ChEBI 2.0 launches

The Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) database has undergone a significant redevelopment. Users will now benefit from faster searching, a refreshed web interface, improved programmatic access, and modernised data products designed to better support integration, reuse, and curation.

What has changed about ChEBI? 

• A new redesigned website that provides a seamless experience, ensuring users can find data quickly and easily.
• Legacy SOAP web services are deprecated and replaced by ChEBI’s new REST APIs. 
• New ChEBI 2.0 data products (ontology, TSV, SDF, PostgreSQL dump) are available.
• Submitter accounts have been migrated so ChEBI users will need to reset their password before logging into the new submission portal.

Why ChEBI 2.0?

The legacy ChEBI codebase had become increasingly difficult to maintain and update. ChEBI 2.0 has been rebuilt from the ground up with: 

• Simplified PostgreSQL schema 
• Faster search powered by Elasticsearch + RDKit 
• Refreshed public user interface and modern infrastructure (Kubernetes, Python, Django, Vue) 

This redevelopment provides a strong foundation for future improvements while ensuring ChEBI remains reliable and sustainable. Find out more about why this redevelopment took place on the ChEBI blog. 

A new ChEBI web interface 

You can access the new ChEBI web interface at the same URL. 

It offers faster searching, improved chemical structure handling (via RDKit), and new GUI widgets for exploring the ChEBI ontology. If you notice any missing features or issues, please let us know via the contact form on the ChEBI website or by e-mail to chebi-help@ebi.ac.uk

Programmatic Access (APIs)

Old ChEBI’s SOAP web services have now been retired. If you access ChEBI via web services, please use the new REST APIs. You can find out more about new endpoints at API docs

Data products and downloads

ChEBI 2.0 provides updated data products. 

Changes include: 

• standardised prefixes (including CHEMROF and RO) 
• homogenised datatypes 
• New file formats: JSON and PostgreSQL dump

More details are explained in ChEBI’s data products blog post. 

Submissions portal

ChEBI 2.0 comes with a completely redesigned submission portal. 

Please use this portal for all new data submissions to ChEBI. If you already had a submitter account in the old system, your account has been migrated automatically to the new platform. However, there are some important changes to note: 

• Migrated accounts: All your existing submissions and account data have been preserved in the new portal.
• Login method: The old system used a username + password. ChEBI 2.0 now uses email + password for login. 
• Password reset required: You’ll need to reset your password before you login for the first time. Use the same email address you previously registered with, then set a new password. 

What’s not changing

• Stable identifiers: ChEBI IDs remain the same and citable. 
• Open licence: ChEBI data continues to be available under CC BY 4.0. 
• Data continuity: All ChEBI data from the legacy platform has been migrated to the new platform. 

Looking ahead

ChEBI is a community-driven resource, with its value stemming from the submitters, developers, and curators who contribute to it. While the new platform is stable, you may notice some missing features that the ChEBI team are actively working on. This redevelopment was essential, since the old infrastructure (VMs, Java code) had reached its limits. Moving to Kubernetes and modern frameworks ensures a sustainable future for ChEBI and lays the groundwork for major improvements. If you rely on ChEBI in your work, please use our new platform and get in touch if you need support. You can also subscribe to the chebi-announce mailing list for future updates.