Patents Search API

Endpoint facts

Method

GET

API path

/usptoppubs/search

Auth

apiKey

Credits

3 credits/request

Charged on

Successful 2xx responses only

Platform

USPTO Patent Public Search

Response schema

#/definitions/usptoppubs.searchResponseDoc

How this endpoint behaves

Query parameters:

• q (required) — search query text. Accepts the full BRS query syntax USPTO Patent Public Search's own Advanced Search box uses (this endpoint submits q through that same query mode) -- see "Query syntax" below.
• databases (optional) — comma-separated subset of databases to search. Allowed values: US-PGPUB, USPAT, USOCR. Defaults to all three.
• num (optional, default 20, max 100) — results to return per page.
• page (optional, default 0) — results page, 0-indexed.

Response fields: query, num_found, per_page, page, results[] (publication_number, guid, title, database, applicant_names[], assignee_name, inventors_short, application_number, filing_date, publication_date, ipc_codes, cpc_codes, kind_codes[], page_count, language), source_url, fetched_at.

A result's guid and database feed directly into /usptoppubs/detail to fetch that document's full abstract, description, and claims text.

Query syntax

q is not limited to plain keywords -- it accepts USPTO's full Advanced Search (BRS) query language, so most filtering happens by composing q rather than through separate parameters:

Field-specific search -- append .<code>. (or [<code>]) to a term to restrict it to one part of the record, e.g. radar.ti. (title only) or Microsoft.as. (assignee only). Commonly used codes:

The full searchable-index list (100+ codes covering every bibliographic field) is USPTO's own public reference: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/search/patent-public-search/searchable-indexes.

Date ranges -- prefix a date field with @ and compare directly, no .field. suffix needed:

Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT (ANDNOT), XOR.

Proximity operators (precedence ADJ > NEAR > WITH > SAME):

• x ADJn y -- x and y within n words, in order, same sentence.
• x NEARn y -- x and y within n words, any order, same sentence.
• x WITHn y -- x and y within n sentences of each other.
• x SAMEn y -- x and y within n paragraphs (max 25) of each other.

Wildcards/truncation: $ truncates with an optional numeric character-count modifier (prod$3 matches "produce", "product", "production" -- up to 3 extra characters); ? matches exactly one character. Prefer a numeric $n modifier over an unmodified $/* -- unmodified wildcards search the full index and are slow.

Example composed queries: battery.ti. AND lithium.ab., (Smith NEAR2 John).in. AND @pd>=20200101<=20241231, F16L11/00.cpc. AND Microsoft.as..

A publication with no matches for a query returns a 200 response with num_found: 0 and an empty results array, not an error.

Example response (trimmed):

{"code":200,"msg":"OK","data":{"query":"battery","num_found":500,"per_page":20,"page":0,"results":[{"publication_number":"US10758101B2","guid":"US-10758101-B2","title":"UPRIGHT VACUUM CLEANER WITH BATTERY SUPPORT PLATE","database":"USPAT","applicant_names":["Emerson Electric Co."],"assignee_name":"Emerson Electric Co.","inventors_short":"Fogarty; Thomas E. et al.","application_number":"15/620,213","filing_date":"2017-06-12T00:00:00Z","publication_date":"2020-09-01T00:00:00Z","ipc_codes":"A47L9/00","kind_codes":["B2"],"page_count":15,"language":"EN"}],"source_url":"https://ppubs.uspto.gov/api/searches/searchWithBeFamily","fetched_at":"2026-08-15T19:00:00Z"}}

Sampled response

Request, 14 Oct 2026

GET /usptoppubs/search?q=battery&num=20

Items in results

20

Fields filled in every checked item

14

Fields empty in some or all items

1

Shared guides

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