Why would I call this instead of just using item search directly?

Item search accepts a category_id filter, and this is where you get valid, current IDs to pass into it.

How often does the category tree change?

Rarely enough that you can cache the IDs you need rather than calling this before every search.

Do I pay for lookups that come back empty?

No. You are charged per result, so a request that finds nothing costs nothing. Testing this against a messy list is free to get wrong.

What does a lookup cost?

5 points flat, which is $5 per 1,000 lookups — there's no per-result billing since one call returns the whole tree.

E-commerce & Marketplaces

eBay Category Tree API — Every Department & Category ID

This is a fixed lookup: send an empty request and get back eBay's entire browse category tree — every department, category and subcategory, each with the numeric ID eBay uses internally to identify it.

Run it in the app Read the API docs

Example response

{
  "session_id": "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111",
  "kind": "ebay_category",
  "human": "# eBay category tree\n\n- **Categories returned:** 1496\n- **Proxy traffic:** 36.2 KB",
  "machine": {
    "total_items": 1496,
    "categories": [
      {
        "id": "6000",
        "name": "eBay Motors",
        "alias": "Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles",
        "category_id": "6000",
        "url": "https://www.ebay.com/b/Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles/6000/bn_1865334",
        "parent_id": null
      },
      {
        "id": "6028",
        "name": "Parts & Accessories",
        "alias": "Auto-Parts-Accessories",
        "category_id": "6028",
        "url": "https://www.ebay.com/b/Auto-Parts-Accessories/6028/bn_569479",
        "parent_id": "6000"
      },
      {
        "id": "6030",
        "name": "Car & Truck Parts & Accessories",
        "alias": "Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories",
        "category_id": "6030",
        "url": "https://www.ebay.com/b/Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories/6030/bn_562630",
        "parent_id": "6028"
      }
    ],
    "proxy_traffic_bytes": 37056
  },
  "total_points": 5
}

You send: Nothing — it's a fixed lookup
You get back: The full eBay category tree with every department, category and subcategory ID
Coverage: eBay's complete browse category tree.
Price: 5 pts — $5 per 1,000; Charged per successful lookup. Since the request takes no input, it either returns the tree or fails outright — there is no partial match to worry about.

Comparison

Ways to get this data

Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.

Approach	What it takes	Cost	Trade-off
Browsing eBay's category pages by hand	Click through departments and copy each category's numeric ID from the URL	Free, and tedious	Fine for one or two categories, impractical for a full taxonomy
eBay's own Taxonomy API	Register a developer app, handle OAuth, learn eBay's category tree endpoints	Engineering time to integrate a second API just for IDs	Duplicates infrastructure you'd rather not maintain for a lookup you run rarely
NeuralVerge	One request, no parameters	$5 flat	Returns the whole tree every time — there's no way to ask for just one branch

Response

What you get back

Every field in the response shown above.

Field	Type	Description
`id`	string	eBay's internal ID for the category node (matches category_id).
`name`	string	Category name, e.g. "eBay Motors".
`alias`	string	eBay's URL-friendly slug for the category, e.g. "Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles".
`category_id`	string	eBay's numeric ID for the category node, ready to pass as category_id to eBay item search.
`url`	string	Direct link to eBay's browse page for the category.
`parent_id`	string	The category_id of the parent node, null for a top-level department.

Integration

How to run it

The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.

The request body is empty — there are no parameters to set. Send an empty JSON object.

curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-ebay-category \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

Use cases

What teams use it for

Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.

Scoping item search by category

Look up the category_id for a department and pass it to eBay item search to stop a keyword query from wandering into unrelated categories.

Building a category picker

Populate a dropdown or filter UI with real eBay category names and IDs instead of hardcoding a stale list.

Normalizing product taxonomy

Map your own catalog's categories to eBay's structure for cross-listing or comparison work.

Auditing category coverage

Check which departments and subcategories exist before deciding what to monitor or list into.

Coverage & limits

Coverage, freshness and limits

What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.

Coverage

eBay's complete browse category tree.

Freshness

Read at request time.

Handling

This source returns publicly visible category information, stamped with a session id you can trace.

What it will not do

—The tree reflects eBay's current taxonomy, which eBay revises periodically — a category ID that works today can be retired later.
—There's no way to request a single branch; every call returns the full tree.
—Category structure varies by eBay site (ebay.com vs. ebay.co.uk, for example) and this returns the browse tree eBay serves by default.

FAQ

Questions, answered

No. The request body is an empty object — this endpoint takes no input at all.

Related sources

eBay item search

Search active eBay listings by keyword, condition, price and category.

eBay item

A single active eBay listing: title, price, condition, images and seller.

All e-commerce & marketplaces

Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress and Alibaba product, seller and review data.

Try ebay categories on your own data

One request format across every source in the catalog.

Get started