# Does Weibo still have an open API for reading posts in 2026?

> What open.weibo.com documents today: free read endpoints limited to your own and authorizing users' posts, keyword search only in the paid commercial data API, and what we could not verify.

Canonical page: https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-official-api-2026/

**Short answer: **Only in part. open.weibo.com still documents its API, but the free read endpoints return only posts by users who authorized your app (user_timeline gives just the authorized user's latest 5), and keyword search sits in the paid commercial data API for approved companies. Without that agreement, okdata Weibo post search returns public posts by keyword for $0.002 a page.

Weibo's developer site, open.weibo.com, is still online and still documents an API. What it lets an ordinary app read is narrow. We read the relevant pages on 12 November 2026; this is what they say, and what they leave open.

## What the free API reads

The API index, last updated 9 May 2025, lists OAuth login, two user endpoints (`users/show`, `users/domain_show`), a handful of post reads (`statuses/home_timeline`, `statuses/user_timeline`, `statuses/repost_timeline`, `statuses/mentions`, `statuses/show`, `statuses/count`), comment reads and a share endpoint. No search endpoint appears in it. The pages for the timeline endpoints spell out the limits:

| Endpoint | What its page says |
|---|---|
| `statuses/user_timeline` | After an upgrade, `uid` and `screen_name` can only be the currently authorized user; at most the latest 5 posts are returned (10 through the official mobile SDK) |
| `statuses/home_timeline` | Only posts by users who have authorized your app are returned; others are dropped |
| `search/topics` | An "advanced" endpoint that needs approval, searches only inside a `#topic#`, returns at most the latest 200 results; its page dates from 2012 and the current index no longer links it |

In short, the free API is built for apps that act on behalf of their own logged-in users. It does not read a stranger's timeline or search all of Weibo.

## The commercial data API

Search lives in the commercial data API (商业数据API). Its overview, updated 8 May 2025, describes it as a channel for companies doing analytics, public-opinion monitoring and operations, partly paid, offered as REST calls and as a push subscription by keyword or user, with an email contact for access. The Business API list, updated 18 September 2026, marks `search/statuses/limited` (posts containing a keyword), historical search tasks and `statuses/user_timeline/other` (another user's posts) as paid.

What we could not verify: the prices, the approval criteria, how long approval takes, and whether `search/topics` is still granted to new apps. None of that is published on the pages above, and we did not apply.

## Choosing a route

| Need | Route | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Your own account's posts and comments | Free official API with OAuth | free, rate-limited |
| Keyword search at contract scale, with Weibo's agreement | Commercial data API | not published |
| Public posts by keyword, now, no application | [Weibo post search](/apis/weibo/posts/search/) | $0.002 a page of about 10 |
| A public account's followers and verification | [Weibo account profile](/apis/weibo/users/get/) | $0.002 |

## Example

```bash
curl -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/weibo/posts/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'query=新品发布' \
  --data-urlencode 'sort=latest' \
  --data-urlencode 'fields=id,url,text,published_at,author.id,author.name,metrics'
```

Then look up any author by the numeric `author.id` with account profile. Ten pages of results and 50 author profiles cost $0.12.

## Limits

- okdata reads public posts and profiles only. It cannot post, read private content or act for a user; that is what the official OAuth API is for.
- There is no endpoint here for one account's timeline or for a post's comments, both of which the commercial API offers.
- Search covers what Weibo serves for a keyword; see [searching Weibo without a login cookie](/answers/weibo-search-without-cookie/) for what that means in practice, and [official versus third-party APIs](/answers/official-api-vs-third-party-social-data/) for the general trade-off.

## Endpoints used

- [Weibo post search](https://okdata.online/apis/weibo/posts/search/) `weibo.posts.search`: $0.002 per call · about 10 posts per page
- [Weibo account profile](https://okdata.online/apis/weibo/users/get/) `weibo.users.get`: $0.002 per call

## More about Weibo

- [Weibo API](https://okdata.online/apis/weibo/)
- [Weibo API in Python: search, profiles and hot search (2026)](https://okdata.online/guides/weibo-api-python/)
- [How do I get IP location (IP属地) data from Weibo posts and Bilibili comments?](https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-bilibili-ip-location-data/)
- [How do I find Weibo bloggers (KOLs) in a niche?](https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-find-kols-in-niche/)
- [How do I collect Weibo posts on a topic for public-opinion analysis?](https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-public-opinion-dataset/)
- [How do I export Weibo search results to Excel?](https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-search-export-excel/)
- [What are uid, mid and bid on Weibo?](https://okdata.online/answers/weibo-uid-mid-bid/)
- [Profile API](https://okdata.online/roles/accounts-get/)
- [Post search API](https://okdata.online/roles/posts-search/)
- [Weibo hot search: today’s list](https://okdata.online/tools/hot-search/weibo/)

## Sources

- [Weibo Open Platform: API index (updated 2025-05-09)](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/%E5%BE%AE%E5%8D%9AAPI) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Weibo Open Platform: statuses/user_timeline](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/2/statuses/user_timeline) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Weibo Open Platform: statuses/home_timeline](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/2/statuses/home_timeline) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Weibo Open Platform: search/topics](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/2/search/topics) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Weibo Open Platform: commercial data API (updated 2025-05-08)](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/%E5%95%86%E4%B8%9A%E6%95%B0%E6%8D%AEAPI) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Weibo Open Platform: Business API list (updated 2026-09-18)](https://open.weibo.com/wiki/Business_API%E6%96%87%E6%A1%A3) (read 2026-11-12)

Where people asked this (read 2026-11-12): 

- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37951054
- https://github.com/DIYgod/RSSHub/issues/6479
- https://www.v2ex.com/t/646234

Updated 2026-11-12