Overview
The Spain Open Government Data API (datos.gob.es) exposes thousands of datasets from Spanish public institutions including statistics, geography, and public services. It follows the DCAT-AP standard and requires no authentication, making it easy to query with a simple HTTP request. Perfect for exploring Spanish civic data or building data journalism tools.
Beginner Tip
Use the /api/action/package_search endpoint with the q parameter to search by keyword, or browse datos.gob.es to find specific dataset IDs before fetching them via the API.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 15,170 bytes · compressed
- Response time
- 432 ms (median of 3) · fastest 321 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 · certificate issued by Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions CA
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Served by
- nginx
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| _about | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.j… |
| definition | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/meta/data… |
| extendedMetadataVersion | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.j… |
| first | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.j… |
| isPartOf | object | {4 fields} |
| items | array | [1 item] |
| itemsPerPage | integer | 5 |
| next | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.j… |
| page | integer | 1 |
| prev | string (url) | http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.j… |
| startIndex | integer | 6 |
| type | string (url) | http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1 on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"format": "linked-data-api",
"version": "0.2",
"result": {
"_about": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1",
"definition": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/meta/dataset.json",
"extendedMetadataVersion": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1&_metadata=all",
"first": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_page=0",
"isPartOf": {
"_about": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json",
"definition": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/meta/dataset.json",
"hasPart": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1",
"type": "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint"
},
"items": [
{
"…": "(15 more fields)"
}
],
"itemsPerPage": 5,
"next": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_page=2",
"page": 1,
"prev": "http://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_page=0",
"startIndex": 6,
"type": "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"
}
} Field Reference
result List of dataset entries matching the search or browse query Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://datos.gob.es/apidata/catalog/dataset.json?_pageSize=5&_page=1";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.
<html>
<head>
<title>bad request</title>
<style>
body {
background-color: pink
}
pre {
margin: 1ex
; padding: 1ex
; background-color: #ffaaaa
; border-radius: 1ex
; font-weight: bold
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Bad Request</h1>
Your request was ill-formed.
<pre>
_pageSize=!!!invalid!!!: value must be an integer > 0.
</pre>
</body>
</html> Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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