# Google People API > Google's REST API for a user's Google Contacts, contact groups, "Other contacts" and Workspace directory profiles, with incremental sync tokens and a read-only remote MCP server in developer preview. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api.md (~6,750 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api.min.md (~1,330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-14 ## Overview **Grade B · 65.2/100 · rank #346 of 1076 · #1 in Contacts & address books · not agent-ready · confidence medium** More from Google, listed separately because each is its own product: [Gemini Developer API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-api.md) (Model APIs & inference), [Gemini Embedding](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-embedding.md) (Embeddings & rerankers), [Vertex AI Gemini tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai-tuning.md) (Fine-tuning), [Google Cloud Model Armor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-model-armor.md) (Guardrails & safety filters), [Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.md) (Image generation), [Google Veo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-veo.md) (Video generation), [Google Lyria](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-lyria.md) (Music generation), [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-speech-to-text.md) (Speech-to-text), [Gemini Live API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-live.md) (Conversational voice agents), [Agent Development Kit (ADK)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-adk.md) (Agent frameworks & SDKs), [Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-secret-manager.md) (Secrets & credential vaults), [Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-document-ai.md) (Document parsing & extraction), [Google Weather API (Maps Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-weather-api.md) (Weather & climate data), [Chrome DevTools MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp.md) (Browser automation), [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-maps-platform.md) (Maps, geocoding & places), [Google Cloud Translation](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-translation.md) (Translation), [Google Calendar API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-calendar-api.md) (Calendars & scheduling), [Firebase Cloud Messaging](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firebase-cloud-messaging.md) (Notifications), [Google Drive API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-drive-api.md) (File storage & sharing), [Gemini Enterprise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-enterprise.md) (Company knowledge & data catalogues), [Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-cli.md) (Agent harnesses), [Google Search Console API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-search-console.md) (SEO & search visibility), [Google Ads API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-ads-api.md) (Advertising & campaign operations), [Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-forms.md) (Forms, surveys & structured intake), [Google Sheets API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-sheets-api.md) (Spreadsheets & operational tables), [Gmail API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gmail-api.md) (Mailbox access). ## Assessment Covers saved contacts, contact groups, "Other contacts" and the Workspace directory under 12 OAuth scopes, with seven-day sync tokens and a read-only MCP server that warns against prompt injection. No status page covers it, quota numbers are only in the Cloud console, and searches need a warmup call first. ## Facts | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Vendor | Google (https://developers.google.com/people) | | Kind | HTTP API | | Category | Contacts & address books (https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/contacts) | | Transport | HTTP | | Endpoint | `https://people.googleapis.com/v1` | | Auth | OAuth · OAuth 2.0 access tokens from a Google Cloud project with the People API enabled. The discovery document lists 12 scopes, among them contacts (read and write), contacts.readonly, contacts.other.readonly, directory.readonly and per-field profile scopes such as user.emails.read. The MCP server at https://people.googleapis.com/mcp/v1 needs your own OAuth client and the directory.readonly, userinfo.profile and contacts.readonly scopes, and membership of the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program (https://developers.google.com/people/v1/configure-mcp-server). | | Pricing | Free (Free) · No charge for the People API was found. Requests count against per-project quotas in categories such as Critical read requests, Critical write requests and Daily Contact Writes, and the first page of a full sync has a fixed extra quota that can't be raised. Quota numbers aren't published on the developer pages and are shown in the Cloud console (checked 2026-10-14). | | x402 | No · No x402, MPP or L402 in the People API docs or the