Media, Film & Knowledge

Coursera API

The Coursera API returns online-course data as clean JSON.

5 actionsLive JSON1,000 free creditsMCP-ready

🤖 Using an AI assistant? Copy this link into ChatGPT / Claude / Cursor — it reads every endpoint and parameter instantly and tells you if this API fits your use case.

The primary search endpoint returns courses and specializations with id, name, URL, type, difficulty, duration, rating, review count, partners and skills, and you can pull a detail, reviews, partners and subjects. It is built for education apps, course-aggregators and learning tools that need Coursera catalog data without a scraper. One ReefAPI key, one shared credit pool, the standard envelope.

Live example

Real request and response JSON

Captured from the indexed primary action, search, on Jul 18, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC.

Captured request

{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "https://api.reefapi.com/coursera/v1/search",
  "headers": {
    "x-api-key": "$REEF_KEY",
    "content-type": "application/json"
  },
  "body": {
    "query": "machine learning"
  }
}

Captured response

{
  "ok": true,
  "meta": {
    "api": "coursera",
    "endpoint": "search",
    "mode": "live",
    "latency_ms": 2354.7,
    "record_count": 12,
    "bytes": 835853,
    "cache_hit": false,
    "stop_reason": "complete",
    "method": "ssr_apollo_state",
    "page": 1,
    "total_count": null,
    "total_pages": null,
    "has_more": false,
    "next_page": null
  },
  "data": {
    "results": [
      {
        "id": "8UjeMk-mEeit4g4GsxE4dg",
        "name": "[redacted-name]",
        "url": "https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning-with-python",
        "slug": "machine-learning-with-python",
        "type": "COURSE",
        "difficulty": "INTERMEDIATE",
        "duration": "ONE_TO_THREE_MONTHS",
        "rating": 4.67,
        "review_count": 18429,
        "partners": [
          "IBM"
        ],
        "skills": [
          "Unsupervised Learning",
          "Supervised Learning",
          "Model Evaluation"
        ],
        "is_free": false,
        "is_coursera_plus": true,
        "image": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/coursera-course-photos/3c/[redacted-phone]dc0a10a44bd3306833d/1200x1200px_[redacted-phone].jpg",
        "tagline": "Offered by IBM"
      },
      {
        "id": "T7hf5jWeEeuGCBL8_hyTUQ",
        "name": "[redacted-name]",
        "url": "https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning",
        "slug": "machine-learning",
        "type": "COURSE",
        "difficulty": "BEGINNER",
        "duration": "ONE_TO_FOUR_WEEKS",
        "rating": 4.89,
        "review_count": 32679,
        "partners": [
          "DeepLearning.AI",
          "Stanford University"
        ],
        "skills": [
          "Supervised Learning",
          "Applied Machine Learning",
          "Jupyter"
        ],
        "is_free": false,
        "is_coursera_plus": false,
        "image": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/coursera-course-photos/9c/90ae67ecdb4185a4ae79ec9a5ae0b6/Course-Logo--1.png",
        "tagline": "Offered by DeepLearning.AI, and Stanford University"
      },
      {
        "id": "e3wiTwXMEeim8hI7AVpI6A",
        "name": "[redacted-name]",
        "url": "https://www.coursera.org/specializations/mathematics-machine-learning",
        "slug": "mathematics-machine-learning",
        "type": "SPECIALIZATION",
        "difficulty": "BEGINNER",
        "duration": "THREE_TO_SIX_MONTHS",
        "rating": 4.58,
        "review_count": 15077,
        "partners": [
          "Imperial College London"
        ],
        "skills": [
          "Dimensionality Reduction",
          "Linear Algebra",
          "Regression Analysis"
        ],
        "is_free": false,
        "is_coursera_plus": true,
        "image": "https://d15cw65ipctsrr.cloudfront.net/3e/3974e00aa311e8840ea7bed5c70ad0/Specialization-logo.jpg",
        "tagline": "Mathematics for Machine Learning\nOffered by Imperial College London"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Actions

