# Hugging Face API: Search datasets > Finds public Hugging Face datasets by name or topic, ordered by downloads, likes, trending score or last update. Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Hugging Face. - Page: https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co/search-datasets - Method: `huggingface.co/search_datasets`, version 1 - Website: huggingface.co - Returns: dataset name, author, tasks, rows, size, languages, downloads, likes, last update, license, page link, repository id - Effect: read (it gets data and changes nothing) - Sign-in: none needed - Cost: 1 credit per completed run (1ยข with pay as you go); failed runs are free - Verified: Nov 2, 2026 ## Inputs | Field | Type | Required | In the run below | Description | |---|---|---|---|---| | `sort` | string | no | | Result order, for example most_downloaded. One of "most_downloaded", "most_liked", "trending", "recently_updated". Default "most_downloaded". | | `query` | string | yes | `"squad"` | Topic or dataset name, for example medical questions. | | `max_results` | integer | no | | Maximum number of datasets, for example 20. Default 20. | ## Output From a run on Oct 23, 2026, shortened. Its input: ```json { "query": "squad" } ``` Its output: ```json { "datasets": [ { "rows": 98169, "size": "16.3 MB", "likes": 877, "tasks": [ "Question answering" ], "author": "rajpurkar", "license": "cc-by-sa-4.0", "languages": [ "English" ], "page_link": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/rajpurkar/squad", "dataset_name": "SQuAD", "last_updated": "2024-03-04", "repository_id": "rajpurkar/squad", "downloads_last_30_days": 183587 }, { "rows": null, "size": "1.9 GB", "likes": 3, "tasks": [ "Question answering" ], "author": "lmqg", "license": "cc-by-4.0", "languages": [ "English" ], "page_link": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/lmqg/qa_squadshifts_synthetic", "dataset_name": "Synthetic QA dataset on SQuADShifts.", "last_updated": "2023-01-15", "repository_id": "lmqg/qa_squadshifts_synthetic", "downloads_last_30_days": 64743 }, { "rows": 142192, "size": "17.7 MB", "likes": 272, "tasks": [ "Question answering" ], "author": "rajpurkar", "license": "cc-by-sa-4.0", "languages": [ "English" ], "page_link": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/rajpurkar/squad_v2", "dataset_name": "SQuAD2.0", "last_updated": "2024-03-04", "repository_id": "rajpurkar/squad_v2", "downloads_last_30_days": 48171 } ] } ``` ## Run it From code, with a Fous API key in `FOUS_API_KEY`; the answer's `data` holds the output: ```bash curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"method":"huggingface.co/search_datasets","input":{"query":"squad"}}' ``` From an AI agent connected to the Fous MCP server: its `run` with the same method and input. To connect one, give it `set up https://fous.com/SKILL.md`. ## Ask your agent - Find the top 15 most downloaded datasets about sentiment analysis in English - Which datasets on the Hub are trending right now for speech recognition? - Show me recently updated datasets related to medical question answering, limit 30 - I need the most liked datasets for image captioning with their licenses and sizes - List 10 datasets matching legal contract summarization sorted by last update ## Input schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "query" ], "properties": { "sort": { "enum": [ "most_downloaded", "most_liked", "trending", "recently_updated" ], "type": "string", "default": "most_downloaded", "description": "Result order, for example most_downloaded." }, "query": { "type": "string", "minLength": 1, "description": "Topic or dataset name, for example medical questions." }, "max_results": { "type": "integer", "default": 20, "maximum": 100, "minimum": 1, "description": "Maximum number of datasets, for example 20." } }, "additionalProperties": false } ``` ## Output schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "datasets" ], "properties": { "datasets": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "dataset_name", "author", "tasks", "rows", "size", "languages", "downloads_last_30_days", "likes", "last_updated", "license", "page_link", "repository_id" ], "properties": { "rows": { "type": [ "integer", "null" ], "description": "Number of rows when published." }, "size": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "description": "Total file size displayed in decimal units, such as 16.3 MB." }, "likes": { "type": [ "integer", "null" ], "description": "Number of likes." }, "tasks": { "type": [ "array", "null" ], "items": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Tasks in plain words." }, "author": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "description": "Dataset author or organization." }, "license": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "description": "Publisher-provided license." }, "languages": { "type": [ "array", "null" ], "items": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Languages in words when provided." }, "page_link": { "type": "string", "format": "uri", "description": "Dataset page link." }, "dataset_name": { "type": "string", "description": "Name displayed by the dataset publisher." }, "last_updated": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "format": "date", "description": "Last update date." }, "repository_id": { "type": "string", "description": "Author and repository name." }, "downloads_last_30_days": { "type": [ "integer", "null" ], "description": "Downloads during the last month." } }, "additionalProperties": false } } }, "additionalProperties": false } ``` ## See more - [Hugging Face API: Search models](https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co/search-models.md): Finds public Hugging Face models by search words, with an optional task and sort order. License is null when the model does not publish one. - [Hugging Face API: Search Hugging Face Spaces](https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co/search-spaces.md): Finds public Hugging Face Spaces demos for a task, with descriptions, likes, running status and update dates. - [Hugging Face API: List trending models](https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co/list-trending-models.md): Lists Hugging Face models in trending order this week, optionally filtered to one task. Downloads cover the last 30 days. - [Hugging Face API: Get model details](https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co/get-model.md): Looks up one Hugging Face model by name, repository ID or link and returns its public details, model card summary and file sizes. For a name, the first matching model is returned. - [Kaggle API: Search datasets](https://fous.com/methods/kaggle.com/search-datasets.md): Finds public Kaggle datasets on a topic, with size, file formats, usability, popularity and license. Lists at most 100 results in Kaggle's order; files are not downloaded. - [GitHub API: Search repositories](https://fous.com/methods/github.com/search-repositories.md): Finds public GitHub repositories by keywords, with an optional language filter and sort order. Returns up to 100 matches. - [crates.io API: Search crates](https://fous.com/methods/crates.io/search-crates.md): Finds Rust crates on crates.io by keywords, sorted by relevance, total downloads, recent downloads, or newest creation. - [PyPI API: Search packages](https://fous.com/methods/pypi.org/search-packages.md): Searches PyPI by keywords and returns matching packages in relevance order, each with its latest version and that version's release date. Returns up to 100 results. - [All Hugging Face methods](https://fous.com/methods/huggingface.co.md)