> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.notion.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Data source
> Learn more about Notion's data source object.
**Data sources** are the individual tables of data that live under a Notion database. [Pages](/reference/page) are the items (or children) in a data source. [Page property values](/reference/page-property-values) must conform to the [property objects](/reference/property-object) laid out in the parent data source object.
As of API version `2025-09-03`, there's a suite of APIs for managing data sources:
* [Create a data source](/reference/create-a-data-source): add an additional data source for an existing [Database](/reference/database)
* [Update a data source](/reference/update-a-data-source): update attributes, such as the `properties`, of a data source
* [Retrieve a data source](/reference/retrieve-a-data-source)
* [Query a data source](/reference/query-a-data-source)
## Object fields
Properties marked with an asterisk (\*) are available to connections with any capabilities. Other properties require read content capabilities in order to be returned from the Notion API. For more information on connection capabilities, see the [capabilities guide](/reference/capabilities).
| Field | Type | Description | Example value |
| :----------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `object`\* | `string` | Always `"data_source"`. | `"data_source"` |
| `id`\* | `string` (UUID) | Unique identifier for the data source. | `"2f26ee68-df30-4251-aad4-8ddc420cba3d"` |
| `properties`\* | `object` | Schema of properties for the data source as they appear in Notion.
`key` string The name of the property as it appears in Notion.
`value` object A [Property object](/reference/property-object). | |
| `parent` | `object` | Information about the data source's immediate parent. Most data sources are parented by a database (`type: "database_id"`). Some externally synced data sources can be parented by another data source (`type: "data_source_id"`) and include the containing `database_id`. See [Parent object](/reference/parent-object). | `{"type": "database_id", "database_id": "842a0286-cef0-46a8-abba-eac4c8ca644e"}` |
| `database_parent` | `object` | Information about the containing database's parent. See [Parent object](/reference/parent-object). | `{ "type": "page_id", "page_id": "af5f89b5-a8ff-4c56-a5e8-69797d11b9f8" }` |
| `created_time` | `string` ([ISO 8601 date and time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601)) | Date and time when this data source was created. Formatted as an [ISO 8601 date time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) string. | `"2020-03-17T19:10:04.968Z"` |
| `created_by` | [Partial User](/reference/user) | User who created the data source. | `{"object": "user", "id": "45ee8d13-687b-47ce-a5ca-6e2e45548c4b"}` |
| `last_edited_time` | `string` ([ISO 8601 date and time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601)) | Date and time when this data source was updated. Formatted as an [ISO 8601 date time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) string. | `"2020-03-17T21:49:37.913Z"` |
| `last_edited_by` | [Partial User](/reference/user) | User who last edited the data source. | `{"object": "user","id": "45ee8d13-687b-47ce-a5ca-6e2e45548c4b"}` |
| `title` | array of [rich text objects](/reference/rich-text) | Name of the data source as it appears in Notion. See [rich text object](/reference/rich-text)) for a breakdown of the properties. | `[ { "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](/reference/rich-text) | Description of the data source as it appears in Notion. See [rich text object](/reference/rich-text)) for a breakdown of the properties. | |
| `icon` | [Emoji](/reference/emoji-and-icon#emoji), [Icon](/reference/emoji-and-icon#icon), [Custom emoji](/reference/emoji-and-icon#custom-emoji), or [File](/reference/file-object) | Data source icon. See [Icon](/reference/page-property-values#icon) for all supported types. | |
| `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 data source has been trashed. | `false` |
**Schema limitations**
Notion recommends a max property count of **500** or a max schema size of **50KB**. Updates to database schemas that are too large will be blocked to help maintain database performance.