Database

Learn more about Notion’s database object.

A database is an object that contains one or more data sources. Databases can either be displayed inline in the parent page (is_inline: true) or as a full page (is_inline: false). The properties (schema) of each data source under a database can be maintained independently, and each data source has its own set of rows (pages).

Individual data sources don’t have permissions settings, so the set of Notion users and bots that have access to data source children is managed through databases.

Object fields

Changed as of 2025-09-03

In September 2025, the Data source object was introduced, and includes the properties that used to exist here at the database level.

Diagram of the new Notion API data model. A database is a parent of one or more data sources, each of which parents zero or more pages. Previously, databases could only have one data source, so the concepts were combined in the API until 2025.

After upgrading your API connection to 2025-09-03, the new database object shape is displayed, including an array of child data_sources but not the data source properties.

Field	Type	Description	Example value
object	string	Always "database".	"database"
id	string (UUID)	Unique identifier for the database.	"2f26ee68-df30-4251-aad4-8ddc420cba3d"
data_sources	array of data source objects	List of child data sources, each of which is a JSON object with an id and name. Use Retrieve a data source to get more details on the data source, including its properties.	[{"id": "c174b72c-d782-432f-8dc0-b647e1c96df6", "name": "Tasks data source"}]
created_time	string (ISO 8601 date and time)	Date and time when this database was created. Formatted as an ISO 8601 date time string.	"2020-03-17T19:10:04.968Z"
created_by	Partial User	User who created the database.	{"object": "user","id": "45ee8d13-687b-47ce-a5ca-6e2e45548c4b"}
last_edited_time	string (ISO 8601 date and time)	Date and time when this database was updated. Formatted as an ISO 8601 date time string.	"2020-03-17T21:49:37.913Z"
last_edited_by	Partial User	User who last edited the database.	{"object": "user","id": "45ee8d13-687b-47ce-a5ca-6e2e45548c4b"}
title	array of rich text objects	Name of the database as it appears in Notion. See rich text object) for a breakdown of the properties.	"title": [ { "type": "text", "text": { "content": "Can I create a URL property", "link": null }, "annotations": { "bold": false, "italic": false, "strikethrough": false, "underline": false, "code": false, "color": "default" }, "plain_text": "Can I create a URL property", "href": null } ]
description	array of rich text objects	Description of the database as it appears in Notion. See rich text object) for a breakdown of the properties.
icon	Emoji, Icon, Custom emoji, or File	Database icon. See Icon for all supported types. An icon set in the Notion UI is returned by both Retrieve a database and Retrieve a data source.
cover	File object	Page cover image.
parent	object	Information about the database’s parent. See Parent object.	{ "type": "page_id", "page_id": "af5f89b5-a8ff-4c56-a5e8-69797d11b9f8" }
url	string	The URL of the Notion database.	"https://app.notion.com/p/668d797c76fa49349b05ad288df2d136"
archived	boolean	Deprecated. Use in_trash instead. This is an alias for in_trash and always returns the same value.	false
in_trash	boolean	Whether the database has been trashed.	false
is_inline	boolean	Has the value true if the database appears in the page as an inline block. Otherwise has the value false if the database appears as a child page.	false
public_url	string	The public page URL if the page has been published to the web. Otherwise, null.	"https://jm-testing.notion.site/p1-6df2c07bfc6b4c46815ad205d132e22d"1

What’s Next

Data source

Data source properties

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