books
Internet Archive Texts
The text and book collection on archive.org, comprising more than 40 million digitized items, some available only through controlled lending. A keyless search-and-metadata interface lets you find items and open them in the reader. Use it to establish that a book or document exists and to read public-domain material, bearing in mind that in-copyright full text is lending-gated and the service can throttle under heavy load.
Why it’s useful & how it works
The Internet Archive's text collection spans centuries of print, from rare 18th-century pamphlets to contemporary open-access volumes, and is the single largest free digitized book repository on the web. You search by title, author, or subject through the website or API, then open items in the built-in reader. Public-domain works are readable in full without any account; books still under copyright are available only through controlled digital lending, which requires a free account and is subject to waiting lists.
What’s inside
Over 40 million digitized text items including books, magazines, academic journals, and documents, with millions available as immediate full-text reads.
API access
https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?q=...&output=json ; https://archive.org/metadata/ <id>
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Responded HTTP 200 681 ms
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 977 ms
- API, direct
- Responded HTTP 200 325 ms
- API, through a proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 1.1 s
Did a real search return anything?
Returned results · 1887 results for the sample query · median 1.1 s · stable across runs
Sample query: Vampirella (Warren Publishing) Issue 016.cbr
Benchmark coverage
Found 8 of 8 test items (100%) in the Books cluster. Median response 470 ms.
By how well known the item is: 3/3 well-known, 3/3 mid, 2/2 obscure .
One item it found: Vampirella (Warren Publishing) Issue 016.cbr
Reachability measured 2026-08-22. Search checked 2026-08-22. Benchmark run 2026-08-22.
Access
Programmatic API access (a key may be required, see the API tag).