Manage questions and answers

Search questions

There are several ways to search for questions.

Questions received by a seller

Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?seller_id=$SELLER_ID&api_version=4

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?seller_id=419059118&api_version=4

Response:

 
{
   "total": 36,
   "limit": 2,
   "questions": [
       {
           "date_created": "2021-02-16T14:50:27.938-04:00",
           "item_id": "MLA903218023",
           "seller_id": 189394110,
           "status": "ANSWERED",
           "text": "Question text.",
           "id": 11764931832,
           "deleted_from_listing": false,
           "hold": false,
           "suspected_spam": false,
           "answer": {
               "text": "",
               "status": "BANNED",
               "date_created": "2021-02-16T14:52:13.580-04:00"
           },
           "from": {
               "id": 162981404
           }
       },
       {
           "date_created": "2021-02-16T14:47:58.950-04:00",
           "item_id": "MLA903218023",
           "seller_id": 189394110,
           "status": "BANNED",
           "text": "",
           "id": 11764926522,
           "deleted_from_listing": false,
           "hold": false,
           "suspected_spam": false,
           "answer": null,
           "from": {
               "id": 162981404
           }
       }
   ],
....
}

Questions received about an item

Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?item=$ITEM_ID&api_version=4

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?item=MLB1623490410&api_version=4

Response:

{
    "total": 1,
    "limit": 50,
    "questions": [
        {
            "date_created": "2020-08-20T13:22:01.600-04:00",
            "item_id": "MLB1623490410",
            "seller_id": 419059118,
            "status": "UNANSWERED",
            "text": "Hi, I'm interested in Test Item, please contact me. Thanks!",
            "id": 11436370259,
            "deleted_from_listing": false,
            "hold": false,
            "answer": null,
            "from": {
                "id": 419067349
            }
        }
    ],
    "filters": {
        "limit": 50,
        "offset": 0,
        "api_version": "4",
        "is_admin": false,
        "sorts": [],
        "caller": 419059118,
        "item": "MLB1623490410"
    },
    "available_filters": [
        {
            "id": "from",
            "name": "From user id",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "id": "seller",
            "name": "Seller id",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "id": "totalDivisions",
            "name": "total divisions",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "id": "division",
            "name": "Division",
            "type": "number"
        },
        {
            "id": "status",
            "name": "Status",
            "type": "text",
            "values": [
                "ANSWERED",
                "BANNED",
                "CLOSED_UNANSWERED",
                "DELETED",
                "DISABLED",
                "UNANSWERED",
                "UNDER_REVIEW"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "available_sorts": [
        "item_id",
        "from_id",
        "date_created",
        "seller_id"
    ]
}

How to sort?

To sort the results you can add the following query params:

sort_fields: allows sorting search results by one or more specific fields. Accepts the fields item_id, seller_id, from_id and date_created separated by commas.
Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?seller_id=$SELLER_ID&sort_fields=item_id,date_created&api_version=4

sort_types: allows setting whether the sorting of fields set in sort_fields will be ASC or DESC.
Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?seller_id=$SELLER_ID&sort_fields=item_id,date_created&sort_types=ASC&api_version=4

Questions asked by a user about an item

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?item=$ITEM_ID&from=$CUST_ID&api_version=4

Questions by ID

Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/$QUESTION_ID?api_version=4

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/11751825075?api_version=4

Response:

{
    "id": 11751825075,
   "seller_id": 179571326,
   "buyer_id": 56801932,
   "item_id": "MLA739200576",
   "deleted_from_listing": false,
   "suspected_spam": false,
   "status": "ANSWERED",
   "hold": false,
   "text": "Question text.",
   "app_id": 8304540643508652,
   "date_created": "2021-02-08T17:51:21.746608612Z",
   "last_updated": "2021-02-08T17:51:29.184950392Z",
   "answer": {
       "text": "",
       "status": "BANNED",
       "date_created": "2021-02-16T14:52:13.580-04:00"
   }

}

Response for Vehicles:

{
	"id": 11949565740,
	"seller_id": 456236760,
	"text": "Hi Tete936018, I'm interested in Test - San Jose De La Estrella / La Serena, please contact me. Thanks!",
	"status": "UNANSWERED",
	"item_id": "MLC595976788",
	"date_created": "2021-06-16T12:07:18.109-04:00",
	"hold": false,
	"deleted_from_listing": false,
	"answer": null,
	"from": {
		"id": 21547449,
		"answered_questions": 0,
		"first_name": "Juan",
		"last_name": "Lead",
		"phone": {
			"number": "95712582",
			"area_code": "9"
		},
		"email": "juan.lead@mail.com"
	}
}
}

Attribute description

id: Question ID

seller_id: Product seller ID

text: Question text

status: Question status

    Possible values: 

    -unanswered: The question has not been answered yet

    -answered: The question has been answered

    -closed_unanswered: The product is closed and the question was never answered

    -under_review: The product is under review and so is the question

    -item_id: ID of the product the question belongs to 

    -date_created: Question creation date

    -answer: Seller's answer

text: Answer text 

status: Answer status 

    Possible values: 

    -active: The answer is available

    -disabled: The answer has been disabled

date_created: Answer creation date

Excellent! Now you know what aspects to consider regarding questions. See what actions are available according to the question search.

