Instacart
Instacart (Maplebear Inc.) is a North American grocery technology company that operates the Instacart Marketplace and sells its underlying commerce, fulfillment, catalog, advertising and storefront technology to retailers and brands. Its published API surface splits cleanly in two. The Instacart Developer Platform API is open to app and website developers, costs nothing, and exposes two shoppable-page operations plus a nearby-retailers lookup at connect.instacart.com/idp/v1 -- and, unusually, Instacart pays the developer, commissioning attributed orders through an Impact affiliate programme. Instacart Connect is the enterprise half: OAuth 2.0, partner-gated Fulfillment, Post-checkout, Transaction and Sandbox APIs, the Catalog API, Carrot Ads and Shopping Widgets, all bundled into a retailer or brand partner agreement. Instacart also runs a first-party remote Model Context Protocol server at https://mcp.instacart.com/mcp whose tools/list is served anonymously, making it one of the few grocery-sector providers with a directly reachable agent surface.
Reference-quality API operations across every facet — a rich contract, published governance, transparent operations, and machine-readable commercial terms.
API Evangelist profiles Instacart the way a machine reads it — 76 machine-readable artifacts across 5 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — Instacart scores 70.5/100 (exemplar), with a separate agent-readiness read of 33/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance. Every facet and dimension name is a link: it opens that measurement's page on APIs.io, where the rating runs across the whole catalog — the exact checks that feed it, how every profiled provider distributes on it, and who is at the top of it.
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How we profile Instacart
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Instacart. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 12
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Instacart Shopping Widgets
Instacart Shopping Widgets are front-end web components that retailers can embed into their websites to add e-commerce functionalities powered by Instacart without interacting w...
instacart Authentication API
Endpoints for obtaining and managing OAuth 2.0 access tokens used to authenticate API requests.
instacart Chat API
Endpoints for shopper-customer communication including sending and retrieving chat messages.
instacart Delivery API
Endpoints for finding delivery stores, previewing time slots, reserving time slots, and creating delivery orders.
instacart Items API
Endpoints for updating item-level attributes such as pricing and availability at specific store locations. Items contain information that can vary from one store to another.
instacart Last Mile Delivery API
Endpoints for last mile delivery where items are pre-packed and only require delivery from the store to the customer.
instacart Orders API
Endpoints for retrieving order status, handling details, and item information after checkout.
instacart Pickup API
Endpoints for finding pickup stores, previewing time slots, reserving time slots, and creating pickup orders.
instacart Products API
Endpoints for creating and updating products in the retailer's catalog on Instacart. Products are the same across all of a retailer's stores.
instacart Replacements API
Endpoints for managing item replacements suggested by shoppers during order fulfillment.
Instacart Developer Platform MCP Server
Instacart's first-party remote Model Context Protocol server. Production endpoint https://mcp.instacart.com/mcp over Streamable HTTP, authenticated with a Developer Platform API...
instacart Rest API
The Rest API from instacart — 1 operation(s) for rest.
Scroll within the panel for all 12 ·
Open Collections 14
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
API Collection
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Chat API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Connect Fulfillment API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Connect Post-Checkout API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Delivery API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Developer Platform API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Items API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Last Mile Delivery API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Orders API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Pickup API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Products API
OPEN COLLECTIONInstacart Catalog Authentication Replacements API
OPEN COLLECTIONScroll within the panel for all 14 ·
MCP Servers 1
Model Context Protocol servers expose these APIs directly to AI agents. We profile them because agent-native access is the fastest-growing way this provider's capabilities actually get used.
Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.
Instacart Developer Platform MCP Server
Instacart publishes a first-party, remote Model Context Protocol server that exposes the Instacart Developer Platform's two shoppable-page operations as MCP tools. The productio...
MCP SERVERGraphQL 1
Where a provider ships GraphQL, the schema is the contract. We profile it alongside the REST surface so the whole interface is legible in one place.
GraphQL schemas published by this provider.
Instacart GraphQL Schema
This conceptual GraphQL schema models the Instacart grocery delivery and retail platform. Instacart provides APIs for retailers, brands, and developers to integrate grocery shop...
GRAPHQLPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the things the Kin Score reads for access clarity — renamed from commercial clarity in rubric 0.12, because a free statutory interface has access terms and no commercial ones.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Instacart Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Instacart Finops
FINOPSEvent Specifications 1
Not every API is request/response. AsyncAPI describes the event-driven and streaming side — the webhooks and channels — so the asynchronous half of the interface is documented the same way the synchronous half is.
AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.
Instacart Connect Event Callbacks
Instacart Connect notifies retailers of order status changes and fulfillment events through webhook callbacks. Retailers configure callback endpoints to receive real-time notifi...
ASYNCAPISemantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Instacart Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 2
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
Instacart API Rules
SPECTRALInstacart API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 35
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
CartItem
JSON SCHEMAChatMessage
JSON SCHEMAChatMessagesResponse
JSON SCHEMACreateOrderRequest
JSON SCHEMAError
JSON SCHEMAFindStoresRequest
JSON SCHEMAIngredient
JSON SCHEMAItem
JSON SCHEMAItemSubmissionRequest
JSON SCHEMALineItem
JSON SCHEMAInstacart Order
JSON SCHEMAOrderHandlingResponse
JSON SCHEMAOrderItem
JSON SCHEMAOrderItemsResponse
JSON SCHEMAOrderResponse
JSON SCHEMAPostCheckoutOrderItem
JSON SCHEMAPreviewServiceOptionsRequest
JSON SCHEMAInstacart Product
JSON SCHEMAProductsLinkResponse
JSON SCHEMAProductSubmissionRequest
JSON SCHEMARecipeRequest
JSON SCHEMAReplacement
JSON SCHEMAReplacementDecisionRequest
JSON SCHEMAReplacementResponse
JSON SCHEMAReserveTimeSlotRequest
JSON SCHEMASendMessageRequest
JSON SCHEMAServiceOption
JSON SCHEMAServiceOptionHoldResponse
JSON SCHEMAServiceOptionsResponse
JSON SCHEMAShoppingListRequest
JSON SCHEMAStore
JSON SCHEMAStoresResponse
JSON SCHEMASubmissionResponse
JSON SCHEMATokenRequest
JSON SCHEMATokenResponse
JSON SCHEMAScroll within the panel for all 35 ·
JSON Structure 1
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Instacart Structure
JSON STRUCTURESecurity Posture 3
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Scopes 1
OAuth scopes are the vocabulary of least-privilege access. Profiling them shows exactly what an integration — or an agent acting on a user's behalf — is allowed to do.
OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Resources
Every other property we hold for Instacart — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 5
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 5
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 5
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 13
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Scroll within the panel for all 13 ·
Build 3
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 7
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Operate 7
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Commercial 5
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 3
The organization behind the API
Other 2
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/instacart · machine-readable index on apis.io
This is an independent, third-party profile of Instacart, published by API Evangelist. We do not operate, host, resell, or support these APIs, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the company unless stated above. Everything here is built from publicly available information — the company's own site, developer portal, documentation, public repositories, and the specifications it publishes for public use. Nothing is obtained by breaching a system, defeating an access control, or using credentials.
The Kin Score and Agent Readiness rating are independently calculated assessments of a company's public API artifacts, scored against a published rubric. They are not certifications, endorsements, security assessments, or audits.
Corrections, re-scores, and removal are free — no partnership or purchase required, and you do not need to justify the request. A removed company is recorded as unrated, never scored zero for having asked. Acknowledgement within one business day; removal within two.
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