Paginated API Response JSON Example (data, meta, links)

The example

The JSON above is the example. Explore it in the Tree tab, press Download to save it as a .json file, or Share to send someone a link to it. All names, ids, emails and values are invented.

Fields explained

Path	Type	Notes
`data`	array of objects	The items of the current page.
`meta.page / perPage`	number	Where you are and how big a page is.
`meta.total / totalPages`	number	How many items and pages exist in total.
`links.next / prev`	string or null	Ready-made URLs. On the last page, next is usually null or missing.

Read it in code

JavaScript:

let url = firstUrl;
const all = [];
while (url) {
  const page = await (await fetch(url)).json();
  all.push(...page.data);
  url = page.links.next ?? null;
}

Python:

url, items = first_url, []
while url:
    page = requests.get(url).json()
    items += page["data"]
    url = page["links"].get("next")

What this example is good for

Testing a client that follows next links until none is left
Mocking list endpoints
Learning the envelope pattern used by many APIs

Tips

Page numbers are simple but can skip or repeat items when data changes between requests. Cursor-based pagination (a next token instead of page numbers) avoids that.
Always stop when there is no next link instead of trusting totalPages.

Convert this example

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