API Documentation

Everything you need to integrate reverse image search into your application.

Base URL

https://api.searchthisimage.com

Authentication

All API requests require an API key sent via the X-API-Key header.

Header

X-API-Key: sti_live_your_api_key_here

Search by URL

POST/v1/search/url

Submit an image URL to find matching pages, similar images, and web entities.

Request

curl -X POST https://api.searchthisimage.com/v1/search/url \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: sti_live_abc123..." \
  -d '{"image_url": "https://example.com/photo.jpg"}'

Response

{
  "status": "success",
  "is_nsfw": false,
  "results": {
    "pages_with_matching_images": [
      {
        "url": "https://example.com/article",
        "page_title": "Example Article"
      }
    ],
    "visually_similar_images": [
      "https://similar.com/image.jpg"
    ],
    "web_entities": [
      {
        "description": "Sunset",
        "score": 0.95
      }
    ],
    "best_guess_labels": [
      "sunset over ocean"
    ]
  }
}

Search by Upload

POST/v1/search/upload

Upload an image file directly. Supports JPG, PNG, WebP, and GIF.

Request

curl -X POST https://api.searchthisimage.com/v1/search/upload \
  -H "X-API-Key: sti_live_abc123..." \
  -F "file=@/path/to/image.jpg"

NSFW Detection

All images are automatically screened for adult and violent content using Google SafeSearch. If content is flagged, the response will include:

Blocked response

{
  "status": "blocked",
  "is_nsfw": true,
  "nsfw_reason": "Adult content detected",
  "results": null
}

Error Codes

Status	Meaning
400	Bad request — invalid image URL or file
401	Unauthorized — missing or invalid API key
402	Payment required — quota exceeded
415	Unsupported file type
429	Rate limited — too many requests
500	Internal server error

Rate Limits

Rate limits depend on your plan. When exceeded, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests. Check the response headers for your current usage:

Rate limit headers

X-RateLimit-Limit: 10
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 7
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1679616000