How to Expose a Microsoft Access Database as a Secure REST API

MICROSOFT ACCESS REST API

Turn a Microsoft Access query into a secure REST API — no exports, no shared file.

Microsoft Access is a desktop, file-based database with no network API and no real way to share data safely with outsiders. Save a query against your .accdb file, mint a per-recipient API key, and hand a partner a live JSON endpoint — no Excel export to email, no .accdb file to copy onto a shared drive. Just a governed, read-only Microsoft Access REST API in minutes.

No file to share Per-recipient keys Read-only enforced Nothing to deploy

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GET api.querystreams.com/v1/endpoints/open-invoices

Authorization: Bearer qsapi_K7…ZmQ

Accept: application/json

200 OK MS Access · 35 ms

[

  { “customer”: “Acme”, “due”: 4820 },

  { “customer”: “Globex”, “due”: 1190 }

]

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Query Streams is a secure, real-time database integration platform that turns any saved Microsoft Access query into a partner-ready REST API endpoint — with per-recipient keys, read-only enforcement, and a full audit trail. You get a live Microsoft Access REST API without emailing exports, copying your .accdb file, or writing any code. Learn more at QueryStreams.com and sign up for free to publish your first Microsoft Access endpoint in minutes.

Why expose a Microsoft Access database as a REST API?

Plenty of real businesses still run on a Microsoft Access database — an inventory list, a job tracker, a customer ledger that has quietly done its job for years. It works, but it was never built to share data with the outside world. There is no network endpoint, no proper user accounts, and no safe way for a client, accountant, or vendor to read just the data they need. So the data goes out the only ways Access allows: someone exports an Excel file and emails it (stale the moment it sends), or the whole .accdb file gets dropped on a shared drive (now everyone can see everything, forever). A Microsoft Access REST API is the clean version of this — the partner gets a URL and a token for one specific query, not a copy of your database. Query Streams makes it a saved query plus a key, with nothing to code.

The usual ways to share Access data — and why they hurt

Most Access shops share data one of three ways, and each one gives away more than it should. Here is how those approaches compare to a Query Streams shared endpoint when the goal is simply “let a specific partner read a specific result set.”

How Query Streams turns an Access query into a REST API

Once the Network Agent is installed on a Windows machine that can reach your Access file, promoting a saved query to a shared REST endpoint takes about three steps. If you already use Query Streams for Excel, Google Sheets, or the MCP Server, your Agent and connector are already in place — you start at step two.

No file to share, no code to write

The security model is the reason teams reach for this instead of emailing a spreadsheet or sharing the database file. Your Access file never leaves its machine, and the path to it lives only inside the Agent’s configuration on your network — it is never transmitted to our cloud and never visible to a recipient. On top of that, every endpoint gives you per-recipient controls you can tighten before you share.

Call your Microsoft Access REST API

Recipients call the endpoint like any other REST API: a bearer token and a URL. Any saved-query parameter you exposed can be set per call — on the querystring for GET or in a JSON body for POST. The Agent binds those values as proper parameters, never string concatenation, so a recipient cannot break out of a filter to inject SQL.

Pick the output format per call with the Accept header (or a ?format= query parameter): JSON for a single array, CSV for spreadsheets and pandas, or, on a streaming endpoint, NDJSON (one JSON row per line) for parse-as-you-go pipelines. For bandwidth-sensitive consumers, opt into LZ4 payload compression with Accept-Encoding: lz4; uncompressed responses also get standard gzip on the wire automatically. For the full breakdown of static vs streaming modes, the four wire combinations, and OpenAPI 3.1 generation, see the Instant REST API for SQL databases guide.

Plug it into Power BI, Tableau, and anything that reads JSON

Because every endpoint returns standard JSON — with CSV and streaming NDJSON on tap — any tool that can read a REST feed consumes your Access data directly, with nothing to install on their side. Power Query is the easiest bridge into the Microsoft BI stack: in Power BI choose Get Data → From Web, paste the endpoint URL, add your Authorization header, and Power Query parses the JSON into a refreshable table that feeds your data model. (For live data inside a spreadsheet, the native Query Streams Excel add-on is the simpler path — Power Query is there when you want the data in the Power BI model itself.)

Power Query Get Data → From Web, paste the URL and bearer token, expand the JSON to a refreshable table

Power BI Same Power Query engine — load the endpoint straight into your model and schedule refresh

Tableau Point a Web Data Connector or JSON source at the endpoint for live dashboards

Postman Import the OpenAPI 3.1 spec, then send, inspect, and share requests in one click

It also feeds n8n, Qlik, curl, Python (requests or pandas.read_json), Insomnia, Hoppscotch — or any script or workflow that can send an HTTP request and read JSON.

Works with .accdb, .mdb, and network shares

It does not matter how old your Access database is or where it lives. The Agent connects the same way to a modern .accdb file or a legacy .mdb, whether it sits on a local disk, a shared network drive, or as the back-end of a split front-end/back-end setup. The Agent runs on Windows and uses the Microsoft Access Database Engine to read the file. For the lowest latency, run the Agent on or near the machine that holds the database; one Query Streams account can run multiple Agents across sites.

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Related guides: Instant REST API for SQL databases | Expose SQLite as a REST API | Database REST API platform | Connector Setup guides

Category: API Platform

Tags: microsoft-access-rest-api, ms-access-api, access-database-api, rest-api, expose-access-as-api, share-access-data, accdb, per-recipient-keys, no-code-api, database-rest-api

Meta Description: Turn a Microsoft Access query into a secure, read-only REST API with per-recipient keys — no exports, no shared .accdb file, no code.