698 categories across four tiers, still powering billions of programmatic impressions every day. Our API returns v2 and v3 classifications simultaneously — backward compatibility built into every call.
The IAB Content Taxonomy v3 is the latest standard, but the reality of programmatic advertising tells a different story. Billions of dollars in ad spend still flow through v2 pipelines every quarter. Major demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, and data management platforms built their entire targeting and reporting infrastructure on v2 category IDs — and many have not fully migrated.
Dropping v2 support means losing compatibility with a significant share of the open exchange. Our API eliminates that risk entirely: every single classification call returns both v2 and v3 categories simultaneously, at no extra cost. You stay compatible with legacy partners while giving v3-ready platforms exactly what they need.
Every URL is classified from broad vertical down to the most specific sub-category. Four tiers of depth mean you can target at the level that matches your campaign — from top-level verticals for reach, to leaf categories for precision.
Each of these 23 verticals branches into three deeper tiers, giving you 698 precise classification targets for contextual advertising, brand safety, and audience segmentation.
You never have to choose between v2 and v3. Every classification request returns both taxonomies simultaneously, with independent confidence scores for each. There is no configuration flag, no add-on cost, no second API call. One request, two complete taxonomies.
This means your v3-ready systems get the latest category granularity while your legacy integrations continue to receive the v2 IDs they depend on — from the same endpoint, in the same response, in the same millisecond.
{
"iab_v2": [
{"category": "Sports",
"confidence": 0.96},
{"category": "Sports > Football",
"confidence": 0.88}
],
"iab_v3": [
{"category": "Sports > Football",
"confidence": 0.95},
{"category": "Sports > American Football",
"confidence": 0.91}
]
}
From DSPs still running v2 seat logic to publishers tagging inventory for private marketplace deals, the v2 taxonomy is woven into workflows that cannot be interrupted.
Feed v2 category IDs directly into DSPs, SSPs, and data management platforms that have not yet migrated to v3. No middleware translation layer, no mapping tables — the API output is ready to ingest as-is.
Learn moreAttach IAB v2 content signals to bid requests in real time. Classification completes within the OpenRTB auction window, giving your bidder richer contextual data without adding timeout risk.
Learn moreAuto-tag every article and page in your CMS with v2 categories so ad ops can package contextual segments for direct and programmatic buyers. Consistent classification replaces manual tagging across thousands of pages.
Learn moreUse the dual v2/v3 response as a live Rosetta Stone. Every call gives you both taxonomies for the same URL, so you can build and validate your own mapping tables without manual category-by-category alignment.
Learn moreLicense our 102-million-domain offline database with v2 categories pre-computed. Match your URL inventory in bulk without any API calls — ideal for data warehouses, analytics pipelines, and offline audience modeling.
Learn moreCombine v2 categories with our web filtering, IPTC, or Google Shopping taxonomies in a single response. Layer multiple classification systems to build unique targeting segments that no single taxonomy can express alone.
Learn moreA single POST request returns the full dual-taxonomy classification. No SDK required — any language with an HTTP client works out of the box.
import http.client conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection( "www.websitecategorizationapi.com") payload = 'query=espn.com' \ '&api_key=your_api_key' \ '&data_type=url' headers = { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' } conn.request("POST", "/api/iab/iab_web_content_filtering.php", payload, headers) res = conn.getresponse() data = res.read() print(data.decode("utf-8"))
698 categories, dual-taxonomy output. Backward-compatible with every platform, forward-ready with v3 in the same response.