# Project Gutenberg

> gutenberg.org | Debrid; 1 record: free tier, limits, identity cost and evidence.

HTML https://fshy.ajam.dev/p/gutenberg/ | JSON https://fshy.ajam.dev/api/v1/entity/gutenberg.json | how to read a record: https://fshy.ajam.dev/llms-full.txt

## Project Gutenberg

- `debrid/project-gutenberg` | qualifies-with-caveat | evidence documented | binding per-ip-shaping | category public-domain ebook library (bulk mirrorable) | tier free
- needs card no, phone no, ID no, institution no | verified 2026-10-23T03:24:34.450Z (live) | stale on 2026-11-23
- url https://www.gutenberg.org/
- price USD 0
- free tier: 79,657 free eBooks, 'No fees, no registration, completely free'. The published collection metadata gives the real size: main collection 3,443,023 files / 1,064,736,252,276 bytes, generated collection (EPUB, MOBI, HTML) 2,681,516 files / 1,375,569,708,792 bytes, i.e. 6,124,539 files and 2,440,305,961,068 bytes (2.44 TB), metadata updated 2026-10-19. | unit: TB | metered on: downloaded-bytes | read on: 2026-10-23 | source: [1] | note: The 79,657 counts titles; metadata.json counts files. Both were read on the same day and they describe different things, so neither is the other's check.
- per-object cap: not applicable: one file per book per format. No per-file cap is published; the largest objects in the tree are audio ZIPs, and the file list is the only inventory. | source: [1] | note: A text file measured here was 772,386 bytes (Pride and Prejudice, plain text).
- retention: permanent: the mirroring guide describes a fixed collection that 'changes daily, as new items are added or updated', with no expiry clock. | source: [2]
- egress: Free and unmetered from the main site and from every mirror. The main site is not a bulk endpoint: 'This website is intended for human users only. Any perceived use of automated tools to access this website will result in a temporary or permanent block of your IP address.' Bulk is approved through rsync mirrors, which the mirroring guide documents. | metered: no | free allowance: no byte allowance published | source: [3]
- identity: anonymous | detail: The home page states 'No fees, no registration, completely free'. No account exists to create.
- interface: rest, rsync, cli
- limits:
  - per-ip-shaping (binding): automated access from the main site is blocked by IP; 'Such blocks automatically expire after a few days' [3]
  - request-rate: the vendor's own harvest example uses wget -w 2 (two seconds between requests); mirrors are the approved bulk path [3]
- binding note: At 1 TiB/month the main site blocks the caller long before any byte cap; the mirror network is the only path that carries that volume, and the mirror list is what makes the quota effectively unlimited.
- interface detail: plain HTTPS per file (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/<id>/pg<id>.txt), an OPDS feed at /ebooks/search.opds/, a JSON OPDS2 feed 'currently available for testing', GUTINDEX.ALL and metadata.json for inventory, and rsync mirrors listed in MIRRORS.ALL.
- endpoint: part of interface detail
- tooling: wget/curl, rsync against any mirror, the OPDS feed for readers. The robot policy's own example is 'wget -w 2 -m -H "https://www.gutenberg.org/robot/harvest?filetypes[]=html"' - two seconds between requests, from the main site, for a bounded harvest.
- composes with: The canonical public-domain text corpus to pair with LibriVox audio and Internet Archive scans of the same titles; a 2.44 TB rsync mirror can be filtered to the zip files only, which drops the audio weight.
- reliability: Main-site IP blocks are automatic and last days; the generated collection is rebuilt in batches, so a mirror refresh sees traffic spikes rather than a steady delta.
- notes: Caveat is the main site, not the catalogue. The abandoned route is 'scrape gutenberg.org with parallel connections': the robot policy names it as a blockable offence and the mirror path costs nothing.
- evidence note: The collection size is the vendor's own metadata.json, fetched here; one complete file was downloaded and hashed. What would raise it to measured for the bulk path is an rsync of a filtered subset from a mirror with a byte count, which was not run.
- extras:
  - total_bytes: 2440305961068
  - total_files: 6124539
  - titles: 79657
  - metadata_updated: 2026-10-19T02:49:46+00:00
  - mirror_list: https://www.gutenberg.org/MIRRORS.ALL
  - measured_file_sha256: 3f6bb9d6f78e0293b56acd4714dd68cb7d6d1d293402031ce9d5a216bcaf9d75
- evidence:
  - [4] 2026-10-23: 'Project Gutenberg is a library of 79,657 free eBooks' and '100% Free - No fees, no registration'
  - [1] 2026-10-23: collection size: main 3,443,023 files / 1,064,736,252,276 bytes, generated 2,681,516 files / 1,375,569,708,792 bytes, metadata_updated 2026-10-19T02:49:46+00:00
  - [3] 2026-10-23: 'intended for human users only', automatic IP blocks that 'expire after a few days', and the sanctioned wget -w 2 harvest recipe
  - [2] 2026-10-23: rsync mirroring is offered; 'around 6 million files, over 60 languages'; main collection changes daily
  - probe:https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1342/pg1342.txt 2026-10-23: 200, 772,386 bytes, sha256 3f6bb9d6f78e0293b56acd4714dd68cb7d6d1d293402031ce9d5a216bcaf9d75, text/plain, 2,239.5 ms - the file downloaded here is the book
- sources:
  - [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/metadata.json
  - [2] https://www.gutenberg.org/help/mirroring.html
  - [3] https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/robot_access.html
  - [4] https://www.gutenberg.org/