How can I use OpenAlex with Claude or other AI assistants?

Updated

You can use OpenAlex with Claude by adding the free OpenAlex connector and asking questions in plain language. According to the OpenAlex Help Center, "most of what you'd do with OpenAlex, Claude can do for you," and while the connector isn't required, it "makes most things easier." A ChatGPT version is listed as coming soon, and you can also point other AI tools at OpenAlex's documentation directly.

Adding the OpenAlex connector to Claude

The Help Center presents the connector as the primary way to work with OpenAlex through an AI assistant.

  1. Add the free OpenAlex connector to Claude.
  2. Ask your question in plain language — for example, about a researcher, an institution, or a body of work.
  3. Claude handles the OpenAlex interaction for you.

The connector is described as optional: you don't need it, but it makes most tasks easier. The Help Center does not state that a Claude account or any paid plan is required, so treat access requirements as something to confirm on your own.

What Claude can do for you

The Help Center's framing is broad rather than a fixed feature list: most of what you'd normally do with OpenAlex, Claude can do for you once the connector is in place. That covers the everyday OpenAlex tasks you'd otherwise handle through the site or the API, expressed as ordinary questions instead of queries.

Using AI with the OpenAlex docs

Beyond the connector, OpenAlex supports AI tools that read its documentation:

  • Ask the docs with your AI. The Help Center offers options to ask its documentation using Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity.
  • Use the plain-text index. Start at help.openalex.org/llms.txt, a plain-text index of every page, so an AI agent can see what's available.
  • Fetch any page as markdown. Add .md to a page's URL to get a markdown version — useful for feeding a specific page to an AI tool.

Other ways to get help

If an AI assistant isn't the right fit for a question, the Help Center points to:

Option Where
Search the help center The fastest way to answer a specific question
Quickstart A five-minute walkthrough for beginners
How-to guides Simple answers to common tasks
Tutorials Longer, step-by-step recipes
Google Group Ask other users
Bug reports Report an issue to the OpenAlex team

What's coming

A ChatGPT version of the connector is noted as coming soon. Until then, ChatGPT and Perplexity can still be used to ask the OpenAlex documentation directly.