apiauto — PHP client for apiauto.space

The PHP client of the apiauto.space REST API: used-car listings from Encar (South Korea), Che168 (China) and the Copart and IAAI auctions (USA) in one JSON record format. PHP 8.2+, only the curl and json extensions.

Encar and Che168 publish no public API for their listings that we could find; Copart and IAAI have private partner integrations, not a public self-serve API for lots. apiauto.space is an independent service.

The API is paid from $59 a month for 100,000 cars. A free demo key works for 1 day: 100 requests, up to 20 cars per request, no card, from the Telegram bot @apiautospace_bot.

$client = new Apiauto\Client();  // reads APIAUTO_KEY
$page = $client->cars('kr', ['brand' => 'Kia', 'model' => 'Sorento', 'year_min' => 2021, 'limit' => 5]);
foreach ($page->items as $car) {
    echo $car->id, '  ', $car->title, '  ', $car->price->amount, ' ', $car->price->currency, "\n";
}

A real output line:

encar:43078256  2023 Kia Sorento 4 Gen HEV 1.6 2WD Noblesse  28500000.00 KRW

Last verified: 2026-11-02, unit and live tests run on PHP 8.2 and 8.5.

Quick start

composer require apiauto/apiauto
export APIAUTO_KEY=your-key

Keep the key on your server: the API does not accept browser requests. Documentation: apiauto.space/en/docs, OpenAPI.

foreach ($client->iterCars('cn', ['brand' => 'BYD', 'limit' => 100], maxItems: 1000) as $car) { /* ... */ }

$car = $client->car('encar:43020893');

$since = new DateTimeImmutable('-1 hour');
foreach ($client->iterChanges('kr', $since, ['limit' => 100]) as $event) {
    echo $event->type, ' ', $event->carId, ' ', $event->newPrice, "\n";
}

$client->brands('cn');           // free: also models(), dictionaries(), markets(), usage()
$client->lastResponse();         // quotaRemaining, rateRemaining, dataAgeSeconds...

maxItems asks only for what is still needed, so the last page spends no extra quota. Iteration stops with an exception if the API repeats a cursor. usLive() searches Copart and IAAI live at the data provider (Pro and Max, a separate monthly counter). Runnable scripts are in examples/search.php, us-lots.php and change-feed.php.

Fields

Apiauto\Model\Car has readonly properties: id, market, source, sourceId, title, brand, model, generation, trim, year, mileageKm, fuel, transmission, engineCc, bodyType, color, vin, price, priceUsd, location, photos, photoCount, listingUrl, isActive, firstSeenAt, lastSeenAt, disappearedAt, updatedAt, sourceMode, raw. What the source does not give is null. Filters: brand, model, generation, trim, year_min, year_max, price_min, price_max, price_usd_min, price_usd_max, mileage_max, fuel, transmission, body_type, has_photos, is_active, q, sort, limit, cursor.

Units and gotchas

• Prices are decimal strings in the market's currency, so no precision is lost. priceUsd uses the ECB daily rate.
• Mileage is kilometres. Photo links are signed and live about a day: store the id.
• Copart or IAAI only: us holds both and the API has no filter by auction, so keep records by $car->source. The quota counts every lot returned. Lots come in loading order: on 2 November 2026 sort=first_seen put Copart first and the default sort put IAAI first. That is no contract.
• A disappeared event does not mean sold. Listing data is untrusted: escape it in HTML.

Data freshness

The refresh target is hourly. That is a target, not a promise: the real age is in $client->markets() and in lastResponse()->dataAgeSeconds.

Limits

Up to 100 cars per request (20 on the demo). Paid plans count cars returned; the demo counts data requests.

HTTP	Exception	Retried
400, 401, 402, 403, 404	BadRequestException, AuthenticationException, QuotaExceededException, PermissionDeniedException, NotFoundException	no
429, 503	RateLimitException, ServiceUnavailableException	yes, Retry-After up to 60 s
other 5xx, network	ServerException, ConnectionException	yes, backoff

All extend Apiauto\Exception\ApiautoException. Two retries by default. Security behaviour and its limits are in SECURITY.md.

Pricing

Demo free for 1 day (100 requests); Start $59 a month (100,000 cars, 1 market); Pro $149 (500,000 cars, 2 markets, change feed); Max $299 (2,000,000 cars, 3 markets). Current prices: apiauto.space/en/#pricing.

Other languages

Language	Package	Repository
Python	pip install apiauto-space	apiauto-python
JavaScript, TypeScript	npm install apiauto	apiauto-js
Go	go get github.com/apiauto-space/apiauto-go	apiauto-go
curl and examples	—	Encar, Che168, Copart, IAAI

Not affiliated

This client and apiauto.space are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Encar, Che168, Autohome, Copart or IAAI; the names only say where the listings come from. Use of the data is subject to the apiauto.space terms. Code: MIT.