What the Coursera API does

Action	Description	Concrete use case	Key params
search	Search Coursera by keyword (any topic, skill, tool or title). Returns a paginated list of result cards — name, url, type (course / specialization / professional certificate / guided project), partner, rating, review count, difficulty, duration, skills and free status — most-relevant first. Optional filters: level, type, language, sort. Feed a result's slug/url into the detail action. Page with `page`; meta.has_more / meta.total_count tell you how many.	Content platforms call search to search Coursera by keyword (any topic, skill, tool or title).	query, level, type, language, sort, ...
detail	Full detail for one Coursera course OR program (specialization / professional certificate) by slug or URL. For a course: description, difficulty, estimated workload, rating (average, count, by-star), total enrollments, languages, certificates, what-you'll-learn, recommended background, skills, instructors and partners. For a program: the same plus the list of courses inside it. Pass a search result's url, or a slug with type='specialization' to force the program path.	Research tools call detail to get full detail for one Coursera course OR program (specialization / professional certificate) by….	slug, url, type
reviews	Top public student reviews for a Coursera course or program by slug/url: star rating, review text, author and date. Returns the most-helpful reviews Coursera surfaces on the page (top reviews — Coursera does not expose deep review pagination without login). Use meta.review_count for the total number of ratings.	Community analysts call reviews to get top public student reviews for a Coursera course or program by slug/url.	slug, url, type
partners	Browse the universities and companies that partner with Coursera (Stanford, University of Michigan, Google, IBM, …). Returns partner id, name and logo. Use it to map who publishes on Coursera.	Media monitors call partners to get browse the universities and companies that partner with Coursera (Stanford, University of Mic….	none
subjects	Browse Coursera's subject catalogue — the top-level domains (Data Science, Business, Computer Science, Arts & Humanities, …) with their slug and description. Use a subject slug as the search `subject` filter.	Content platforms call subjects to get browse Coursera's subject catalogue.	none

Code samples

Call search from your stack

curl -X POST https://api.reefapi.com/coursera/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $REEF_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"machine learning"}'

import requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.reefapi.com/coursera/v1/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": REEF_KEY},
    json={
  "query": "machine learning"
},
)
print(r.json()["data"])

const res = await fetch("https://api.reefapi.com/coursera/v1/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": process.env.REEF_KEY,
    "content-type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "query": "machine learning"
}),
});
const { ok, data, meta, error } = await res.json();

MCP one-liner

Ask your MCP-connected assistant: call reefapi.coursera.search with {"query":"machine learning"}.

Use cases

Who uses this API and why

Course-aggregators call search to list Coursera courses by subject, level and rating.
Learning apps use detail and reviews to show course info and learner feedback.
Skills-mapping tools use skills and subjects to match courses to a career path.

FAQ

Questions developers ask before integrating

What is the Coursera API?

Coursera API is a ReefAPI endpoint group for coursera It returns live JSON through POST requests under /coursera/v1.

Is the Coursera API free to try?

Yes. ReefAPI starts with 1,000 free credits, no card required. Coursera calls use the same shared credit balance as every other ReefAPI engine.

Do I need a Coursera login or account?

No login to Coursera is needed for the API response. You call ReefAPI with your x-api-key header, and the playground can run live examples before you create a production key.

How fresh is the Coursera data?

The page example is captured from a live search call, and production requests fetch live data through ReefAPI rather than a static sample.

How many credits does the Coursera API use?

Coursera actions currently cost 1 credit per successful call. Failed or blocked calls are free, and all APIs draw from one credit pool.

Can I call Coursera from an AI assistant or MCP client?

Yes. Connect ReefAPI once through MCP and your assistant can call coursera actions with the same key, credit pool and JSON envelope used by normal REST requests.

Is the Coursera API a Coursera scraper?

