GET /efetch.fcgi

nih.gov:ncbi-e-utilities

Summary: Retrieve full records in specified format
Operation ID: efetch
Auth: unknown
Description

EFetch retrieves records in the requested format from a list of one or more UIDs or from a user's dataset stored on the Entrez history server.

Parameters (13)

WebEnv (string, query, optional)

Web environment string from a previous ESearch, EPost or ELink call

api_key (string, query, optional)

NCBI API key for higher rate limits

complexity (integer, query, optional)

Data content for genomes (0=blob, 1=bioseq, 2=bioseqset, 3=nuc-prot, 4=pub-set)

Constraints: {'enum': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]}

db (string, query, required)

Database containing the UIDs

Constraints: {'enum': ['pubmed', 'protein', 'nuccore', 'ipg', 'nucleotide', 'structure', 'genome', 'annotinfo', 'assembly', 'bioproject', 'biosample', 'blastdbinfo', 'books', 'cdd', 'clinvar', 'gap', 'gapplus', 'grasp', 'dbvar', 'gene', 'gds', 'geoprofiles', 'medgen', 'mesh', 'nlmcatalog', 'omim', 'orgtrack', 'pmc', 'proteinclusters', 'pcassay', 'protfam', 'pccompound', 'pcsubstance', 'seqannot', 'snp', 'sra', 'taxonomy', 'biocollections', 'gtr']}

id (string, query, optional)

UID list (comma-delimited). Either id or query_key/WebEnv must be provided.

query_key (integer, query, optional)

Query key from a previous ESearch, EPost or ELink call

retmax (integer, query, optional)

Number of records to retrieve (max varies by database)

retmode (string, query, optional)

Retrieval mode. Common values: 'text', 'xml', 'asn.1', 'json'

Constraints: {'enum': ['text', 'xml', 'asn.1', 'json', 'html']}

retstart (integer, query, optional)

Sequential number of the first record to retrieve

rettype (string, query, optional)

Retrieval type. Varies by database (e.g., 'fasta', 'gb', 'abstract', 'medline')

Constraints: {'enum': ['fasta', 'gb', 'gbwithparts', 'gp', 'abstract', 'medline', 'xml', 'json', 'uilist', 'docsum', 'full', 'report']}

seq_start (integer, query, optional)

First sequence base to retrieve

seq_stop (integer, query, optional)

Last sequence base to retrieve

strand (integer, query, optional)

Strand of DNA sequence to retrieve (1=plus, 2=minus)

Constraints: {'enum': [1, 2]}

Examples (3)

TitleTypeURLAction
Fetch PubMed article by ID in XML format curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=39112357&retmode=xml&rettype=abstract
Fetch nucleotide sequence in FASTA format curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=NM_001301717.2&rettype=fasta&retmode=text
Fetch multiple protein records with sequence range curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=protein&id=NP_001287045.1&rettype=gp&retmode=text&seq_start=1&seq_stop=100&strand=1

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

TimeStatusLatencySize
2026-03-23 10:47:01.877662 200 382ms
2026-03-23 10:37:08.958281 200 537ms
2026-03-23 09:17:48.105348 200 531ms

Response Changes

WhenOldNew
2026-03-23 10:37:08.958281 99824b4069f2 c86af9d3363a
2026-03-23 10:47:01.877662 c86af9d3363a 996c1320ff78