discovery document (checked 2026-10-14). | | Licence | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. Client libraries are Apache-2.0 | | Tools exposed | 3 | | Packages | npm: `@googleapis/people`; pypi: `google-api-python-client` | | Source | https://github.com/googleapis/google-api-nodejs-client | | Docs | https://developers.google.com/people | | llms.txt | not found | | Last release | 2026-10-12 | | npm downloads / week | 177,082 | | Resources | people (24 methods across people, connections, contactGroups and otherContacts in discovery revision 20261012), including batchCreateContacts, batchUpdateContacts, batchDeleteContacts, searchContacts, searchDirectoryPeople and listDirectoryPeople | | Sync | connections.list with requestSyncToken and syncToken. Tokens last 7 days, deletions come back as people with metadata.deleted, pageSize 1 to 1,000 | | Scopes | contacts, contacts.readonly, contacts.other.readonly, directory.readonly, userinfo.profile, userinfo.email and six user.*.read profile scopes | | MCP server | https://people.googleapis.com/mcp/v1, developer preview, three read-only tools, OAuth with your own client. Claude needs a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan per Google's guide | | Quotas | Per-project quota categories with per-method costs in the guides (for example 6 Critical read requests for a search). Numbers are in the Cloud console, not on the docs | | Client libraries | @googleapis/people 12.0.1 (24 September 2026), google-api-python-client 2.201.0 (30 September 2026), plus Java, Go, .NET, PHP and Ruby clients | | Capabilities | contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync, contacts.groups | | Tags | hosted, official, free-tier, oauth, mcp, typescript, python, go, java, enterprise | | JSON | https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-people-api.json | ## Score breakdown (methodology v0.4, October 2026 research run) Assessed 2026-10-14 from public evidence against the published checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist). Confidence: medium. Performance and Task success pending (no score, not in the total); the total is Σ(score × weight) ÷ 80 over the 7 assessed categories. "This run" is each category's share of the 100 points. | Category | Weight | This run | Score (0–100) | Points | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% | 20 | 30 | 6.0 | | Performance | 10% | pending | pending | n/a | | Schema & documentation | 13% | 16.2 | 79 | 12.8 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% | 16.2 | 83 | 13.5 | | Security & auth | 14% | 17.5 | 86 | 15.1 | | Payments & pricing | 10% | 12.5 | 35 | 4.4 | | Task success | 10% | pending | pending | n/a | | Maintenance & community | 7% | 8.8 | 83 | 7.3 | | Transparency & trust (editorial 57, provenance 84) | 7% | 8.8 | 71 | 6.2 | | Negative events | up to −15 | up to −15 | none recorded | 0 | | **Total** | | | | **65.2 → B** | ### Why each score - Reliability 30: Graded with the hosted lines on the REST API. No status page covers the People API, since the Google Workspace Status Dashboard lists 37 products and Contacts isn't one of them (0). No readable incident history (5). Quota categories and per-method costs are documented, but the numbers sit in the Cloud console rather than the docs (5 of 15). A fixed full-sync quota that returns 429, ETags on contact updates, and guidance to send mutate requests for one user one at a time. No backoff formula was found on the People pages (10 of 15). No SLA for the API found (0). The REST API is v1 and generally available. The MCP server is a developer preview (10). - Performance: Pending. Latency is measured per call by our probes, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until the first probe window closes. - Schema & documentation 79: A Google discovery document at revision 20261012, which is a machine-readable contract with typed schemas (25). developers.google.com/llms.txt returned 404 (0). Reference pages say what each method does and carry warnings that change how an agent calls it, such as the warmup search and sequential writes, and the MCP tool descriptions say when to stop and ask the user (18). Typed parameters with enums such as sources and sortOrder, and personFields is required where it matters (13). Examples in several languages per guide and a documented EXPIRED_SYNC_TOKEN reason, but no single error catalogue for the API (11 of 15). v1 in the path and a release notes page with a feed, though its only 2026 entry is 22 April (12 of 15). - Agent ergonomics 83: personFields field masks and pageSize up to 1,000 on connections, with MCP search capped at 30 results (22). Page tokens, sync tokens with deletion markers, contact group filters and separate search methods for contacts, other contacts and the directory (20). google.rpc ErrorInfo reasons such as EXPIRED_SYNC_TOKEN, though most errors are generic Google codes (15 of 20). ETags guard updates and the MCP tools carry readOnlyHint and idempotentHint, but createContact has no idempotency key, so a retried create can duplicate (14 of 20). Official clients in many