Public API · Free · No signup required

The behavioral friction
API for e-commerce

Score any Shopify store. Get psychology-grounded friction insights as JSON. Build CRO tools, agency dashboards, or research integrations on top of the WHY framework — Kahneman, Cialdini, Baymard, exposed as REST.

View endpoints → Try it now 
# Get the live DACH e-commerce friction benchmark
$ curl https://frictionlessai.net/api/v1/benchmarks

# Get the methodology — full WHY framework documented
$ curl https://frictionlessai.net/api/v1/methodology

# Get insights for any scan token
$ curl https://frictionlessai.net/api/v1/scan/demo/insights

# Sample response (truncated)
{
  "ok": true,
  "frictionless_score": 34,
  "score_label": "Critical",
  "insights": [
    {
      "why_category": "TRUST_DEFICIT",
      "severity": "CRITICAL",
      "hypothesis_status": "validated"
    }
  ]
}
Why this exists

Behavioral economics, exposed as infrastructure

Most CRO APIs return analytics. Frictionless returns interpretation — what's psychologically wrong on the page and why visitors hesitate. Three things make it usable as developer infrastructure.

⚡
Public, no key required
v1 read endpoints are public. Prototype, integrate, ship. API keys come in v2 once we have signal of demand.
🔬
Glass-box methodology
Every detected pattern links to its behavioral economics source. Stanford, Baymard, Kahneman — citations are part of the response.
📊
Live benchmarks
Aggregate DACH e-commerce data, refreshed continuously. Build comparisons, dashboards, or research charts directly from the API.
🌐
CORS-enabled
Call from any origin. Build browser extensions, Shopify apps, Notion widgets — no proxy server needed.
🛡️
Rate limited, gentle
60 requests per minute per IP for v1. Need higher limits? Email and we'll set up a key.
🧬
Hypothesis-backed
Each insight comes with status (untested / testing / validated / refuted) and an A/B test specification. Not opinions, hypotheses.
Reference

Endpoints

All endpoints are under /api/v1/. All return JSON. CORS open. Rate limit 60 req/min/IP.

GET
/api/v1/health
Service health check + endpoint inventory. Use to verify the API is up.
GET
/api/v1/methodology
Full WHY framework. Seven friction categories, their behavioral economics basis, primary detection signals. Citable as the methodology spec.
GET
/api/v1/patterns
All detectable friction patterns with their evidence sources (Stanford, Baymard, Cialdini, etc.) and expected lift ranges.
GET
/api/v1/patterns/<pattern_key>
Pattern detail including Frictionless's own validation aggregate (n_validated, avg_lift across stores that fixed it).
GET
/api/v1/benchmarks
Live aggregate snapshot of all scanned stores. Score distribution, category prevalence, top patterns. Same data as /benchmarks page.
GET
/api/v1/benchmarks/category/<cat>
Per-category aggregate. Useful for filtering benchmark data when building category-specific dashboards.
GET
/api/v1/score/<token>
Frictionless score plus category breakdown for a scan token. Try with token = "demo".
GET
/api/v1/scan/<token>/insights
Full friction insights for a scan, including hypothesis status, evidence, suggested fixes. Powers the report UI.
Use cases

Built for builders

🏢
Agencies
Pull Frictionless scores into client dashboards. Layer your own UX research on top of objective behavioral baselines.
🛍️
Shopify apps
Add a "behavioral health check" tab to your existing app. Scan the store on install, surface the top 3 frictions in your UI.
📈
CRO platforms
Use the methodology endpoint as your taxonomy reference. Cross-reference your A/B test results with Frictionless's pattern library.
Get started

Three lines of curl

No signup. No key. Just call the API. If you build something we should know about, reach out.

Try the API → See the data live
Frictionless API v1.0.0 · Public read-only
Home · Benchmarks · API health