# Google People API (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api.md (~6,750 tokens) · this version ~1,330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-14

**B · 65.2/100 · rank #346 of 1076 · #1 in Contacts & address books · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


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

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Google · category: Contacts & address books · legal entity: Google LLC · provenance 84/100
- Endpoint: `https://people.googleapis.com/v1` (HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth · pricing: Free · x402: no · licence: Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. Client libraries are Apache-2.0
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- 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

- Scores: Reliability 30, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 79, Agent ergonomics 83, Security & auth 86, Payments & pricing 35, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 83, Transparency & trust 71 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Graded with the hosted lines on the REST API. · Schema & documentation, A Google discovery document at revision 20261012, which is a machine-readable contract with typed schemas (25). · Agent ergonomics, personFields field masks and pageSize up to 1,000 on connections, with MCP search capped at 30 results (22). · Security & auth, OAuth 2.0 with 12 scopes, separating read-only contacts, other contacts, the directory and individual profile fields from full contacts acce… · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Discovery revision 20261012 and @googleapis/people 12.0.1 on 24 September 2026 (30). · Transparency & trust, Closed service under the Google APIs Terms of Service, with Apache-2.0 client libraries (15).
- Sources: 9, open questions: 4, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync, contacts.groups
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-people-api.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/google-people-api.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-people-api from a page on google.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/googleapis/google-api-nodejs-client, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

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

```bash
curl "https://people.googleapis.com/v1/people/me/connections?personFields=names,emailAddresses,phoneNumbers&pageSize=100&requestSyncToken=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOGLE_ACCESS_TOKEN"
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/google-people-api

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ContactsPlus | E | 42.4 | contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync, contacts.groups | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/contactsplus.min.md |
| Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API | B | 64.6 | contacts.read, contacts.write, contacts.search, contacts.sync | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-graph-people.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)