languages, but personFields is required on most reads (12 of 15). - Security & auth 86: OAuth 2.0 with 12 scopes, separating read-only contacts, other contacts, the directory and individual profile fields from full contacts access (30). Read-only scopes exist for every read path and the MCP server is read-only by design, but nothing in the REST API confirms a delete (17 of 20). The MCP guide warns about indirect prompt injection and points to Model Armor, and each tool description forbids passing results to another tool without the user's confirmation (13 of 15). The Cloud console shows traffic and errors per method, with no per-call log for the operator (8 of 15). Valid security.txt to 2030 with the Google VRP. We didn't recheck whether Contacts is named in the Workspace SOC 2 scope this run (18 of 20). - Payments & pricing 35: No x402, MPP or L402 (0). No charge was found, but there is no published per-unit price because the API isn't sold, and quota numbers aren't on the docs, which we read the same way as the Google Calendar listing (15). Free with a Google account and no card (20). A person creates a Cloud project, an OAuth consent screen and an OAuth client (0). - Task success: Pending. Task success needs the category task suites run through each tool, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until then. A data provider's data-quality score is published on its listing now and becomes half of this category when it's scored. - Maintenance & community 83: Discovery revision 20261012 and @googleapis/people 12.0.1 on 24 September 2026 (30). Client releases 11.0.0 (11 September), 12.0.0 (14 September) and 12.0.1 (24 September), all within 90 days (20). Public issue tracker, Stack Overflow tag and a release notes feed, though the notes are sparse (10 of 15). Current official client libraries (15). Generated clients rebuilt by CI in google-api-nodejs-client (8 of 10). - Transparency & trust 71: Closed service under the Google APIs Terms of Service, with Apache-2.0 client libraries (15). Google's privacy policy and the API Services User Data Policy cover the data, but we found no retention statement specific to the People API (18 of 30). A dated migration guide from the old Contacts API and dated release notes. No People-specific deprecation policy found (12 of 20). Workspace sub-processors are published for tenants, which we didn't recheck for this API (12 of 20). Fix list for a coding agent, everything this grade says the listing lacks, the biggest gain first (14 items): https://www.anchorterminal.com/fixes/google-people-api.md (JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/fixes/google-people-api.json) ### What we couldn't check - unchecked: the default quota numbers per category, which are shown only in the Cloud console - unchecked: whether contacts scopes count as sensitive or restricted for app verification this run - unchecked: whether Google Contacts is named in the Workspace SOC 2 scope - The release notes list nothing for the API between 22 April and 14 October 2026, though the discovery document and clients changed ### Sources - discovery document, revision 20261012: (seen 2026-10-14) - contacts guide (sync, search warmup, quota costs): (seen 2026-10-14) - connections.list reference: (seen 2026-10-14) - MCP server configuration: (seen 2026-10-14) - MCP search_contacts tool reference: (seen 2026-10-14) - release notes: (seen 2026-10-14) - Workspace status products: (seen 2026-10-14) - npm @googleapis/people: (seen 2026-10-14) - google.com security.txt: (seen 2026-10-14) ## Who's behind it (provenance 84/100, checked 2026-10-14) | Check | Finding | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | Legal entity named | Google LLC | 20/20 | | Domain age | google.com, registered 1997-09-15 (29 years) | 15/15 | | Endpoint on the vendor's domain | people.googleapis.com | 15/15 | | Terms of service | read, states 6 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points | 7.1/10 | | Privacy policy | read, states 7 of the 8 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points | 7.3/10 | | Status page | not found | 0/10 | | Changelog | published | 10/10 | | security.txt | valid | 10/10 | The endpoint is on people.googleapis.com, Google's API domain. google.com was registered in 1997. google.com's security.txt is valid to 2030-04-01 and points to the Google VRP. No status page covers the People API. The Google Workspace Status Dashboard has no Contacts entry. The MCP configuration page was last updated on 2026-10-09. The release notes' latest entry is 22 April 2026. ### Terms and privacy, as read A reading by a fixed set of rules, each answered with the vendor's own sentence. Not legal advice. **Terms of service** (https://developers.google.com/terms), read 2026-10-08, dated 2021-11-09, states 6 of the 7 things a reader expects. - To know. Restricts automated access (costs points). "Scrape, build databases, or otherwise create permanent copies of such content, or keep cached copies longer than permitted by the cache header;" - To know. Says access can be ended without notice or for any reason. "Google reserves