Paste your API key to the authorization field. To get an API key, Create an account and learn how to generate an API key.

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General Description

  • This endpoint retrieves detailed metadata for a specific dataset.
  • Metadata includes available fields, data types, and descriptions.
  • Use this endpoint to understand the structure of a dataset before querying or downloading it.

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Request

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Endpoint

GET http://api.brightdata.com/datasets/{dataset_id}/metadata

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Path Parameters

ParameterTypeDescription
dataset_idstringThe unique identifier of the dataset

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Headers

HeaderTypeDescription
AuthorizationstringYour API key for authentication

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Response

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Response Example

{
    "id": "gd_l1vijqt9jfj7olije",
    "fields": {
        "name": {
            "type": "text",
            "active": true,
            "description": "The name of the company"
        },
        "url": {
            "type": "url",
            "required": true,
            "description": "The URL or web address associated with the company"
        },
        "cb_rank": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Crunchbase rank assigned to the company"
        }
    }
}

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Response Fields

FieldTypeDescription
idstringUnique identifier for the dataset
fieldsobjectContains metadata about each field in the dataset

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Field Metadata

Each field in the fields object contains the following attributes:

AttributeTypeDescription
typestringData type of the field (e.g., text, number, url)
activebooleanIndicates if the field is currently active
requiredbooleanIndicates if the field is mandatory (if applicable)
descriptionstringBrief description of the field

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Example Use Case

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Fetching Dataset Metadata

To retrieve metadata for the “Crunchbase companies information” dataset:

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Request

GET http://api.brightdata.com/datasets/gd_l1vijqt9jfj7olije/metadata

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Response

{
    "id": "gd_l1vijqt9jfj7olije",
    "fields": {
        "name": {
            "type": "text",
            "active": true,
            "description": "The name of the company"
        },
        "url": {
            "type": "url",
            "required": true,
            "description": "The URL or web address associated with the company"
        },
        "cb_rank": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Crunchbase rank assigned to the company"
        }
    }
}

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Troubleshooting & FAQs

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Issue: “Unauthorized” response

Solution: Ensure you have included a valid API key in the request header.

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Issue: “Dataset not found”

Solution: Verify that the dataset_id is correct and exists in the dataset list.

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Issue: “Field missing in metadata”

Solution: Some fields may be inactive or unavailable for certain datasets.