TheMealDB

TheMealDB is an open, crowd-sourced database of recipes from around the world offering a free REST API with 669 meals, 927 ingredients, 300+ recipes complete with ingredients, step-by-step cooking instructions, categories, area cuisines, and meal images. The API and site will always remain free at point of access; a lifetime supporter upgrade unlocks premium V2 endpoints including multi-ingredient filtering, random sets, latest meals, and the ability to add custom meals and images.

TheMealDB publishes 12 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Categories.php API, Filter.php API, List.php API, and 9 more. Tagged areas include Food, Recipes, Meals, Cooking, and Ingredients.

The TheMealDB catalog on APIs.io includes 2 JSON-LD contexts and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

TheMealDB’s developer surface includes documentation, pricing, and 11 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

35.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 23/100 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 →

AccessFreemiumOpen⚡ Free to try

6 published contracts

Food Recipes Meals Cooking IngredientsCuisineOpen Data

Kin Score

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

Composite quality — 35.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 12.5 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 2.4 / 17

Access Clarity 6.3 / 17

Operational Transparency 0.9 / 11

Contract Governance 1.0 / 10

Discoverability 6.1 / 9

Regulatory Posture 2.8 / 15

Agent readiness — 23/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 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 4 / 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 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector 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 does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% 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
Machine-Readable Auth +10 pts — a served openid-configuration/oauth-authorization-server carrying `issuer` (served), else the securitySchemes class in the provider OpenAPIs — bound (mutualTLS, DPoP, Signature) > negotiable (oauth2 authorizationCode/clientCredentials, openIdConnect) > bearer (http bearer, apiKey)
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
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented)

6 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

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

Developer Ergonomics scores 14.3 — up to +17.1 composite points
Access Clarity scores 36.8 — up to +12.6 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/mealdb/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/mealdb 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
Agriculture and Food (Farm Data, Nutrition)	undeclared	-	-	-

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 12

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

TheMealDB Categories.php API

The Categories.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for categories.php.

TheMealDB Filter.php API

The Filter.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for filter.php.

TheMealDB List.php API

The List.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for list.php.

TheMealDB Lookup.php API

The Lookup.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for lookup.php.

TheMealDB Premium API

Premium-only endpoints requiring a paid lifetime supporter API key

TheMealDB Random.php API

The Random.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for random.php.

TheMealDB Search.php API

The Search.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for search.php.

TheMealDB Discovery API

The Discovery API from TheMealDB — 4 operation(s) for discovery.

TheMealDB Filter API

The Filter API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for filter.

TheMealDB Lists API

The Lists API from TheMealDB — 2 operation(s) for lists.

TheMealDB Lookup API

The Lookup API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for lookup.

TheMealDB Search API

The Search API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for search.

Scroll for all 12

Open Collections 7

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

TheMealDB Categories.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php Filter.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php List.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php Lookup.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php Premium API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php Random.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

TheMealDB Categories.php Search.php API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 7

TheMealDB API pricing

Not yet checked against TheMealDB's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-06-13 from www.themealdb.com/api.php; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Free free	—
Supporter one-time	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Free tier request rate (test key "1"): not publicly documented; shared key intended for development/personal use requests per second
Supporter tier request rate (personal key): not publicly documented; personal production key requests per second
Meal database size: 669 total meals

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against TheMealDB's documentation. Rate-limit details →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Mealdb Plans Pricing

2 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Mealdb Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

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

TheMealDB

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Mealdb Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 2

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Mealdb Context

56 classes · 2 properties

JSON-LD

Themealdb Context

6 classes · 21 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

TheMealDB — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 4

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

MealSummary

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Meal

53 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Meal

16 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Themealdb Meal Structure

16 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 3

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Filter By Category

3 fields

EXAMPLE

List Categories

3 fields

EXAMPLE

Search Meal By Name

3 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 1

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

Mealdb Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Mealdb Agentic Access

8 operations

8 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Discord

Discord

Commercial 5

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

Plans

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Facebook

Facebook

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Source (apis.yml)

