MAC Vendors REST API

API Endpoint

The public web UI is served separately from the REST API. Under the Apache proxy configuration, API requests are available below /api/.

Use the following URL to perform a MAC address lookup via the API:

https://macvendors.co.uk/api/mac_lookup/<mac_address>

Replace <mac_address> with the MAC address you want to query. For example:

https://macvendors.co.uk/api/mac_lookup/00:1B:2C:3D:4E:00

Response Format

The API will return a JSON response:

{
    "mac_prefix": "001B2C",
    "vendor": "ATRON electronic GmbH"
}
            

HTTP Status Codes

• 200 OK: Request was successful, and the vendor was found.
• 404 Not Found: Vendor not found for the given MAC address.
• 400 Bad Request: Invalid MAC address format.
• 429 Too Many Requests: Request volume was temporarily limited.
• 503 Service Unavailable: The service is temporarily unavailable.

Accepted MAC Address Formats

• Colon-separated: 00:00:0A:BB:28:FC
• Dash-separated: 00-00-0A-BB-28-FC
• Dot-separated (Cisco): 0000.0ABB.28FC
• Space-separated: 00 00 0A BB 28 FC
• Unformatted: 00000ABB28FC

Prefix Matching

When a full address is supplied, the API uses the most specific available IEEE assignment: MA-S (36-bit), MA-M (28-bit), then MA-L or CID (24-bit). The existing JSON response fields remain unchanged for compatibility.

Rate Limiting

To protect service availability, excessive automated traffic may be temporarily limited. Clients should use exponential backoff after a 429 Too Many Requests or 503 Service Unavailable response.

Command-line example

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  'https://macvendors.co.uk/api/mac_lookup/001B2C3D4E00'

Python example

import json
from urllib.parse import quote
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen

mac_address = quote("00:1B:2C:3D:4E:00", safe="")
url = f"https://macvendors.co.uk/api/mac_lookup/{mac_address}"
request = Request(url, headers={
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "User-Agent": "my-network-tool/1.0",
})

with urlopen(request, timeout=10) as response:
    result = json.load(response)

print(result["vendor"])

PowerShell example

$MacAddress = [uri]::EscapeDataString('00:1B:2C:3D:4E:00')
$Uri = "https://macvendors.co.uk/api/mac_lookup/$MacAddress"
$Result = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri -TimeoutSec 10
$Result.vendor

OpenAPI document

The machine-readable OpenAPI 3.1 document describes the endpoint, path parameter, response fields and status codes for documentation, testing and client-generation tools.

When to Use the API

Use the API for scripts, monitoring systems, inventory tooling, and network automation where a browser lookup is not practical. For pasted switch or ARP output, the bulk lookup page is usually faster.