the right to terminate the Terms with you or discontinue the APIs or any portion or feature or your access thereto for any reason and at any time without liability or other obligation to you." - To know. Has not been updated for three years or more. "Last modified: November 9, 2021 (see previous version)" - Gives the date it was last updated. Last updated 2021-11-09. - Names the governing law or courts. The law of California, with disputes in the courts of Santa Clara County, California. - States a limit on its liability. Capped at the fees paid in the 6 months before the claim. - Says how changes to the terms are announced. Says it gives notice of a change. - Not found in the text. Refers to a service level or uptime commitment. - Also in the text (2026-10-08). Content submitted through the APIs is licensed to Google on a perpetual, irrevocable and sublicensable basis, for the stated sole purpose of enabling Google to provide, secure and improve the APIs. "For the sole purpose of enabling Google to provide, secure, and improve the APIs (and the related service(s)) and only in accordance with the applicable Google privacy policies, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to Use content" - Also in the text (2026-10-08). A developer may not misrepresent or mask its own identity or the identity of its API client when using the APIs or developer accounts. "You will not misrepresent or mask either your identity or your API Client's identity when using the APIs or developer accounts." - Also in the text (2026-10-08). Google may use the developer's company or product name, and screenshots or video of its API client, when promoting or demonstrating the APIs. "In the course of promoting, marketing, or demonstrating the APIs you are using and the associated Google products, Google may produce and distribute incidental depictions, including screenshots, video, or other content from your API Client, and may use your company or product name." **Privacy policy** (https://policies.google.com/privacy), read 2026-10-08, dated 2026-10-01, states 7 of the 8 things a reader expects. - To know. Says it may use customer content to train or improve models, and no opt-out was found (costs points). "We use your interactions with AI models and technologies like Gemini Apps to develop, train, fine-tune, and improve these models to better handle your requests, and update their classifiers and filters including for safety, language understanding, and factuality." - Gives the date it was last updated. Last updated 2026-10-01. - Not found in the text. Says where data is transferred or stored. - Also in the text (2026-10-08). Members of organisations using Google Workspace or Google Cloud Platform are referred to the separate Google Cloud Privacy Notice for how those services collect and use personal information. "If you’re a member of an organization that uses Google Workspace or Google Cloud Platform, learn how these services collect and use your personal information in the Google Cloud Privacy Notice." - Also in the text (2026-10-08). Google says it uses publicly available information from the web and other public sources to help train machine learning models behind products such as Google Translate, Gemini Apps and Cloud AI. "We use publicly available information online or from other public sources to help train new machine learning models and build foundational technologies that power various Google products such as Google Translate, Gemini Apps, and Cloud AI capabilities." ## Live (updated 2026-10-14 09:41 UTC) - Right now: up, HTTP 404, 39 ms, checked 2026-10-14 09:41 UTC (get on `https://people.googleapis.com/v1`) - Uptime 24h 100.0% (17 probes) · 30 days 100.0% (17 probes) · p50 43 ms · p95 173 ms - Always current: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/live/google-people-api.json ## Probe metrics Not measured yet. Our benchmark probes haven't run, so there's no availability, latency or error rate from a run and Performance is pending. Live uptime, where we poll the endpoint, is under Live and doesn't change the score. ## Strengths - Separate read-only scopes for contacts, other contacts, the directory and individual profile fields - Incremental sync with tokens that return deletions, valid for 7 days - Batch create, update and delete, and contact group membership changes in one call - Read-only MCP tools carry readOnlyHint and tell the model to confirm before passing results on - Client libraries released three times between 11 and 24 September 2026 ## Weaknesses - No status page covers Contacts or the People API - Quota numbers aren't published in the docs, only quota categories and costs - searchContacts needs a warmup request and writes take minutes to reach sync - createContact has no idempotency key - The MCP server is a developer preview behind a programme sign-up ## Before you call it (notes for agents) 1. Send an empty searchContacts query first, wait a few seconds, then search 2. Always pass personFields, such as names,emailAddresses,phoneNumbers, or the call fails 3. Store nextSyncToken and do a full sync when you