# What is x-zse-96 on Zhihu? (2026)

x-zse-96 is a signature header on the requests Zhihu's web pages send. We found no public explanation from Zhihu; open-source projects add it to each signed request. With a data API you do not produce it: a page of a question's answers is $0.0020, and you send only your key and the question. DataXAPI reads Zhihu with 16 endpoints, from $0.0020 a call; a failed call is not charged.

Updated 2026-11-04

## Why you run into it

It comes up when your own program reads Zhihu and gets refused. MediaCrawler sends `x-zse-96` with `x-zst-81` on its Zhihu requests, and it needs your cookies to do so. One open-source command-line tool reports `403` with `code 10003` on some commands when a related header, `x-zse-93`, was missing. How it is worked out is not something we cover.

## If you would rather not deal with it

Each job is one call at $0.0020: `zhihu.posts.search` to search answers and articles, `zhihu.questions.answers.list` for a question's answers, `zhihu.answers.get` for one answer, `zhihu.users.get` for an author. No signature, cookie or account of yours. A failed call is not charged.

## Endpoints

- [Zhihu content search](https://dataxapi.com/apis/zhihu/posts/search/) ($0.0020 / a call): Get a page of Zhihu answers and articles matching a search; either kind alone, by relevance, newest or most upvoted.
- [Zhihu question answers](https://dataxapi.com/apis/zhihu/questions/answers/list/) ($0.0020 / a call): Get the first 20 answers to a Zhihu question by ID or link, in Zhihu's own order: text, author, upvotes, comment and save counts. One page only.
- [Zhihu answer detail](https://dataxapi.com/apis/zhihu/answers/get/) ($0.0020 / a call): Get one Zhihu answer by ID or link: its question, text, author, time posted.
- [Zhihu user profile](https://dataxapi.com/apis/zhihu/users/get/) ($0.0020 / a call): Get a Zhihu user's profile by the handle in its address: name, headline, follower count, answer and article counts.

## Sources

What this page says of other services is from their own pages and documents, read on 2026-11-04. Prices and features change: check the source before you decide.

- [MediaCrawler: Zhihu request headers](https://github.com/NanmiCoder/MediaCrawler/blob/main/media_platform/zhihu/client.py)
- [zhihu-cli issue 15: 403 and code 10003](https://github.com/BAIGUANGMEI/zhihu-cli/issues/15)

## More about Zhihu

- [Zhihu API](https://dataxapi.com/apis/zhihu/)
- [My Zhihu scraper stopped working: what now? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/zhihu-scraper-not-working/)
- [How do I let my AI read Zhihu, Bilibili and Weibo? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/ai-read-zhihu-bilibili-weibo/)
- [What does Zhihu error 40362 mean? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/zhihu-40362/)

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Catalog revision bf04cdef3b75e745. [HTML version](https://dataxapi.com/answers/zhihu-x-zse-96/)