GET /elink.fcgi

nih.gov:ncbi-e-utilities

Summary: Retrieve related or linked records
Operation ID: elink
Auth: unknown
Description

ELink retrieves UIDs linked to the input UIDs either in the same Entrez database or a different Entrez database.

Parameters (9)

WebEnv (string, query, optional)

Web environment string from a previous ESearch, EPost or ELink call

api_key (string, query, optional)

NCBI API key for higher rate limits

cmd (string, query, optional)

ELink command mode

Constraints: {'enum': ['neighbor', 'neighbor_history', 'acheck', 'ncheck', 'lcheck', 'llinks', 'llinkslib', 'prlinks']}

db (string, query, optional)

Destination database for links (may be comma-delimited list). If omitted, links to all databases are returned.

dbfrom (string, query, required)

Database with input UIDs

Constraints: {'enum': ['pubmed', 'protein', 'nuccore', 'ipg', 'nucleotide', 'structure', 'genome', 'annotinfo', 'assembly', 'bioproject', 'biosample', 'blastdbinfo', 'books', 'cdd', 'clinvar', 'gap', 'gapplus', 'grasp', 'dbvar', 'gene', 'gds', 'geoprofiles', 'medgen', 'mesh', 'nlmcatalog', 'omim', 'orgtrack', 'pmc', 'proteinclusters', 'pcassay', 'protfam', 'pccompound', 'pcsubstance', 'seqannot', 'snp', 'sra', 'taxonomy', 'biocollections', 'gtr']}

id (string, query, optional)

UID list (comma-delimited). Either id or query_key/WebEnv must be provided.

linkname (string, query, optional)

Link name to restrict the links retrieved

query_key (integer, query, optional)

Query key from a previous ESearch, EPost or ELink call

retmode (string, query, optional)

Return mode. Use 'json' for JSON output, 'xml' for XML output.

Constraints: {'enum': ['xml', 'json']}

Examples (3)

TitleTypeURLAction
Find related articles in PubMed curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&db=pubmed&id=34504363&cmd=neighbor&retmode=json
Link PubMed article to PMC full-text curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&db=pmc&id=34504363&retmode=json
Get protein links for a gene curl https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=gene&db=protein&id=7157&retmode=json

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

TimeStatusLatencySize
2026-03-23 10:38:42.704472 200 6764ms
2026-03-23 10:26:53.141094 200 785ms
2026-03-23 09:10:52.510179 200 13097ms

Response Changes

WhenOldNew
2026-03-23 10:26:53.141094 76350a1b045e 7596b8bb1050
2026-03-23 10:38:42.704472 7596b8bb1050 3833680a73a0