Look Up Yelp Business Categories
View all Yelp Business, Reviews & Restaurant Data endpoints →Look up Yelp business category names, aliases and parent relationships. All three query inputs are optional: country limits categories to those used in a two-letter country code such as US; parent limits categories to a parent alias such as restaurants; query matches text in category names or aliases, such as pizza. These filters select category definitions, not business listings. An observed successful request with country=US and query=pizza returned an object containing count=1 and a categories array with one entry. Observed entry fields were alias (pizza), title (Pizza), parent_aliases (an array containing restaurants) and countries (null). Treat countries=null as unspecified country metadata, not proof of global support. The single-category result confirms this example relationship, not full taxonomy coverage. The category catalog is documented as containing more than 1,500 categories with parent and supported-country metadata. That total and the shape of non-null countries values were not independently verified. Empty-match behavior, count semantics beyond the observed result and coverage for other country or parent filters remain unverified.
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/api/project/yelp/categories API Response (JSON)
{} curl -X GET 'https://api.opendata-api.com/api/project/yelp/categories?key=<API_KEY>'
Query Result
Use Cases
- Build a category picker that displays returned titles while storing Yelp aliases, using the observed Pizza-to-restaurants mapping as a tested example.
- Normalize category labels in an internal business directory by matching category names or aliases rather than treating the taxonomy endpoint as a business search.
- Organize a category-navigation tree around returned parent_aliases and use the documented parent filter to request categories under restaurants.
- Prepare country-scoped taxonomy mappings for a local-business integration while preserving countries=null as unspecified instead of marking the category globally supported.
Frequently asked questions
Which category filters can I send?
All inputs are optional. country is a two-letter country code such as US, parent is a parent category alias such as restaurants, and query matches text in category names or aliases, such as pizza. No particular combination is required.
What fields were observed in a successful category response?
The country=US and query=pizza request returned count=1 and a categories array with alias=pizza, title=Pizza, parent_aliases containing restaurants, and countries=null on its single entry. Other results and the shape of non-null countries values are unverified.
Does countries=null mean a category is supported worldwide?
No. Preserve null as unspecified country metadata. The observed US-filtered Pizza result does not establish support in every country.
Will query=pizza return pizza restaurants or a category definition?
It looks up category definitions, not business listings. The observed result was the Pizza category with alias pizza and parent_aliases containing restaurants.
Does the observed result verify the full category catalog?
No. The catalog is documented as containing more than 1,500 categories, but the observed filtered request returned only one. Full coverage, no-match behavior and count semantics for other filters were not independently verified.