Biodiversity & land analytics · GBIF Secretariat (intergovernmental)
GBIF
Free intergovernmental network aggregating over 2 billion open species-occurrence records from museums, surveys and citizen science.
GBIF is an intergovernmental network and data infrastructure, funded by participating governments, that aggregates species-occurrence records from natural history museums, herbaria, government surveys, research projects and citizen-science platforms such as eBird and iNaturalist into one searchable, standardized dataset. It holds well over two billion occurrence records covering essentially all known taxonomic groups, updated continuously as publishers push new data through the GBIF network. Every dataset gets a persistent identifier and citable DOI, which supports reproducible research; records vary in date, precision and verification level by source, and GBIF flags these quality attributes per record. Access is free through the web portal, bulk downloads and a public API, with no registration required for basic use.
At a glance
| Vendor | GBIF Secretariat (intergovernmental) |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Open source | No |
| Best for | Researchers and analysts needing a single, citable, standardized source for global species-occurrence data. |
Pricing
Free to all users; funded by participating national governments.
Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.
Features
- 2+ billion aggregated species occurrence records
- Standardized Darwin Core data format
- Citable DOI per dataset download
- Free public REST API
- Bulk data downloads
- Taxonomic backbone and name matching
- Global coverage across all taxa
Integrations
Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026