It is the managed alternative to a DIY Coursera scraper. Instead of building and maintaining your own scraper — proxies, headless browsers, captcha and constant breakage — you call one ReefAPI endpoint and get the same coursera back as clean JSON.

Why does my Coursera scraper keep getting blocked?

Most Coursera scrapers break on anti-bot defenses, rate limits and IP bans that need rotating residential proxies and browser fingerprinting to clear. ReefAPI handles all of that for you — no proxies, no captchas, no maintenance — and returns live JSON. Blocked or failed calls are free.

docs / coursera

Coursera

base /coursera/v15 endpoints

post/coursera/v1/search1 credit

Search Coursera by keyword (any topic, skill, tool or title). Returns a paginated list of result cards — name, url, type (course / specialization / professional certificate / guided project), partner, rating, review count, difficulty, duration, skills and free status — most-relevant first. Optional filters: level, type, language, sort. Feed a result's slug/url into the detail action. Page with `page`; meta.has_more / meta.total_count tell you how many.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
query	required	—	What to search Coursera for — a topic, skill, tool or course/program title ('machine learning', 'python', 'excel', 'project management', 'aws'). Returns courses, specializations, professional certificates and guided projects, most-relevant first.
level	optional	—	Filter by difficulty. One of: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Mixed.
type	optional	—	Filter by product type. One of: Courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, Degrees.
language	optional	—	Filter by course language (e.g. English, Spanish, French, Arabic).
sort	optional	—	Result order: Relevance (default) or Newest.
page = 1	optional	1–80	Result page (12 per page). Page until meta.has_more is false; meta.total_count / meta.total_pages tell you how many.
subject	optional	—	Optional subject/topic slug to bias the search (e.g. data-science, business, computer-science).

Try in playground →

post/coursera/v1/detail1 credit

Full detail for one Coursera course OR program (specialization / professional certificate) by slug or URL. For a course: description, difficulty, estimated workload, rating (average, count, by-star), total enrollments, languages, certificates, what-you'll-learn, recommended background, skills, instructors and partners. For a program: the same plus the list of courses inside it. Pass a search result's url, or a slug with type='specialization' to force the program path.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
slug	optional	—	The course/program slug (the last path segment of a Coursera URL, e.g. 'machine-learning' from /learn/machine-learning, or 'machine-learning-introduction' from /specializations/…). From a search result's slug.
url	optional	—	Alternatively a full Coursera course/specialization URL (a search result's `url`). The path selects course vs program automatically.
type	optional	—	Optional, only when passing a bare slug: 'course' (default) or 'specialization' / 'professional certificate' to force the program path.

Try in playground →

post/coursera/v1/reviews1 credit

Top public student reviews for a Coursera course or program by slug/url: star rating, review text, author and date. Returns the most-helpful reviews Coursera surfaces on the page (top reviews — Coursera does not expose deep review pagination without login). Use meta.review_count for the total number of ratings.

Parameter		Allowed / range	Description
slug	optional	—	The course/program slug to pull top reviews for (from a search result's slug).
url	optional	—	Alternatively a full Coursera course/program URL.
type	optional	—	Optional, only with a bare slug: 'course' (default) or 'specialization'.

Try in playground →

post/coursera/v1/partnersfree

Browse the universities and companies that partner with Coursera (Stanford, University of Michigan, Google, IBM, …). Returns partner id, name and logo. Use it to map who publishes on Coursera.

Try in playground →

post/coursera/v1/subjectsfree

Browse Coursera's subject catalogue — the top-level domains (Data Science, Business, Computer Science, Arts & Humanities, …) with their slug and description. Use a subject slug as the search `subject` filter.

Try in playground →

Example request · search

curl -X POST https://api.reefapi.com/coursera/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $REEF_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"machine learning"}'

Response shape

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": { /* the result */ },
  "meta": {
    "latency_ms": 240,
    "record_count": 12,
    "completeness_pct": 100
  },
  "error": null
}