Registry / http-networking / wikipedia-api

wikipedia-api

library0.15.0pypypi✓ verified 26d ago

Wikipedia-API is a Python wrapper that provides an easy-to-use interface for interacting with Wikipedia's MediaWiki API. It supports extracting various types of information, including text, sections, links, categories, and translations from Wikipedia pages. The library offers both synchronous and asynchronous clients for flexible integration, and is actively maintained with frequent releases, currently at version 0.13.0.

http-networking data serialization

pip install wikipedia-api

github ↗package ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · WIKIPEDIA-API

wikipedia-api

http-networkingpythonv0.15.0

Install

2.7s avg

Import

373ms

Disk

22MB

Pass rate

10/ 10

Env Coverage10 / 10

glibc

3.9–3.13

musl

3.9–3.13

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v0.15.0 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

py 3.10–3.95 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 0.0s · import 0.308s · 24.1MB

glibc

py 3.10–3.95 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 2.7s · import 0.288s · 25MB

22MB installed

● package 22MB

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

Wikipedia

✓ from wikipediaapi import Wikipedia

For the synchronous client.

AsyncWikipedia

✓ from wikipediaapi import AsyncWikipedia

For the asynchronous client.

Demonstrates how to initialize the synchronous Wikipedia client, retrieve a page by title, check its existence, and access its summary, URL, and sections. A descriptive user_agent is mandatory.

import wikipediaapi import os # It's crucial to provide a User-Agent that identifies your project. # Replace 'MyProjectName (contact@example.com)' with your actual project name and contact info. # See https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User-Agent_policy wiki_wiki = wikipediaapi.Wikipedia( user_agent=os.environ.get('WIKIPEDIA_USER_AGENT', 'MyPythonApp/1.0 (contact@example.com)'), language='en' ) page_py = wiki_wiki.page('Python (programming language)') if page_py.exists(): print(f"Page title: {page_py.title}") print(f"Summary: {page_py.summary[0:200]}...") print(f"Full URL: {page_py.fullurl}") # Example of accessing sections for s in page_py.sections: print(f"Section: {s.title}") break # Just print the first section title for brevity else: print(f"Page 'Python (programming language)' does not exist.")

Debug

Known issues

breakingThe `user_agent` parameter became mandatory in the `Wikipedia` and `AsyncWikipedia` constructors starting from version 0.6.0. Failing to provide it will raise an error.

fix

Always pass a descriptive `user_agent` string as the first argument to the constructor, e.g., `wikipediaapi.Wikipedia(user_agent='MyProjectName (contact@example.com)', ...)`.

affects: >=0.6.0

breakingThe position of the `variant` parameter in the `Wikipedia` and `AsyncWikipedia` constructors changed to the third argument in versions 0.7.x. If you were explicitly passing `variant` by position in older versions, this will break.

fix

Ensure `variant` is passed as a keyword argument (e.g., `wikipediaapi.Wikipedia(..., language='en', variant='zh-tw')`) or as the third positional argument if maintaining positional arguments.

affects: >=0.7.0

gotchaWhen using the `AsyncWikipedia` client, all data-fetching attributes (e.g., `summary`, `text`, `sections`, `links`, `fullurl`, `pageid`) are coroutines and must be `awaited`. Failing to do so will result in a coroutine object instead of the expected data.

fix

Prepend `await` to calls for data-fetching attributes, e.g., `await page.summary` instead of `page.summary`.

affects: All versions with `AsyncWikipedia`

gotchaProviding an inappropriate or missing `User-Agent` string can lead to your requests being blocked by Wikimedia servers. It's essential to follow Wikimedia's User-Agent policy, including providing a project name and contact information.

fix

Use a descriptive `user_agent` like `'MyProjectName/1.0 (https://myproject.com; contact@example.com)'` or `'MyProjectName (contact@example.com)'`.

affects: All versions

gotchaExcessive or rapid requests to the Wikipedia API, especially without proper delays, can lead to your IP being temporarily or permanently blocked by Wikimedia's servers due to rate limiting.

fix

Implement rate limiting or introduce delays between requests, particularly for automated scraping or high-volume data retrieval. Consider using `time.sleep()` between calls if performing many requests.

affects: All versions

breaking`wikipediaapi` versions 0.8.0 and newer utilize Python 3.10+ type hint syntax (e.g., `X | Y` for union types). Running these versions on Python environments older than 3.10 will result in a `TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for |: 'type' and 'type'` during import.

fix

Upgrade your Python environment to 3.10 or newer. Alternatively, if you must use an older Python version (e.g., 3.9), downgrade `wikipediaapi` to a version prior to 0.8.0.

affects: >=0.8.0 (when running on Python < 3.10)

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wikipedia_api'

The Python module name to import is `wikipediaapi` (without hyphen or underscore), even though the installation package name is `wikipedia-api`.

fix

import wikipediaapi

AttributeError: 'WikipediaPage' object has no attribute 'content'

The `wikipedia-api` library uses the attribute `text` to access the main textual content of a Wikipedia page, not `content`.

fix

page_object.text

AttributeError: 'WikipediaPage' object has no attribute 'info'

The `WikipediaPage` object in `wikipedia-api` does not have a direct `info` attribute; detailed information is accessed via other attributes like `sections`, `links`, or `categories`.

fix

Use `page_object.sections`, `page_object.links`, `page_object.categories`, or `page_object.summary` to access specific information.

TypeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object is not subscriptable

You are attempting to access properties of a `WikipediaPage` object using dictionary-style bracket notation (e.g., `page['sections']`) instead of dot notation.

fix

Use dot notation, such as `page.sections` (or `page.links`, `page.categories`, etc.), to access properties of the `WikipediaPage` object.

Upgrade

Version history

0.15.0latest on PyPI · released May 26, 2026

Audit

Dependencies

requestsrequiredUsed for making HTTP requests to the Wikipedia API.

clickoptionalUsed for command-line interface (CLI) functionality.

Agent activity

37 hits · last 30 days

node

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/martin-majlis/Wikipedia-API ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/wikipedia-api/ ↗