Compare
healthcare.dev vs RxNav
RxNav is the National Library of Medicine's set of APIs for RxNorm and related drug terminologies. It's free, needs no key, and is the authoritative source for RxNorm.
Side by side
| RxNav | healthcare.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| One schema across sources | RxNorm and related NLM terminologies | Yes: codes, drugs and providers share one response shape and meta block |
| As-of versioning | Historical status lookups for RxCUIs | Yes: ?as_of=YYYY-MM-DD on every lookup returns the record as it was |
| Citations on every response | NLM attribution terms apply | Yes: source, source URL, file checksum, version and license terms |
| Change feed | Monthly and weekly RxNorm releases | Yes: added, changed and retired records per release (Builder and up) |
| MCP server | No | Yes: remote MCP with one-click sign-in for Claude, Cursor and VS Code |
RxNav is run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Details as we understand them on the date of this page; see their documentation for current features and limits.
Which to use
Use RxNav for
- Deep RxNorm work: the full relationship graph, related terminologies and classes NLM publishes there.
- A free API with no account, when RxNorm is all you need.
Use healthcare.dev for
- RxNorm joined with FDA NDC products, NADAC prices, recalls and shortages in one response shape.
- Answers an agent can cite: every response carries its source, version and license terms.
- Knowing what changed between releases, and what a record looked like on a past date.