Prisma Reviews / Guides / Yelp Fusion API

By Francisco García Domene, CEO of Prisma Reviews · Updated Nov 2026

Yelp Fusion API

The Yelp Fusion API, now documented as the Yelp Places API, is Yelp’s REST API at https://api.yelp.com/v3: you authenticate with a private API key as a Bearer token, find businesses with /businesses/search, read details with /businesses/{id}, and get up to 3 review excerpts with /businesses/{id}/reviews on the Enhanced or Premium plan. It’s paid after a 30-day trial of 5,000 calls. For what the API can and can’t do overall, start with our Yelp API guide.

Endpoints and limits checked against Yelp’s developer docs on November 10, 2026.

Is Yelp Fusion the same as the Yelp Places API?

Yes. Yelp renamed the consumer-facing product to the Yelp Places API; the base URL (/v3), the endpoints and the API keys stayed the same. Libraries, Stack Overflow answers and GitHub repos still say Fusion. A separate product, the Yelp Insights API, serves internal analytics and has different terms.

How do you get a Yelp Fusion API key?

1. Choose a Places API plan on Yelp’s Places API page. Each plan starts with a 30-day trial of 5,000 calls.
2. Create an app on the Yelp developer site: name, description, contact email.
3. Accept the API Terms of Use and the Display Requirements.
4. Copy the API Key from the Manage App page. Keep it server-side: Yelp doesn’t allow calls from the browser, so put a small backend in front.

Every request sends it as a header:

-H "Authorization: Bearer $YELP_API_KEY"

Which Yelp Fusion endpoints should you know?

How do you search for businesses with the Yelp API?

curl "https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search?term=tacos&location=Austin,TX&sort_by=rating&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YELP_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({ term: "tacos", location: "Austin, TX", limit: "10" });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search?${params}`, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.YELP_API_KEY}` },
});
const { businesses, total } = await res.json();
for (const b of businesses) console.log(b.id, b.name, b.rating, b.review_count);

Each business has an id (and alias), name, rating, review_count, price, categories, coordinates, location and a url back to Yelp. Keep the id: every other endpoint takes it.

How do you get reviews from the Yelp Fusion API?

import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/BUSINESS_ID_OR_ALIAS/reviews",
    params={"locale": "en_US", "sort_by": "yelp_sort"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['YELP_API_KEY']}"},
    timeout=15,
)
r.raise_for_status()
data = r.json()
print(data["total"], "reviews on Yelp,", len(data["reviews"]), "excerpts returned")
for rev in data["reviews"]:
    print(rev["rating"], rev["user"]["name"], rev["text"], rev["url"])

What to expect:

• Up to 3 excerpts on Enhanced (Yelp’s reference says the endpoint “returns up to three review excerpts”); Premium raises the cap to 7.
• text is an excerpt, not the full review; url links to the full review on Yelp.
• sort_by only accepts yelp_sort. The reference lists limit and offset, but they don’t unlock more excerpts.
• On the Base plan the endpoint isn’t available.

Why the cap exists, plan by plan: Yelp API review limit.

How do Yelp Fusion API rate limits work?

Every response carries RateLimit-DailyLimit, RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-ResetTime headers; log them. Yelp bills at least 1,000 calls a day on paid plans. Costs in Yelp API pricing.

What do Yelp’s display requirements ask for?

When you show Yelp data you accept Yelp’s Display Requirements: attribute the content to Yelp, link back to the business page on Yelp, and show ratings the way Yelp specifies. Read them before you design the UI, because they shape what your screens can look like.

When is the Yelp Fusion API the wrong tool?

When you want your own reviews in full: to answer them, track them or put them next to Google and Trustpilot. Fusion is built to display Yelp content in other apps, with 3 excerpts per business. Prisma reads the full public reviews of Yelp listings you own or manage, read only, in the same JSON as 80+ platforms:

curl "https://api.prismareviews.com/v1/reviews?platform=yelp&limit=50" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_test_YOUR_KEY"

FAQ

Is the Yelp Fusion API free?

No. There’s a 30-day trial with 5,000 calls; after that the Places API costs $229, $299 or $643 a month, and reviews need the $299 Enhanced plan or higher.

What is the base URL of the Yelp Fusion API?

https://api.yelp.com/v3, with your API key sent as Authorization: Bearer on every request.

How many reviews does the Yelp Fusion API return?

Up to 3 review excerpts per business on Enhanced and up to 7 on Premium. Paging with offset doesn’t return more.

Can I call the Yelp API from the browser?

No. Yelp’s API doesn’t support calls from browser JavaScript, and it would expose your key anyway. Call it from your server and pass the results to your front end.

Does the Yelp Fusion API still work in 2026?

Yes, as the Yelp Places API, with the same /v3 endpoints. What changed is pricing: there’s no free tier after the trial.

Next step: read the reviews as JSON with the Yelp reviews API, and compare plans on Prisma Reviews pricing.