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Yelp

Yelp API

Local Business Reviews / Local Discovery & Advertising Platform · yelp.com

A public REST and GraphQL API at docs.developer.yelp.com spans search, business details, reviews, ads, and insights. Keys are self serve, but after a 30 day trial pricing starts at $229 per month and reviews return at most 7 excerpts. In 2024 Yelp cut free access on days of notice.

Last verified: August 2026Marketing & SalesMCP READY
API GRADE
B+
VERIFIED AUG 2026

SCORECARD

ExistenceGOODPublic Fusion and Places REST endpoints plus a GraphQL alternative, documented at docs.developer.yelp.com.
AccessGOODSelf serve keys with a 30 day, 5,000 call trial; after that it is paid only, from $229 per month.
CoverageGOODSearch, details, match, autocomplete, transactions, ads, and insights; reviews cap at 3 to 7 excerpts.
AuthGOODAPI key passed as a Bearer token; simple and documented.
Docs & DXGOODA full developer portal covering five product families with per plan limits documented.
StabilityPOORYelp ended free Fusion API access in July 2024 with as little as 4 days notice, and several dependent apps shut down.
MCPGOODYelp publishes an official MCP server for its Fusion AI API in the Yelp GitHub org, with install instructions in the repo and API documentation on docs.developer.yelp.com. It provides natural language business search and discovery over Yelp data. github.com ↗ VERIFIED 2026-08
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Frequently asked questions

Yelp scores B+ on Supergood's API Report Card. A public REST and GraphQL API at docs.developer.yelp.com spans search, business details, reviews, ads, and insights. Keys are self serve, but after a 30 day trial pricing starts at $229 per month and reviews return at most 7 excerpts. In 2024 Yelp cut free access on days of notice.

Tried to integrate with Yelp?
SOURCES
Reviews endpoint caps output at 3 review excerpts (default / Base/Plus plans) or 7 (Enterprise/Premium plans), full review content is not available via API, which has been a top-voted GitHub issue since 2017 github.com ↗
Review excerpts are truncated to 160 characters by default, further limiting downstream usefulness for reputation-management tools docs.developer.yelp.com ↗
In July 2024 Yelp ended free Fusion API access for many long-tenured developers with as little as 4 days notice, forcing migration to paid plans starting at $229/month techcrunch.com ↗
The new paid pricing was widely criticized as opaque and dramatically more expensive than competing places APIs (Google Places, Foursquare), with a developer who averaged <100 calls/day facing a $229/month minimum observationalhazard.com ↗
Multiple indie developers shuttered their Yelp-dependent apps in 2024 in response to the pricing change, even after Yelp extended a 90-day grace period and issued an apology techcrunch.com ↗
Yelp's ToS explicitly prohibits 'robot, spider, search/retrieval application, or other automated device' use against the site, prohibits resale of content, and prohibits republishing scraped reviews terms.yelp.com ↗
Insights API has no display rights, partners can use Yelp data internally but cannot show it to end users, which materially restricts the use cases for SaaS integrators docs.developer.yelp.com ↗
QPS rate limiting enforced via HTTP 429 TOO_MANY_REQUESTS_PER_SECOND and a daily limit (300/day on trial Starter, 5,000/day on paid plans), with overages billed in 1,000-call increments docs.developer.yelp.com ↗
No bulk historical-reviews export available via the standard Fusion/Places API, enterprise bulk data requires negotiating a separate data-licensing contract with Yelp Data business.yelp.com ↗
Photos endpoint capped at 3 (Enhanced) or 12 (Premium) photos per business, limiting display use cases for partner apps business.yelp.com ↗
GraphQL and REST APIs share the same underlying rate limits and content caps, switching interface doesn't unlock additional data yelp.com ↗
Historic 2019 transition from free to paid plans, followed by 2024 sudden enforcement, has created a pattern of trust erosion in the developer community appdevelopermagazine.com ↗
Long-running business-owner allegations that Yelp's review-filter algorithm hides legitimate positive reviews unless the business advertises (the 'extortion' narrative); subject of multiple class-action lawsuits en.wikipedia.org ↗
Aggressive sales calls from Yelp ad reps repeatedly cited by SMB owners as a top complaint trustpilot.com ↗
Difficulty getting fake / retaliatory / competitor-posted negative reviews removed trustpilot.com ↗
Ad spend often produces low-quality or unqualified leads relative to cost, per SMB reviews g2.com ↗
Yelp's consumer traffic and discovery share has been eroded by Google Maps / Google Business Profile, reducing ROI of the platform for advertisers techcrunch.com ↗
Restaurants, Retail & Other (RR&O) advertising revenue declined 5% YoY in Q2 2025, reflecting weakening advertiser demand in the historically core restaurant segment sec.gov ↗
Yelp settled a $323M FTC complaint historically and faces ongoing scrutiny over review-manipulation claims and the line between editorial and paid placement en.wikipedia.org ↗
Mobile and web UI has been criticized for ad density and degraded organic discovery in favor of sponsored placements trustpilot.com ↗
Request-a-Quote leads frequently complained about by service-business owners as spam or non-converting g2.com ↗
Limited international footprint outside the US, Canada, UK, and a handful of European markets sec.gov ↗
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