Comprehensive data on JSON usage, API adoption rates, JSON-LD growth, and industry trends.
of API requests use JSON
Source: Cloudflare, 2022
of websites use JSON-LD
Source: W3Techs, Feb 2026
of developers use REST/JSON APIs
Source: Postman, 2025
Source: Postman State of the API 2025
| Period | JSON-LD % |
|---|---|
| Q1 2023 | 44.3% |
| Q1 2024 | ~48% |
| Q1 2025 | ~51% |
| Feb 2026 | 52.8% |
Source: W3Techs
Source: Cloudflare, 2022
JSON.org launched by Douglas Crockford
RFC 4627 published - first JSON specification
ECMA-404 standard published; Twitter drops XML API support
RFC 8259 (Internet Standard) and ISO/IEC 21778 published
~97% of API requests use JSON (Cloudflare)
52.8% of websites use JSON-LD (W3Techs)
According to the Postman State of the API 2025 report, approximately 93% of developers work with REST APIs, which predominantly use JSON as their data format. Cloudflare data from 2022 shows that roughly 97% of API requests use JSON.
Yes, JSON has surpassed XML as the dominant data interchange format for web APIs. While SOAP/XML is still used by about 20.5% of developers, JSON-based REST APIs are used by 93%. JSON is lighter, easier to parse, and natively supported by JavaScript.
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a method of encoding structured data using JSON for search engine optimization. As of February 2026, 52.8% of all websites use JSON-LD, making it the most popular structured data format on the web.
JSON adoption has grown steadily. JSON-LD usage on websites went from 44.3% in Q1 2023 to 52.8% by February 2026. JSON became an ECMA standard in 2013, an Internet Standard via RFC 8259 in 2017, and now dominates API traffic with approximately 97% of all API requests using JSON.
According to Cloudflare API traffic data, the Software/Internet industry generates the most JSON API traffic at 40%, followed by Cryptocurrency at 7%, Banking at 6%, Retail at 5%, and Financial Services at 4%.
<blockquote cite="https://www.glyphwidgets.com/resources/json-statistics-2026">
<p><strong>~97%</strong> of API requests use JSON.</p>
<footer>— <a href="https://www.glyphwidgets.com/resources/json-statistics-2026">JSON Statistics 2026</a>, Glyph Widgets (Source: Cloudflare)</footer>
</blockquote><iframe src="https://www.glyphwidgets.com/resources/json-statistics-2026" width="100%" height="800" style="border:3px solid #1a1a1a;" title="JSON Statistics 2026 - Glyph Widgets"></iframe><a href="https://www.glyphwidgets.com/resources/json-statistics-2026">JSON Statistics 2026 — Glyph Widgets</a>