Microproduct data guidebeginner

NPPES NPI Registry

Public National Provider Identifier records for building provider-directory lookups and local specialty maps.

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At a glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Medium · ≤5 GB
Formats
JSON, CSV
Access
API or Download
API key
Not required
Provider
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Updates
Daily
Data terms
FOIA-disclosable NPPES public data

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

The NPPES Read API returns FOIA-disclosable National Provider Identifier records. Start with API version 2.1 and a city-plus-state query. An NPI does not mean the provider is licensed or credentialed, and older API versions are retired.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • An internet connection
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Open the NPPES API page and confirm you will call version 2.1.
  2. 2.Query one city and state with a small limit.
  3. 3.Record that issuance of an NPI does not validate licensure or credentialing.
Open official source
3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install pandas requests

import pandas as pd
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov/api/",
    params={
        "version": "2.1",
        "city": "Baltimore",
        "state": "MD",
        "limit": 10,
    },
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
results = pd.json_normalize(response.json().get("results", []))
results["retrieved_at_utc"] = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
print(results.head(10))
4

Test a useful signal

Map public NPIs in one city

List a bounded set of Baltimore providers and their primary taxonomies from the v2.1 registry.

  1. 01Confirm the response used version 2.1 and returned basic provider names and addresses.
  2. 02Extract primary taxonomy descriptions and count them.
  3. 03State that an NPI does not establish that the provider is licensed, credentialed, or currently practicing at the listed address.

Dataset details

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is a government source. Last verified 2026-08-14. Temporal coverage: current public NPI records with daily registry updates.

Theme

Health, Food & Safety

Domains

Health CareHealth Services

Data types

Registry DataTabularGeospatial

Tasks

Provider ComparisonGeographic AnalysisSearch

Geography

United States

Formats

JSONCSV

Provider

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Data terms

FOIA-disclosable NPPES public data