University Lookup API

About the University Lookup API

A university lookup API that answers two questions. Search by name, country or state to get institutions with their domains and websites; US results come from the NCES IPEDS directory with address, coordinates, control, level, highest degree, HBCU and land-grant flags. Or send a domain or a whole email address and the API says whether it is academic: it matches the domain and its parents against every institution's domains, then falls back to academic suffixes such as .edu and .ac.uk. Paid plans unlock the IPEDS figures for US institutions: enrollment, student-faculty ratio, admission rate, in-state and out-of-state tuition, graduate tuition and room and board.

What people use it for

Student Discount Verification

Check that a sign-up email belongs to a university before granting an education plan.

Lead Enrichment

Turn the domain on an inbound lead into the university behind it, with country and website.

College Search

List US colleges in a state with control, level, enrollment and tuition for comparison tools.

Form Autocomplete

Suggest institution names as students type their school on an application form.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/universitylookup

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Optional

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/universitylookup?name=Stanford&domain=stanford.edu&email=jane%40cs.stanford.edu&country=US&state=CA&limit=10" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/universitylookup

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "domain": null,
    "isAcademicDomain": null,
    "matchType": null,
    "matchedDomain": null,
    "count": 1,
    "totalMatches": 1,
    "universities": [
      {
        "id": "us-166683",
        "name": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
        "aliases": [
          "MIT",
          "M.I.T."
        ],
        "country": "United States",
        "countryCode": "US",
        "stateProvince": "MA",
        "city": "Cambridge",
        "address": "77 Massachusetts Avenue",
        "zip": "02139-4301",
        "latitude": 42.359243,
        "longitude": -71.093226,
        "timezone": "America/New_York",
        "domains": [
          "mit.edu",
          "web.mit.edu"
        ],
        "website": "https://web.mit.edu/",
        "phone": "6172531000",
        "ipedsUnitId": 166683,
        "control": "private_nonprofit",
        "level": "four_year",
        "highestDegree": "doctorate",
        "offersUndergraduate": true,
        "offersGraduate": true,
        "hbcu": false,
        "tribal": false,
        "landGrant": true,
        "locale": "city_midsize",
        "sizeBand": "10000_19999",
        "system": null,
        "stats": {
          "enrollmentTotal": 11920,
          "enrollmentUndergraduate": 4576,
          "enrollmentGraduate": 7344,
          "studentFacultyRatio": 3,
          "admissionRate": 5,
          "tuitionInDistrict": 60156,
          "tuitionInState": 60156,
          "tuitionOutOfState": 60156,
          "graduateTuitionInState": 59750,
          "graduateTuitionOutOfState": 59750,
          "roomAndBoard": 19390,
          "tuitionYear": "2023-24",
          "enrollmentYear": 2023
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 2 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive University Lookup form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — University Lookup API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1Data refreshed monthly