "https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SEI_313580460-cd1a.jpg?quality=90&strip=all",
"paragraphs": [
"Remember Rishi Sunak’s first meeting with Joe Biden, at the White House in June 2023?"
]
}
}Request schema
No body schema
Response schema
#/definitions/publicnews.articleResponseDoc
| Field | Type | Required | Enum | Bounds | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data | newsplatform.ArticleResponse | No | ||||
| data.authors | array | No | ||||
| data.description | string | No | ||||
| data.image_url | string | No | ||||
| data.paragraphs | array | No | ||||
| data.paywalled | boolean | No | Paywalled is true when the publisher serves only a teaser of this article to anonymous readers, so Paragraphs is a partial body rather than the full text. It is omitted when the full public body was returned. | |||
| data.published_at | string | No | ||||
| data.section | string | No | ||||
| data.title | string | No | ||||
| data.updated_at | string | No | ||||
| data.url | string | No |
| Status | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 404 | Not Found | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | #/definitions/app.Response |
Use environment variables for secrets and keep Crawlora API keys server-side.
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/metro/article?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2026%2F09%2F24%2Fandy-burnham-talking-russia-this-week-29649003%2F" \
-H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"