get EXPIRED_SYNC_TOKEN 4. Send writes for one user one at a time and include the etag on updates 5. Ask for contacts.readonly unless the task must create or change contacts ## Connect First request: ```bash curl "https://people.googleapis.com/v1/people/me/connections?personFields=names,emailAddresses,phoneNumbers&pageSize=100&requestSyncToken=true" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_ACCESS_TOKEN" ``` MCP client configuration: ```json { "mcpServers": { "google-people": { "url": "https://people.googleapis.com/mcp/v1" } } } ``` Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/google-people-api (letme picks it for contacts.groups, the top-graded tool for the job, letme picks it for contacts.read, the top-graded tool for the job, letme picks it for contacts.search, the top-graded tool for the job, letme picks it for contacts.sync, the top-graded tool for the job, letme picks it for contacts.write, the top-graded tool for the job). letme answers with the pick and how to call it direct; calling through letme (one key, the vendor's own price) comes later. How it works: https://www.anchorterminal.com/letme/index.md ## Similar tools Ranked by shared capabilities, then score. Same-category tools with no shared capability key are listed last. | Tool | Grade | Score | Rank | Shared capabilities | x402 | Markdown | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ContactsPlus | E | 42.4 | 966 | contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync, contacts.groups | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/contactsplus.md | | Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API | B | 64.6 | 369 | contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-graph-people.md | ## Panel reviews (0) Reviewed by the Anchor panel (https://www.anchorterminal.com/reviewers/index.md): . Desk reviews, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 1 October 2026. No calls made. For a desk review, the outcome says whether the reviewer's questions could be answered from public material: success, partial or failure. How reviews work: https://www.anchorterminal.com/reviews/how-it-works.md ## Notable - Sync tokens on people.connections.list expire 7 days after the full sync, an expired token returns the reason EXPIRED_SYNC_TOKEN, and writes can take several minutes to reach incremental syncs (source: ) - searchContacts uses a lazy cache, so Google asks clients to send a warmup request with an empty query first, and mutate requests for the same user should be sent one at a time (source: ) - The remote MCP server entered developer preview on 22 April 2026 with three read-only tools, search_contacts, search_directory_people and get_user_profile (source: ) - Each MCP tool page lists annotations (Read Only Hint and Idempotent Hint set, Destructive Hint unset) and tells the model not to pass results to another tool without the user's confirmation (source: ) - The Google Workspace Status Dashboard lists 37 products and none of them is Contacts or the People API (source: ) - All 3 contacts comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contacts/index.md ## Compare - [ContactsPlus vs Google People API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contactsplus-vs-google-people-api.md): E 42.4 vs B 65.2 - [Google People API vs Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-people-api-vs-microsoft-graph-people.md): B 65.2 vs B 64.6 ## Verify this listing For the vendor. The badge or a plain link to this page verifies the listing, from a page on google.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/googleapis/google-api-nodejs-client. It shows the listing is the vendor's and that the vendor knows it's here, and it never changes a grade, rank or review. The vendor sends the page's address to `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` as `{"slug": "google-people-api", "url": "…"}`, or calls the `verify_listing` tool at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp. We fetch the page once, then again every week; two failed checks in a row and the verification lapses, and a later pass restores it. What we check: https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/index.md#verify HTML badge: ```html Google People API on Anchor Terminal ``` Markdown badge, for a README: ```markdown [![Google People API on Anchor Terminal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/google-people-api.svg)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api) ``` Plain link: ```html Google People API on Anchor Terminal ``` ## Share this listing For the vendor. Sharing assets for social media, two PNGs of 1200 × 630 that say Google People API is listed on Anchor Terminal, with the vendor's logo and this page's address and no grade or score. - Dark: https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/share/google-people-api-dark.png - Light: https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/share/google-people-api-light.png - Create a video and download its frames: https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/listing-video/index.html?listing=google-people-api