Sample entity lists

You can use sample to get a random list of up to 10,000 results.

• Get 100 random works https://api.openalex.org/works?sample=100&per-page=100

• Get 50 random works that are open access and published in 2021 https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=open_access.is_oa:true,publication_year:2021&sample=50&per-page=50

You can add a seed value in order to retrieve the same set of random records, in the same order, multiple times.

• Get 20 random sources with a seed value https://api.openalex.org/sources?sample=20&seed=123

Depending on your query, random results with a seed value may change over time due to new records coming into OpenAlex.

Limitations

• The sample size is limited to 10,000 results.

• You must provide a seed value when paging beyond the first page of results. Without a seed value, you might get duplicate records in your results.

• You must use basic paging when sampling. Cursor pagination is not supported.