Wikipedia Urges AI Firms to Use Paid API Instead of Scraping

The Wikimedia Foundation has called on AI companies to stop scraping Wikipedia and instead access its data through the paid Wikimedia Enterprise API, announced in a foundation blog post. The organization said that responsible use of its content includes both financial support and attribution to human contributors.

The Wikimedia Enterprise platform allows large-scale access to Wikipedia content without overloading its servers. The foundation explained that the paid model helps sustain its nonprofit operations while ensuring fair use by AI developers.

In its statement, the foundation highlighted that AI systems rely heavily on Wikipedia’s human-created knowledge. It urged developers to credit these contributors in AI outputs to maintain transparency and trust in online information.

The foundation also reiterated its commitment to supporting editors with AI tools for routine tasks, emphasizing that automation should assist, not replace, its volunteer communities.