Our Data Sources

Every drug record, pill image, and safety alert on RXID.ai comes from authoritative federal databases.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The NIH provides two critical data sources for RXID:

C3PI (Computational Photography Project for Pill Identification): A curated library of high-resolution pill photographs. These reference images are used to visually match pills identified through our attribute search. C3PI images are captured under controlled lighting and standardized backgrounds for accuracy.
DailyMed: The official NIH database of FDA-approved drug labeling. DailyMed provides comprehensive prescribing information including indications, dosage, contraindications, warnings, and adverse reactions for every FDA-approved medication.

Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

The FDA's data forms the backbone of RXID's drug identification system:

NDC Directory: The National Drug Code Directory assigns a unique 10-digit code to every commercially distributed drug product. RXID uses NDC lookups for barcode scanning and precise product identification.
openFDA: FDA's public API provides structured access to drug labels, adverse event reports, recall data, and enforcement actions. RXID queries openFDA for attribute-based searches (color, shape, imprint) and safety information.
Drug Labels: Package insert information including active ingredients, inactive ingredients, storage requirements, and manufacturer details.

RxNorm (National Library of Medicine)

RxNorm is the standard nomenclature for clinical drugs maintained by the National Library of Medicine. It provides:

Drug Name Normalization: Maps between brand names, generic names, and clinical terms so that searching "Lipitor" also finds "atorvastatin calcium"
Clinical Vocabularies: Standardized drug identifiers (RxCUI) that link to external systems like the VA, CMS, and commercial drug databases
Ingredient and Dose Form Data: Structured data about active ingredients, strengths, and pharmaceutical dose forms

GPT-4o Vision (OpenAI)

For image-based identification (photo upload and camera capture), RXID uses GPT-4o's multimodal vision capabilities. The AI model analyzes visible pill characteristics: shape, color, size, imprint markings, scoring lines, and coating type. GPT-4o was trained on diverse visual data and can identify pills even from imperfect photos.

AI identification results are always cross-referenced against FDA's NDC directory. RXID displays a confidence indicator so users understand the certainty level of each identification.

Data Freshness

RXID queries live API endpoints. Drug data reflects the current state of federal databases at the time of each search. C3PI pill images and cached lookup results are refreshed periodically.

Frequently Asked Questions

C3PI stands for Computational Pharmaceutics and Pill Identification. It is a project from the National Institutes of Health that creates a standardized reference library of pill images. Each image is taken under controlled conditions with verified identification, making it a reliable baseline for visual matching. RXID uses C3PI images to show you what a pill should look like from a trusted source, rather than relying solely on user-submitted or web-scraped images.

Every prescription and over-the-counter drug sold in the U.S. gets a unique National Drug Code (NDC). It is a 10-digit number in three segments: the labeler (manufacturer), the product (drug, strength, dosage form), and the package (size and type). The NDC is what pharmacies use to track inventory and what appears in barcode format on pill bottles. RXID can look up any NDC and return the full drug information from the FDA directory.

RxNorm is a standardized naming system for medications maintained by the National Library of Medicine. The same drug can have dozens of names across different databases, labels, and countries. RxNorm assigns a unique concept identifier (RXCUI) to each drug that maps across all these sources. RXID uses RxNorm to connect results from different databases, so when you search for "ibuprofen" you get the same drug whether the source calls it Advil, Motrin, or ibuprofen 200mg tablets.