CalorieNinjas

CalorieNinjas provides an easy, free Nutrition Facts and Recipe API. Developers can retrieve nutrition information for over 100,000 foods and beverages using natural language queries, extract nutrition information from images of food-related text (menus, recipes, food journals), and search recipes matching search queries. All endpoints use a simple API key authentication model via the X-Api-Key header.

CalorieNinjas publishes 3 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network: Imagetextnutrition API, Nutrition API, and Recipe API. Tagged areas include Beverages, Food, Image Recognition, Nutrition, and Recipes.

The CalorieNinjas catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

CalorieNinjas’ developer surface includes engineering blog, authentication, developer portal, documentation, signup flow, pricing, and 10 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

38.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 17/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Beverages Food Image Recognition Nutrition Recipes

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 38.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 9.2 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 5.0 / 15

Access Clarity 6.9 / 15

Operational Transparency 0.8 / 10

Contract Governance 1.2 / 9

Discoverability 5.5 / 8

Regulatory Posture 2.9 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 17/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 0 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document

10 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Developer Ergonomics scores 33.3 — up to +13.3 composite points
Contract Quality scores 49.0 — up to +12.8 composite points
Operational Transparency scores 7.9 — up to +12.0 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/calorie-ninjas/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/calorie-ninjas to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Food Safety (GFSI-recognised certification)	standard	17.2 (thin)	-	-
ONVIF Video Analytics (video surveillance, edge cameras, computer vision)	standard	17.2 (thin)	-	-
APIs.guru OpenAPI Directory (API definition directory)	standard	17.2 (thin)	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition API

The Imagetextnutrition API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for imagetextnutrition.

CalorieNinjas Nutrition API

The Nutrition API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for nutrition.

CalorieNinjas Recipe API

The Recipe API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for recipe.

Open Collections 4

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition API

OPEN COLLECTION

CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition Nutrition API

OPEN COLLECTION

CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition Recipe API

OPEN COLLECTION

CalorieNinjas

OPEN COLLECTION

CalorieNinjas API pricing

Not yet checked against CalorieNinjas's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-05-04; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Free freemium	Free
Professional paid	Free
Enterprise enterprise	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Free Tier Default: 10 requests per minute
Free Tier Monthly Quota: 1000 requests per month
Professional Tier Default: 100 requests per minute

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against CalorieNinjas's documentation. All 5 limits →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Calorie Ninjas Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Calorie Ninjas Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

CalorieNinjas

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Calorie Ninjas Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

CalorieNinjas API Rules

46 rules · 44 errors 1 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Calorie Ninjas Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Calorie Ninjas Domain Security

TLSv1.3

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Calorie Ninjas Agentic Access

3 operations · 1 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Portal

Portal

Login

Signup

Signup

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

LlmsText

LlmsText

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 5

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

FinOps

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

Pricing

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Blog

Blog

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: calorie-ninjas
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/calorie-ninjas/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: CalorieNinjas
tags:
- Beverages
- Food
- Image Recognition
- Nutrition
- Recipes
tags_raw:
- Beverages
- Foods
- Image Recognition
- Nutrition
- Recipes
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/calorie-ninjas.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2024-03-30'
modified: '2026-10-06'
position: Consuming
description: CalorieNinjas provides an easy, free Nutrition Facts and Recipe API. Developers can retrieve nutrition information
  for over 100,000 foods and beverages using natural language queries, extract nutrition information from images of food-related
  text (menus, recipes, food journals), and search recipes matching search queries. All endpoints use a simple API key authentication
  model via the X-Api-Key header.
apis:
- aid: calorie-ninjas:calorie-ninjas-imagetextnutrition-api
  name: CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition API
  description: The Imagetextnutrition API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for imagetextnutrition.
  humanURL: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  baseURL: https://api.calorieninjas.com/v1
  tags:
  - Imagetextnutrition
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/calorie-ninjas-imagetextnutrition-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  - type: Review
    url: openapi/calorieninjas-openapi-review.yml
- aid: calorie-ninjas:calorie-ninjas-nutrition-api
  name: CalorieNinjas Nutrition API
  description: The Nutrition API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for nutrition.
  humanURL: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  baseURL: https://api.calorieninjas.com/v1
  tags:
  - Nutrition
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/calorie-ninjas-nutrition-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  - type: Review
    url: openapi/calorieninjas-openapi-review.yml
- aid: calorie-ninjas:calorie-ninjas-recipe-api
  name: CalorieNinjas Recipe API
  description: The Recipe API from CalorieNinjas — 1 operation(s) for recipe.
  humanURL: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  baseURL: https://api.calorieninjas.com/v1
  tags:
  - Recipe
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/calorie-ninjas-recipe-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://calorieninjas.com/api
  - type: Review
    url: openapi/calorieninjas-openapi-review.yml
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/calorie-ninjas-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/calorie-ninjas-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/calorie-ninjas-finops.yml
- url: https://www.calorieninjas.com/blog/
  type: Blog
- type: Website
  url: https://www.calorieninjas.com/
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/calorie-ninjas-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/calorie-ninjas-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/calorie-ninjas-authentication.yml
- type: Portal
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/api
- type: Login
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/signin
- type: Signup
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/register
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/tos
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/privacy
- type: Pricing
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/pricing
- type: LlmsText
  url: https://calorieninjas.com/llms.txt
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.23'

CalorieNinjas API — frequently asked questions

Does CalorieNinjas have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 3 APIs from CalorieNinjas, including CalorieNinjas Imagetextnutrition API, CalorieNinjas Nutrition API and CalorieNinjas Recipe API.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the CalorieNinjas API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 3 OpenAPI specifications for CalorieNinjas, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the CalorieNinjas API?

CalorieNinjas uses bearer-token authentication (apiKey · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Calorie Ninjas Authentication.

How much does the CalorieNinjas API cost?

APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for CalorieNinjas, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the CalorieNinjas API ready for AI agents?

CalorieNinjas has a Kin Score of 38.1 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 17.3 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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