Does Zhihu have an API?
Yes: Zhihu's data open platform offers search, the hot list and answers, with a daily free quota and paid calls beyond it. SocialToAI reads its publicly visible answers, comments, accounts and trends without a Zhihu developer account: 16 interfaces from 2 credits a call (≈ $0.004–$0.0067), and failed calls are free. Official facts checked 2026-10-17.
The short answer
Yes: Zhihu's data open platform offers search, the hot list and answers, with a daily free quota and paid calls beyond it.
What the official API allows
Zhihu runs an official data open platform with APIs for searching Zhihu content, the hot list and answers under a question. Any Zhihu user can create an access key; there is a daily free quota, after which calls are paid per use.
Source: Zhihu's own developer documentation, checked 2026-10-17. What a platform allows changes; its own pages are the authority.
Reading Zhihu's public data with SocialToAI
SocialToAI is an API and MCP server for publicly visible content and account information. You need no Zhihu account and no app review: one SocialToAI key, or signing in from Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. Each call costs a fixed number of credits, and a failed call costs nothing.
| Interface | What it returns | Price key | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Find answers by keyword: text, author, likes, comment count and publish time. | zhihu.search | 2 |
| Search · type=user | Find accounts by keyword: name, bio and followers. | zhihu.search:user | 2 |
| Trending | What is trending now: title, rank and heat. | zhihu.trending | 2 |
| Detail | One answer by ID or link: text, author and publish time. | zhihu.detail | 2 |
| Detail · type=question | One answer by ID or link: text, comment count, views and publish time. | zhihu.detail:question | 2 |
| Detail · type=article | One answer by ID or link: text, author, likes, comment count and publish time. | zhihu.detail:article | 2 |
| Detail · type=pin | One answer by ID or link: text, author, likes, comment count and publish time. | zhihu.detail:pin | 2 |
| Comments | The comments under one answer: text, likes, reply count and time. | zhihu.comments | 2 |
| Comments · reply_of | The comments under one answer: text, likes, reply count and time. | zhihu.comments:replies | 2 |
| User Profile | One account: name, bio and followers. | zhihu.user_profile | 2 |
| User Posts | The recent answers of one account. | zhihu.user_posts | 2 |
| User Posts · type=answer | The recent answers of one account. | zhihu.user_posts:answers | 2 |
4 more on the Zhihu API page.
curl https://api.socialtoai.com/v1/search \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCIALTOAI_KEY" \ -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "platform": "zhihu", "query": "咖啡机推荐" }'- No Zhihu account, cookie or developer approval on your side.
- What comes back is what the platform shows publicly; commenters are anonymised.
- Every platform answers in the same response format, so the same code reads Zhihu and the others.
- Prepaid credits from 2 credits a call; 100 free credits on sign-up, no card.
Sources
- Zhihu: developer.zhihu.com, checked 2026-10-17
- Zhihu API on SocialToAI: every call and its credits, last tested 2026-10-17
- The live catalog: what is offered now and its credits, readable without a key
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