aid: mealdb
name: TheMealDB
description: TheMealDB is an open, crowd-sourced database of recipes from around the world offering a free REST API with 669
  meals, 927 ingredients, 300+ recipes complete with ingredients, step-by-step cooking instructions, categories, area cuisines,
  and meal images. The API and site will always remain free at point of access; a lifetime supporter upgrade unlocks premium
  V2 endpoints including multi-ingredient filtering, random sets, latest meals, and the ability to add custom meals and images.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/mealdb/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
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: open
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: true
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Open access
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/mealdb.png
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
x-source: public-apis/public-apis
x-category: Food & Drink
x-type: open
x-tier: 2
x-tier-reason: free-open-api-with-premium-upgrade
tags:
- Food
- Recipes
- Meals
- Cooking
- Ingredients
- Cuisine
- Open Data
apis:
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-categories-php-api
  name: TheMealDB Categories.php API
  description: The Categories.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for categories.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Categories.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-categories-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-filter-php-api
  name: TheMealDB Filter.php API
  description: The Filter.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for filter.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Filter.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-filter-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-list-php-api
  name: TheMealDB List.php API
  description: The List.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for list.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - List.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-list-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-lookup-php-api
  name: TheMealDB Lookup.php API
  description: The Lookup.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for lookup.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Lookup.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-lookup-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-premium-api
  name: TheMealDB Premium API
  description: Premium-only endpoints requiring a paid lifetime supporter API key
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Premium
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-premium-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-random-php-api
  name: TheMealDB Random.php API
  description: The Random.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for random.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Random.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-random-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-search-php-api
  name: TheMealDB Search.php API
  description: The Search.php API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for search.php.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Search.php
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-search-php-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/docs_api_guide.php
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-discovery-api
  name: TheMealDB Discovery API
  description: The Discovery API from TheMealDB — 4 operation(s) for discovery.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Discovery
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-discovery-api-openapi.yml
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-filter-api
  name: TheMealDB Filter API
  description: The Filter API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for filter.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Filter
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-filter-api-openapi.yml
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-lists-api
  name: TheMealDB Lists API
  description: The Lists API from TheMealDB — 2 operation(s) for lists.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - List
  tags_raw:
  - Lists
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-lists-api-openapi.yml
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-lookup-api
  name: TheMealDB Lookup API
  description: The Lookup API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for lookup.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Lookup
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-lookup-api-openapi.yml
- aid: mealdb:mealdb-search-api
  name: TheMealDB Search API
  description: The Search API from TheMealDB — 1 operation(s) for search.
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/mealdb-search-api-openapi.yml
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/mealdb-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/mealdb-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.themealdb.com
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
- type: Pricing
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/terms_of_use.php
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/privacy_policy.php
- type: Plans
  url: plans/mealdb-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/mealdb-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/mealdb-finops.yml
- type: X
  url: https://twitter.com/TheAudioDB
- type: Facebook
  url: https://www.facebook.com/TheDataDB/
- type: Discord
  url: https://discord.com/invite/pFvgaXV
features:
- name: Meal Search by Name
  description: Search for meals by full or partial name and return full recipe details including ingredients and instructions.
- name: Browse by First Letter
  description: List all meals beginning with a specified letter for alphabetical browsing.
- name: Meal Lookup by ID
  description: Retrieve full recipe details for a specific meal using its unique numeric ID.
- name: Random Meal
  description: Fetch a single random meal with complete recipe data; useful for "surprise me" features.
- name: Category Browsing
  description: Retrieve all meal categories (Beef, Chicken, Dessert, Pasta, Seafood, etc.) with thumbnail images.
- name: Filter by Ingredient
  description: Return a list of meals containing a specified main ingredient.
- name: Filter by Category
  description: Return a list of meals belonging to a specific category.
- name: Filter by Area / Cuisine
  description: Return a list of meals from a specific geographic cuisine area (Italian, Japanese, Mexican, etc.).
- name: Ingredient Catalog
  description: List all known ingredients with descriptions and images.
- name: Meal Images
  description: Meal and ingredient thumbnails with small, medium, and large size variants appended to the base image URL.
- name: Premium Multi-Ingredient Filter
  description: Filter meals by multiple ingredients simultaneously (V2, supporter key required).
- name: Premium Random Set
  description: Fetch 10 random meals in a single call (V2, supporter key required).
- name: Premium Latest Meals
  description: Retrieve the 10 most recently added meals (V2, supporter key required).
useCases:
- name: Recipe Discovery App
  description: Power a mobile or web recipe finder that lets users search, filter, and browse meals by name, category, or
    cuisine.
- name: Meal Planning Tool
  description: Build a weekly meal planner that suggests random meals and allows filtering by dietary category or ingredient.
- name: Cooking Education Platform
  description: Provide step-by-step instructions and ingredient lists for culinary learning apps and cooking courses.
- name: Grocery List Generator
  description: Extract ingredient lists from meal lookups to automatically populate grocery shopping lists.
- name: Cuisine Explorer
  description: Let users discover meals from specific world cuisines and learn about regional cooking traditions.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

TheMealDB API — frequently asked questions

Does TheMealDB have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 12 APIs from TheMealDB, including TheMealDB Categories.php API, TheMealDB Filter.php API and TheMealDB List.php API, and 9 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the TheMealDB API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 12 OpenAPI specifications for TheMealDB, each linked for download from this page.

How much does the TheMealDB API cost?

APIs.io lists 2 pricing plans for TheMealDB, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the TheMealDB API ready for AI agents?

TheMealDB has a Kin Score of 35.1 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 22.7 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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