# API Parameters

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**IMPORTANT!** The `engine` parameter should **always be set to `target`**!
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The Target API is a powerful Target scraping tool, made easy to use. Basically, in order to scrape Target, all you have to do is send a GET request to our [official endpoint](https://docs.webscrapingapi.com/target-search-api/getting-started/access-the-api) followed by the parameters you chose to customize your request. 

The Target API uses general parameters (applicable to any search type) and search type specific parameters (applicable to specific search types only). **We will cover the search type specific parameters in each search category**.

Here is the full list of **the general parameters**:

<table><thead><tr><th width="162.33333333333331">Parameter</th><th width="100">Type</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>api_key</code><br><mark style="color:red;background-color:red;">required</mark></td><td><code>string</code></td><td>Specify your unique API access key to authenticate with the API. You can find your <a href="access-the-api">API access key</a> in your account dashboard.</td></tr><tr><td><code>engine</code><br><mark style="color:red;background-color:red;">required</mark></td><td><code>string</code></td><td>The engine of the API. Needs to be set to <strong><code>target</code></strong> for all Target API requests.</td></tr><tr><td><code>force_related_products</code></td><td>   <code>int</code></td><td>Whether or not to force related products to appear. It can be set to <code>1</code> (to show related products) or <code>0</code> (to hide related products).</td></tr></tbody></table>