 

Allowed methods

GET /questions/:id returns a question with that ID.
POST /questions: creates a question about an item.
DELETE /questions/:id: deletes a question.
POST /answers/: posts an answer to a specific question.
POST /my/questions/hidden: hides questions.
As you can see, you can search for questions by item, seller and user who asked it, and filter them by status or period. If you wish, you can also search for all received questions and hide them.

Related resources and connections

Use the following resources to search for questions by item or by user. You must include the item_id or the cust:id.

"related_resources": [
    	"/items",
        "/users"
	],
	"connections": {
    	"item_id": "/items/:id",
    	"seller_id": "/users/:id"
	}
}

Let's see some examples of how to search for questions on our platform.

Ask questions

It's a very easy task. You just need to know the item_id and send it along with a text String in the JSON body as in the following example:

curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' "Content-Type: application/json" -d
{
   "text":"Do you have these shoes in red?",
   "item_id":"MLA123456"
}
https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions

Answer questions

When you have a large number of items listed on Mercado Libre, you are likely to receive many questions; therefore, we recommend that you develop a method to answer those questions in a semi-automatic way, in which operators receive suggested answers based on frequently received keywords. To do this, you need to know how to answer a question via API. This will be easy. First, let's see all the questions received for your item. Simply perform a search for questions by item as shown in the example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/search?item_id=$ITEM_ID&api_version=4

You'll see that questions have a status, so you'll probably need to keep them in the "unanswered" status. Now, let's answer a single question:

curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' "Content-Type: application/json" -d
{
"question_id": 3957150025, 
 "text":"Test answer..." 
}
https://api.mercadolibre.com/answers

When working with questions, it is very useful to listen to Notifications, because they allow you to have a real-time feed of events that occur regarding them. Learn how to work with notifications.

Calculate response time

The new "response time" resource calculates in minutes the time it takes a seller to answer a query. It can be given in 3 periods:

• Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm (weekdays_working_hours).
• Monday to Friday from 6pm to 12am (weekdays_extra_hours).
• Saturdays and Sundays (weekend).

Additionally, it allows viewing the percentage of projected sales that the seller can have if they respond in less than 1 hour, displaying the percentage in the "sales_percent_increase" field.
The average is considered for each of the mentioned periods, contemplating the last 14 days of questions and using the first question a buyer asked about an item.
Unanswered questions will be considered answered when calculating response times, with a cap of 1 week. Example: If we have a question without an answer for 4 days, it will be considered that there is a question that took 4 days to answer and the next day 5 days.
For the "total" object, data from the last 14 days is considered without periods, they also include questions from 0 to 9am that do not fall into any of the other periods we provide visibility for by cut.
Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/$USER_ID/questions/response_time

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/1111111/questions/response_time

Response:

{
	"user_id": 1111111,
	"total": {
		"response_time": 22
	},
	"weekend": {
		"response_time": 8,
		"sales_percent_increase": null
	},
	"weekdays_working_hours": {
		"response_time": 8,
		"sales_percent_increase": null
	},
	"weekdays_extra_hours": {
		"response_time": 72,
		"sales_percent_increase": 10
	}
}

Parameter description

user_id: The ID of the queried seller.
total: The seller's average response time, without considering time slots.
response_time: Represents the seller's average response time in minutes.
weekend: The seller's average response time during weekends.
weekdays_working_hours: The seller's average response time during business hours on weekdays (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm).
weekdays_extra_hours: The seller's average response time during extra business hours on weekdays (Monday to Friday, 6pm to 12am).
sales_percent_increase: The percentage of sales that could be increased if response times are improved, as long as the response_time is greater than 60 in any of the segments, except for Total which does not have this parameter.

If the queried seller has no questions on their items, the response will be a Not Found 404.
Example:

{
	"message": "Response time not found for user id: 276274936",
	"error": "not_found",
	"status": 404,
	"cause": []
}

Delete questions

If you need to delete a question that a user asked about your item, simply use the delete method with the question ID and the user's ACCESS TOKEN.
Example:

curl -X DELETE -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/questions/$QUESTION_ID

Delete with our SDK (example) Response:

[
  "Question deleted."
]

If you wish, you can block users to prevent them from asking questions.

Notifications

Subscribe to question notifications through the questions topic. Learn more about Question notifications.

Error code reference

Error_code	Error message	Description	Possible solution
invalid_question	The question is invalid.	The question cannot be answered.	The question_id parameter must be an integer. To search for your question, call resource/questions/search.
invalid_post_body	Invalid JSON. Valid attributes are: {0}.	Invalid parameters.	The expected parameters are question_id and text.

Next: Moderations.