Microlink.io API

Beginner's Pick Open Data / No Auth Required Beginner HTTPS CORS
Free to Use 25 per window
90 A+
Measured Score 0 50 100 Speed 27/30 Consistency 13/20 Security 20/20 Browser access 15/15 Transparency 15/15 TESTED 2026-08-10

Overview

Microlink.io lets you extract structured data—like titles, descriptions, images, and metadata—from any webpage using a simple HTTP request. No authentication is needed, making it a perfect starting point for beginners who want to build link previews or web scrapers. Just pass a URL as a query parameter and get back clean, structured JSON instantly.

Beginner Tip

Use the free tier by simply calling https://api.microlink.io?url=YOUR_URL without any API key—no sign-up required. Add &screenshot=true to also capture a screenshot of the page.

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request
GET https://api.microlink.io?url=https://example.com
Result
HTTP 200 · application/json · 604 bytes · compressed
Response time
38 ms (median of 3) · fastest 33 ms
Transport
TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services
Browser CORS
Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Rate limit
25 per window
Served by
cloudflare
Recorded
2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Field Type Value received
status string success
data object {9 fields}
statusCode integer 200
redirects array [0 items]
headers object {9 fields}

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://api.microlink.io?url=https://example.com on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

JSON Response · Captured
{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "publisher": "example.com",
    "lang": "en",
    "title": "Example Domain",
    "url": "https://example.com/",
    "date": "2026-08-08T20:05:49.000Z",
    "image": null,
    "logo": null,
    "author": null,
    "description": "This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations."
  },
  "statusCode": 200,
  "redirects": [],
  "headers": {
    "age": "524",
    "allow": "GET, HEAD",
    "cf-cache-status": "HIT",
    "cf-ray": "a28dc24eedfe49c1-EWR",
    "content-encoding": "br",
    "content-type": "text/html",
    "date": "Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:51:29 GMT",
    "last-modified": "Sat, 08 Aug 2026 20:05:49 GMT",
    "server": "cloudflare"
  }
}

Field Reference

status Result status, typically "success" when data is returned successfully

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://api.microlink.io?url=https://example.com";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

How This API Fails

We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.

HTTP 400 Sending an invalid value for "url" application/json
{
  "status": "fail",
  "data": {
    "url": "The URL `!!!invalid!!!` is not valid. Ensure it has protocol, hostname and is reachable."
  },
  "code": "EINVALURL",
  "more": "https://microlink.io/einvalurl",
  "report": "mailto:[email protected]?subject=%5Bmicrolink%5D%20Request%20failed&body=Hello%2C%20The%20following%20API%20request%20wasn't%20processed%20properly%3A%0A%0A%20%20-%20request%20id%20%20%3A%2000d7290d-ca60-4c95-8ccf-01b61fd8f614%0A%20%20-%20request%20uri%20%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fapi
…

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

400 Bad Request Missing or malformed url parameter
Ensure you pass a fully-qualified URL including https://, e.g. ?url=https://example.com
Empty or null fields in response The target page may block scrapers or use JavaScript rendering
Try adding &force=true to bypass cache, or check if the target site serves content without JavaScript
Rate limit / 429 Too Many Requests Free tier has limited requests per day
Slow down requests, cache results locally, or upgrade to a paid plan for higher limits

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Speed 27/30
Consistency 13/20
Security 20/20
Browser access 15/15
Transparency 15/15
Endpoint Response Time 38ms

Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS YES
Category Open Data
Difficulty Beginner
Endpoint last called: 2026-08-10

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