ScholarDB API

Quick start

1. Create a free account and confirm your email.
2. Open your dashboard and create an API key. Copy it — it’s shown only once.
3. Make your first request:

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/institutions?q=iit%20bombay&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

Authentication

Every request needs an API key. Keys start with udb_. Send it in the Authorization header (preferred), the X-API-Key header, or as an api_key query parameter. Keep keys secret — if one leaks, revoke it from your dashboard and create a new one. You can have up to 5 active keys.

Authorization: Bearer udb_3f9c…
# or
X-API-Key: udb_3f9c…

Rate limits

Limits are shared across all of your keys and reset at midnight India time (IST). Every response carries these headers:

Custom lists Pro

Create a list of only the colleges you care about from your dashboard. Every endpoint stays exactly the same — search, resolve, autocomplete, states, cities and stats simply return results from your list. Either add list=<list-id> to any request, or create an API key tied to the list so every call is scoped automatically. Scoped responses carry an X-List header.

GET /v1/autocomplete?q=iit&list=6f1c2a7e-…

Verify with ScholarDB

A sign-in style flow, like “Sign in with Google”. Create an integration under ID card verification → Sign-in integration on your dashboard and register your redirect URL. Send students to the hosted page; they enter their name, pick their college and upload their ID card. We redirect back with a one-time code (valid 10 minutes) and your state. If the student cancels you get error=access_denied.

<a href="https://collegedb.dev/verify/<client-id>?redirect_uri=https://yourapp.com/callback&state=<random>">
  Verify with ScholarDB
</a>

On your server, exchange the code with your API key. Each code works once and only for the integration owner's keys.

curl -X POST https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/verify-session \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"code":"vc_..."}'

{
  "verified": true,
  "status": "verified",
  "method": "id_card",
  "student": { "name": "Ananya Rao", "email": null, "college": { "code": "U-0306", "name": "Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay" } },
  "extracted": { "name": "Ananya Rao", "college": "IIT Bombay", "expiryDate": "2027-06-30" },
  "reason": "Name and college match and the card is valid."
}

For convenience the redirect also carries verified, method, name, email (college email flow only), college and college_code as URL params. These are for display only — always confirm with the code exchange above before trusting them.

College email (Pro). Turn on Allow college email verification for an integration and students see “Verify using college email instead”. The email must be on their chosen college's own domain (e.g. you@iitb.ac.in) and is confirmed with a 6-digit one-time code. The result has "method": "college_email" and includes the verified email.

Errors

Errors use standard HTTP codes and a consistent body:

{ "error": { "code": "rate_limited", "message": "Free plan allows 50 requests per day…" } }

The institution object

Search & list institutions

The main endpoint. With q, results are ranked from most to least relevant, matching full names, acronyms (iitb, iimb) and website names. Without q, lists institutions alphabetically. Combine with filters and paginate.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/institutions?q=iitb&limit=3" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "total": 62,
  "page": 1,
  "limit": 3,
  "pages": 21,
  "data": [
    {
      "code": "U-0306",
      "name": "Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay",
      "shortName": "IIT",
      "category": "university",
      "type": "Institute of National Importance",
      "city": "Mumbai",
      "state": "Maharashtra",
      "university": null,
      "management": null,
      "yearEstablished": 1958,
      "website": "www.iitb.ac.in",
      "location": "Urban",
      "relevance": 247.3
    }
  ]
}

Get one institution

Fetch a single institution by its ScholarDB code. Returns 404 if no record exists.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/institutions/U-0306" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "data": {
  "code": "U-0306",
  "name": "Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay",
  "shortName": "IIT",
  "category": "university",
  "type": "Institute of National Importance",
  "city": "Mumbai",
  "state": "Maharashtra",
  "university": null,
  "management": null,
  "yearEstablished": 1958,
  "website": "www.iitb.ac.in",
  "location": "Urban"
}
}

Resolve a messy name

Turn free-text input from a form or resume ("iitb", "Indian Inst Tech Bombay") into one canonical record, with a confidence of high, medium, low or none, plus up to 3 alternatives.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/resolve?name=iit%20bombay" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "input": "iit bombay",
  "confidence": "high",
  "match": { "code": "U-0306", "name": "Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay", "…": "…" },
  "alternatives": [ … ]
}

Autocomplete

Lightweight suggestions for search-as-you-type college pickers. Returns only the fields a dropdown needs.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/autocomplete?q=iit%20bom&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "query": "iit bom",
  "suggestions": [
    { "code": "U-0306", "label": "Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay", "shortName": "IIT", "city": "Mumbai", "state": "Maharashtra", "category": "university" }
  ]
}

List states

All 36 states and union territories (28 states, 8 UTs) with kind, counts of institutions by category and number of cities.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/states" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "data": [
    { "state": "Karnataka", "kind": "state", "institutions": 7251, "universities": 97, "colleges": 5140, "standalone": 2014, "cities": 31 }
  ]
}

List cities in a state

All cities in a state with the number of institutions in each. Use the names as the city filter on search.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/cities?state=Kerala" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "state": "Kerala",
  "data": [ { "city": "Ernakulam", "institutions": 292 } ]
}

Dataset statistics

Totals for the whole dataset.

curl "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/stats" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY"

{
  "data": {
    "total": 72973,
    "byCategory": { "university": 1438, "college": 54458, "standalone": 17077 },
    "states": 36,
    "cities": 762
  },
  "source": "Research by the ScholarDB team"
}

Verify a student ID card

ScholarDB's advanced verification engine reads the front and back of a student ID card and checks that the printed name and college match what the student told you, and that the card has not expired. Send multipart form-data with image files, or JSON with https URLs or base64 data URLs (max 6 MB each). Images are not stored. Free accounts get 10 verifications in total; Pro is unlimited.

curl -X POST "https://collegedb.dev/api/public/v1/verify-id" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCHOLARDB_KEY" \
  -F name="Ananya Rao" \
  -F college="IIT Bombay" \
  -F front=@id-front.jpg \
  -F back=@id-back.jpg

{
  "verified": true,
  "status": "verified",
  "confidence": "high",
  "checks": { "isStudentIdCard": true, "nameMatches": true, "collegeMatches": true, "notExpired": true },
  "extracted": { "name": "Ananya Rao", "college": "Indian Institute of Technology Bombay", "expiryDate": "2027-06-30" },
  "reason": "Name and college match and the card is valid until June 2027.",
  "checkedOn": "2026-11-04"
}

Try it