# /iqiyi/albums/browse

`POST /api/iqiyi/albums/browse`

Price: 20 credits

Browse an iQIYI catalogue section — drama, movie, variety show, anime, kids or documentary — filtered by production region, genre, release period, subscription tier, subtitle method and production method, ordered by popularity or release date. Each result is a title with its synopsis, tags, VIP and exclusivity flags, episode counts, publication dates and artwork.

## How to use it

This is the catalogue browser and it takes no keyword — for a text query use /iqiyi/albums/search, which in turn takes none of these filters. Which filters a section offers differs: region, period and production belong to drama, movie and anime; theme, age_range and gender_preference only to kids; film_type only to documentary; and a value the chosen channel does not offer is rejected with 422 rather than ignored. Genres are per-channel too, so `mystery` under movie and under drama are different sets of titles. `market` changes the catalogue itself, not just the labels, so the same filter returns different titles and a different count per storefront. Rows carry no `cast` and seldom a `score` — fetch /iqiyi/albums by `id` for either.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `lang` (string) — Language of the titles, synopses and tag names in the response (default: "en_us"; one of: "en_us", "zh_cn", "zh_tw", "ar_ae", "vi_vn", "th_th", "pt_br", "ms_my", "id_id", "es_mx")
- `market` (string) — Storefront whose catalogue and licensing the request is answered for (default: "us"; one of: "ae", "ar", "au", "bh", "bn", "br", "ca", "cl", "co", "de", "eg", "es", "fr", "gb", "hk", "id", "in", "jp", "kh", "kr", "kw", "kz", "la", "mm", "mo", "mx", "my", "nz", "om", "pe", "ph", "pt", "qa", "sa", "sg", "th", "ua", "us", "vn")
- `channel` (string, required) — Catalogue section to browse (one of: "drama", "movie", "variety_show", "anime", "kids", "documentary")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of titles to return (examples: 20; min: 1)
- `region` (string, nullable) — Country or area the title was produced in (one of: "chinese_mainland", "south_korea", "thailand", "taiwan", "japan", "malaysia", "america", "uk", "hong_kong", "hong_kong_and_taiwan", "europe_and_america")
- `category` (string, nullable) — Genre or subject matter (one of: "youth", "mystery", "lgbt", "costume", "urban", "romance", "sweet_love", "marriage", "drama", "comedy", "family", "friendship", "fantasy", "crime", "war", "novel_adaptation", "contemporary", "ancient", "horror", "sci_fi", "action", "thriller", "revenge", "reality", "wuxia", "adventure", "animation", "police_and_criminal", "gangster", "martial_arts", "interviews", "funny", "talent_shows", "affection", "food", "talk_shows", "music", "reality_shows", "travel", "culture", "iqiyi_original", "ceremonies", "games", "rivalry", "vitality_themed", "inspiring", "comics_adaptation", "school", "shounen", "childrens_songs", "kids_variety_show", "movie", "history", "discovery", "animals", "society", "science")
- `period` (string, nullable) — Release year or year range (one of: "2026", "2025", "2024", "2023", "2022", "2021", "2015_2020", "2000_2014", "other")
- `subscription` (string, nullable) — Whether playback needs a VIP subscription (one of: "vip", "free")
- `subtitle` (string, nullable) — Subtitle production method (one of: "manual_translation")
- `production` (string, nullable) — How the title was produced (one of: "ai_generated")
- `theme` (string, nullable) — Kids theme (one of: "preschool_education", "early_education", "animals", "transportation", "parent_child", "robot")
- `age_range` (string, nullable) — Kids target age range (one of: "4_6_years_old", "age_7_10", "age_11_13")
- `gender_preference` (string, nullable) — Kids gender preference (one of: "girls_favorite", "boys_favorite")
- `film_type` (string, nullable) — Documentary format (one of: "doc_series")
- `sort` (string) — Order the titles are returned in (default: "popularity"; one of: "popularity", "latest")

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "IqiyiAlbum")
- `id` (string, required)
- `alias` (string, nullable)
- `name` (string, nullable)
- `short_name` (string, nullable)
- `alternative_titles` (array) (default: [])
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `tagline` (string, nullable)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `play_url` (string, nullable)
- `channel` (string, nullable)
- `channel_id` (string, nullable)
- `is_series` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_short` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_exclusive` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_iqiyi_produced` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_dolby` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_1080p` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_3d` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_vip` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_tvod` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_coupon` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_package` (boolean) (default: false)
- `pay_mark` (string, nullable)
- `season` (integer, nullable)
- `episode_count` (integer, nullable)
- `available_episode_count` (integer, nullable)
- `latest_episode_order` (integer, nullable)
- `first_episode_order` (integer, nullable)
- `trailer_count` (integer, nullable)
- `content_rating` (string, nullable)
- `content_warning` (string, nullable)
- `score` (number, nullable)
- `vote_count` (integer, nullable)
- `score_distribution` (array) (default: [])
- `publish_date` (string, nullable)
- `last_publish_date` (string, nullable)
- `published_at` (integer, nullable)
- `issued_at` (integer, nullable)
- `default_video_id` (string, nullable)
- `image` (string, nullable)
- `cover` (string, nullable)
- `cast` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "IqiyiCastMember")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `credit` (string, nullable)
  - `role` (string, nullable)
  - `character` (string, nullable)
  - `image` (string, nullable)
  - `profile_url` (string, nullable)
- `tags` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "IqiyiTag")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `group` (string, nullable)
- `chart_ranks` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "IqiyiChartRank")
  - `chart` (string, required)
  - `rank` (integer, nullable)
- `audio_languages` (array) (default: [])
- `hdr_formats` (array) (default: [])
- `collection_ids` (array) (default: [])
- `allowed_regions` (array) (default: [])

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.