Photography & Image APIs Terms Comparison

Side-by-side comparison of free tiers, rate limits, and usage restrictions for 4 photography & image apis.

Terms of service may change. Always verify with the official API documentation before building production applications.

Where these values come from

CORS is verified by us — we read the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header from a real response (last checked 2026-07-31). Free tier and restrictions marked verified were read from the provider's own pricing page on the date shown, and that page is linked so you can re-check it yourself. Rows marked not verified are ones we could not confirm at the source, so we do not publish a number for them. Pricing and licence terms change without notice — confirm with the provider before you commit. If you spot a value that is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

API Free Tier Rate Limit Commercial Attribution Auth CORS Caching Notable Restrictions
Screenshotlayer 100 snapshots/month verified 2026-08-01 100 snapshots/month (free) Req API Key (query parameter) Yes Yes Free plan: HTTP only, no full-page captures, no custom viewport
Unsplash 50 requests/hour (demo), 1,000/hour once approved for production verified 2026-08-01 50 requests/hour (demo), 1,000/hour (production) Req API Key (header) or OAuth2 Yes Yes Must use Unsplash image URLs (no re-hosting); must trigger download endpoint for tracking
Flickr API Not verified — check the provider Not verified Req API Key (query parameter) or OAuth Yes Yes Photo usage depends on individual photo license; not all photos are free to use
Imgur API Not verified — check the provider Not verified No Client ID (header) or OAuth2 Yes Yes Commercial API access may require approval; no NSFW content allowed in commercial use

Attribution Details

Screenshotlayer: Screenshotlayer attribution required on free plan
Unsplash: Must credit photographer and Unsplash with links
Flickr API: Must respect individual photo licenses (Creative Commons or All Rights Reserved)

Last updated: 2026-04