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The Feed Beta API gives you the ability to:

  • Download an entire category of items from a specific eBay marketplace.
  • Download all the items listed in a specific day, category, and marketplace.
  • Download the item group variation information for an item
  • Curate the items off-line by item aspects, price, product, payment method, ship-to location, etc.
  • Keep the item information up-to-date using hourly feed files.
  • Track changes to the status of priority items within specified campaigns using daily priority item feed files.

Note: This is a (Limited Release) API available only to select developers approved by business units. For information on how to obtain access to this API in production, see the Buy APIs Requirements.

Technical overview

Using the Feed API, you can create a rich selection of items and products for your buyers. The Item feeds enable you to retrieve details of eBay marketplace items across various categories. The list of possible categories is available through the Taxonomy API.

Note: Only a limited number of categories are supported in the sandbox environment. For details, see the Sandbox limitations and support section.

This API uses the following resources:

  • item - Returns a daily Item feed file of newly listed items for a specific category, date, and marketplace (feed_scope = NEWLY_LISTED) or the weekly Item Bootstrap feed file containing all the items in a specific category and marketplace (feed_scope = ALL_ACTIVE). See getItemFeed for details.
  • item_group - Returns a daily Item Group file of the item variation information for items in the daily Item feed file (feed_scope = NEWLY_LISTED) or the weekly Item Group Bootstrap feed file containing the variation information for the items in the Item Bootstrap feed file (feed_scope = ALL_ACTIVE). See getItemGroupFeed for details.
  • item_snapshot - Returns an hourly gzip file of items that have been changed in a category and marketplace on a specific date and hour. See getItemSnapshotFeed for details. Snapshot feeds now include new listings. You can check itemCreationDate to identify listings that were newly created within the specified hour.
  • item_priority - Returns a daily gzip file of all items in a specified category which are added to or removed from a campaign for which a tracking payload have been refreshed. See getItemPriorityFeed and Integrating with the Item Priority Feed for details.

Note: Check if the listing is available for purchase by reviewing the itemEndDate and estimatedAvailabilityStatus fields. If the item has an EndDate in the past, or the estimatedAvailabilityStatus is OUT_OF_STOCK, the listing should not be pulled in.

In addition to the API, there is an open source Feed SDK written in Java that downloads and unzips the feed file and lets you specify field filters to curate the items in the file.

Note: To improve the user experience, filters are applied to the items returned. For details about these filters, see Feed File Filters.

Business use cases

When used with the other Buy APIs, the Feed API lets you create shopping/buying opportunities virtually anywhere. For example, your buyers can have a seamless buying experience woven into a social application. This section outlines the high-level use cases for the Feed API.

Get a daily feed files of newly listed items

You can download a daily Item, Item Group, or Item Priority feed file that contains the items or the item group (variation) information for newly listed items for a specific date and category.

Get the weekly feed files of all the items in a category

You can download the weekly Item Bootstrap or Item Group Bootstrap feed file containing items or item group (variation) information for all the items in category.

Curate the items

You can curate the items in any feed file by the fields returned in the feed file to create a shopping experience specifically for your shoppers. For a list of fields returned in the feed file see getItemFeed.

Update item details

Item details, such as quantity and price, change often on eBay so you will need check for changes in the items you have stored. You can use:

  • The getItemSnapshotFeed method to retrieve an hourly TSV_GZIP feed file of the items that have changed within an hour by category.
  • The Browse API getItem method to get the latest details of a specific item. This is often used to check price and quantity because these values change rapidly.

API restrictions

Please note the following constraints for the Feed API.

Note: In addition to the Feed API restrictions below, there are also requirements for using the Buy APIs. For more information, see Buy APIs Requirements.

Regional/site constraints

For a list of the supported eBay sites for all the Buy APIs, see Buy API Support by Marketplace.

To specify the site of the feed files, set the X-EBAY-C-MARKETPLACE-ID request header to the site. For example:

X-EBAY-C-MARKETPLACE-ID = EBAY_GB

Category constraints

Items listed under Real Estate L1 categories are excluded from all feeds in all marketplaces.

Feed file filters

The items in the various feed files have been filtered to help ensure a good user experience. For details about these filters, see Feed File Filters.

Sandbox limitations and support

The Feed API is available for anyone to use in eBay's sandbox environment, but some limitations apply. Only the following categories are currently supported: 

  • Categories 1 and 220 for daily feeds
  • Categories 220 and 625 for item snapshots

Note: Bootstrap feeds are not available in the sandbox environment.

eBay policies and rules

Although the eBay Buy APIs are available for anyone to use in eBay's sandbox environment, use of the APIs in production is restricted. Users must meet standard eligibility requirements, get approvals from eBay support organizations, and sign contracts with eBay to access the Buy APIs in production.

See Production eligibility requirements in the Buying Integration Guide for more information.

eBay Partner Network tracking links

If you are an EPN (eBay Partner Network) publisher you will want to advertise all eBay listings on your website with the proper tracking links. Most EPN tools and the REST APIs are capable of dynamically exposing individual tracking links for your EPN account. However, the Feed API does not provide tracking links. You can retrieve this link using the Browse getItem method. Or you can create this link. For information on how to create this link, see Create EPN Tracking Link.

Rate limits

The Feed API limits the number of calls that can be made per day on behalf of your application. For the current application rate limits, see the eBay API Call Limits page.