Nytimes Most Popular API
Browse all Nytimes APIs✓ Official Vendor SpecMediaContent DeliveryapiKey3 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Get the most-emailed, most-shared, and most-viewed NYT articles by section over the last 1, 7, or 30 days.
Use for: Get the most-emailed NYT articles in the last 7 days, Find the most-viewed NYT Politics articles today, Retrieve the most-shared NYT stories on Facebook this month, List trending NYT articles across every section
Not supported: Does not provide full article text, comment threads, or sub-daily time windows — use for ranked most-emailed, most-shared, and most-viewed NYT article lists only.
The New York Times Most Popular API returns the most-emailed, most-shared, and most-viewed NYT articles for the past 1, 7, or 30 days. Three GET endpoints take a section filter and a time-period parameter and respond with ranked article lists including title, byline, abstract, publication date, web URL, and embedded media. The API is a fast way to surface trending NYT coverage and identify the stories generating the most reader engagement.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Most Popular API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Most Popular API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Most Popular API.
Retrieve the most-emailed NYT articles by section and time window
Pull the most-shared NYT articles filtered by share platform like Facebook
Get the most-viewed NYT articles for the past 1, 7, or 30 days
Filter results to a specific NYT section such as Politics or Technology
Surface ranked engagement signal across all NYT sections at once via section=all-sections
Pull article media metadata including image URLs and captions
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Most Popular API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Trending Stories Widget
Power a homepage or sidebar widget showing the top NYT articles by reader engagement. Each of the three endpoints accepts a section filter (or all-sections) and a time period, returning a ranked list with title, byline, abstract, and image media. A typical integration calls /mostviewed/all-sections/7.json once per hour and caches the response.
Call /mostviewed/all-sections/7.json and return the top 10 articles with title, byline, abstract, and the largest media URL.
Section Engagement Analysis
Compare engagement across NYT sections by querying each endpoint with different section filters and time periods. The data supports editorial decisions about coverage emphasis and content strategy by surfacing which Politics, Technology, or Opinion stories drive the most viewing, sharing, and emailing.
Loop the section list ['politics','technology','opinion'] and call /mostviewed/{section}/7.json for each, then return the top 5 article titles per section.
Social Sharing Insights
Identify which NYT articles are being shared on a specific social platform. The /mostshared endpoint supports a share-type segment for Facebook, letting an agent surface platform-specific viral coverage rather than the aggregate engagement signal.
Call /mostshared/all-sections/1.json and return the top 5 articles ranked by aggregate share count.
Agent-Driven Trending Lookup via Jentic
An AI news assistant uses Jentic to fetch trending NYT articles when a user asks what's getting attention today. Jentic returns the matching Most Popular operation, the agent loads the schema, and executes the call without manually wiring the section/time-period path templates.
Search Jentic for 'get most viewed NYT articles', load the /mostviewed/{section}/{time-period}.json operation, and execute it with section='all-sections' and time-period=1.
Key Endpoints
3 endpoints — the new york times most popular api returns the most-emailed, most-shared, and most-viewed nyt articles for the past 1, 7, or 30 days.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/mostemailed/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most emailed NYT articles by section and time period
GET
/mostshared/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most shared NYT articles by section and time period
GET
/mostviewed/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most viewed NYT articles by section and time period
GET
/mostemailed/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most emailed NYT articles by section and time period
GET
/mostshared/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most shared NYT articles by section and time period
GET
/mostviewed/{section}/{time-period}.json
Most viewed NYT articles by section and time period
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
The NYT api-key is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault and injected into the api-key query parameter at execution time. A single key authenticates every NYT API in the workspace, so rotating once refreshes Most Popular, Top Stories, Times Newswire, and the others together.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic for 'get most viewed NYT articles' or 'find trending NYT stories' and Jentic returns the matching /mostviewed, /mostshared, or /mostemailed operation with its parameter schema, removing the need to read NYT docs.
Time to first call
Direct integration: a few hours to wire the api-key, build the section/time-period URL templates, and handle the media payload. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Most Popular API through Jentic.
What authentication does the NYT Most Popular API use?
Authentication is an API key sent as the api-key query parameter on every endpoint. Provision a key at developer.nytimes.com. Through Jentic the credential is held in the vault and injected at execution time, so the agent never holds the raw key.
Which time periods does this API support?
Each endpoint accepts a time-period path segment of 1, 7, or 30, representing days. There is no support for sub-daily granularity or arbitrary date ranges, so the smallest meaningful refresh window is 24 hours.
What are the rate limits for the NYT Most Popular API?
NYT enforces 500 requests per day and 5 requests per minute per API key, shared across all NYT developer APIs. The trending list changes slowly, so cache responses for at least 30 minutes to stay well under the limits.
How do I get the most-viewed Politics articles through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'get most viewed NYT articles', load the /mostviewed/{section}/{time-period}.json operation, and execute it with section='politics' and time-period=7. The response returns ranked articles with title, byline, abstract, and media URLs.
Is the NYT Most Popular API free to use?
Yes. NYT offers the Most Popular service at no cost on the developer portal for non-commercial use within published rate limits. Commercial or high-volume use requires direct contact with the NYT licensing team.
Can I filter most-shared articles by social platform?
Yes. The /mostshared endpoint supports a share-type segment that filters to specific platforms such as Facebook. Without the filter the response aggregates shares across platforms and returns the overall ranking.
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