If your site is hosted on WordPress.com, you might notice something confusing:

Visiting /wp-json/wp/v2/posts returns HTML instead of JSON
Even curl or Postman may not work as expected
It looks like the REST API is not exposed

This leads many developers to believe there’s a configuration issue — but that’s not true.

Let’s clear this up properly.

The Common Mistake

Most tutorials online assume self-hosted WordPress, where this works perfectly:

https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts

However, on WordPress.com–hosted sites, this endpoint is not reliably exposed due to:

CDN routing
HTML-first optimizations
Platform-level restrictions

You cannot fix this with settings or plugins on WordPress.com.

The Correct API for WordPress.com Sites

WordPress.com provides its own official public REST API, designed specifically for hosted sites.

✅ Base API

https://public-api.wordpress.com/wp/v2

✅ Fetch posts from a site

https://public-api.wordpress.com/wp/v2/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/posts

This endpoint:

Always returns JSON
Works in browser, curl, Postman, and fetch
Is officially supported
Requires no configuration

🧠 Why This Works

There are two different REST APIs in the WordPress ecosystem:

Hosting Type	Recommended API
Self-hosted WordPress	`/wp-json/wp/v2/*`
WordPress.com	`public-api.wordpress.com/wp/v2/*`

The public API bypasses site routing completely and talks directly to WordPress.com infrastructure.

📌 Useful Endpoints

Get all posts

/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/posts

Get pages

/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/pages

Get post by slug

/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/posts?slug=my-post-slu

Pagination

/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/posts?page=1&number=10

🚀 Example: Fetch Posts in JavaScript

			
fetch("https://public-api.wordpress.com/wp/v2/sites/itrate.wordpress.com/posts")
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(posts => {
    posts.forEach(post => {
      console.log(post.title);
    });
  });

		

❗ Important Notes

This API is read-first (perfect for blogs, docs, headless frontends)
Authentication is limited compared to self-hosted WordPress
Ideal for Next.js, React, mobile apps, static sites

If you need:

Custom REST endpoints
Full write access
JWT or custom auth

👉 Self-hosted WordPress is the better choice.

Final Takeaway

If your site is hosted on WordPress.com,
do not rely on /wp-json endpoints.

Use the WordPress.com Public REST API instead.

This avoids confusion, redirects, and wasted debugging time.

Informative

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