Openverse

Openverse is a search engine providing programmatic access to the world's largest openly-licensed media catalog, covering 800M+ images and audio tracks from cultural institutions, museums, and creative commons sources including Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, iNaturalist, Europeana, Freesound, Jamendo, and more. Built by WordPress/Automattic under Creative Commons licensing principles.

Openverse publishes 3 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network: Audio API, Auth API, and Images API. Tagged areas include Image, Audio, Creative Commons, Open Media, and Search.

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

Openverse’s developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, and 12 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.8/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 29/100 agent ready open core · MIT Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Image Audio Creative CommonsOpen MediaSearch Open Data Cultural Heritage Museums

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Developer Platform & API Ecosystem Management

BC-4270

auth

POST /v1/auth_tokens/register/ POST /v1/auth_tokens/token/ GET /v1/rate_limit/

Kin Score

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

Composite quality — 33.8/100 · thin

Contract Quality 8.9 / 16

Developer Ergonomics 3.1 / 13

Access Clarity 1.0 / 13

Operational Transparency 1.8 / 8

Contract Governance 0.8 / 8

Discoverability 4.3 / 7

Regulatory Posture 2.5 / 15

Open Source Surface 6.5 / 10

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 29/100 · agent ready

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 8 / 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 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 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.

Open Source Surface applies to this provider. This product is open source and we read its repository directly, so Open Source Surface carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from what the repository actually publishes — a security policy, a contribution guide, a release history, a code of conduct — read live from the provider rather than inferred from our own catalog pointers. This facet adds; nothing was taken away to make room for it. An open-source project is not excused from the commercial facets, because exemption would strip it of the points it does earn. If we have the wrong repository, or this product is not open source, say so on your provider repo and we will drop the facet rather than have you publish against 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 65 points between them, because both conditional facets apply and carry 35 points together. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 65% 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)
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)
Typed Event Surface +6 pts — AsyncAPI document, OR webhooks/callbacks objects in the as-published OpenAPI, OR common[].type includes Webhooks

8 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

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

Access Clarity scores 7.9 — up to +18.4 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 23.8 — up to +15.2 composite points
Contract Quality scores 54.8 — up to +11.3 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/openverse/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/openverse 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
IIIF and Cultural Heritage (GLAM image interoperability, Linked Art)	builds-on	17.2 (thin)	-	-
Raycast Store Extensions (first-party publishers + community-wrapped products)	builds-on	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

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

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

Openverse

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 2

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

context Context

30 classes · 9 properties

JSON-LD

Openverse Context

0 classes · 0 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Openverse — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

0 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ValidationError

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

VersionEnum

0 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Scroll for all 26

1 fields

EXAMPLE

Scroll for all 50

Security Posture 2

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

Openverse Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Openverse Domain Security

TLSv1.3

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Openverse Agentic Access

17 operations · 4 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

ContributionGuide

ContributionGuide

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

CodeOfConduct

CodeOfConduct

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

IssueTracker

IssueTracker

Releases

Releases

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

License

License

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Source (apis.yml)

name: Openverse
description: 'Openverse is a search engine providing programmatic access to the world''s largest openly-licensed media catalog,
  covering 800M+ images and audio tracks from cultural institutions, museums, and creative commons sources including Flickr,
  Wikimedia Commons, iNaturalist, Europeana, Freesound, Jamendo, and more. Built by WordPress/Automattic under Creative Commons
  licensing principles.

  '
deliveryModel:
  model: open-core
  license: MIT
  open_source: true
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Open core · an OSS project plus a commercial hosted product
  confidence: high
  source:
  - license
  - 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://openverse.org/openverse-logo.svg
tags:
- Image
- Audio
- Creative Commons
- Open Media
- Search
- Open Data
- Cultural Heritage
- Museums
tags_raw:
- Images
- Audio
- Creative Commons
- Open Media
- Search
- Open Data
- Cultural Heritage
- Museums
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/openverse/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
apis:
- aid: openverse:openverse-audio-api
  name: Openverse Audio API
  description: These are endpoints pertaining to audio files.
  humanURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1/
  baseURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1
  tags:
  - Audio
  tags_raw:
  - audio
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openverse-audio-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/api/reference/authentication_and_throttling.html
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://api.openverse.org/v1/terms_of_use/
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse
  - type: NPMPackage
    url: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@openverse/api-client
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
- aid: openverse:openverse-auth-api
  name: Openverse Auth API
  description: 'Openverse provides free and open access to the Openverse API to

    anonymous and registered users. [Refer to the API documentation

    site for information on how to register](https://api.openverse.org/v1/#tag/auth).


    All Openverse API users are subject to rate limits and restrictions

    on how much of Openverse''s dataset can be accessed through the API.

    [Individuals should contact Openverse to request expanded access to

    the API](https://github.com/WordPress/openverse#keep-in-touch).

    Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and are subject to

    evaluation in light of [Openverse''s Terms of Service](https://docs.openverse.org/terms_of_service.html).

    Escalated access may be revoked at any time.


    To authenticate yourself, you must sign up for an API key using

    the `register` endpoint and then get an access token using the

    `token` endpoint. Read on to know about these endpoints.


    In subsequent requests, include your access token as a bearer

    token in the `Authorization` header.


    ```

    Authorization: Bearer <access_token>

    ```


    ### Rate limits


    Openverse endpoints are rate limited. Anonymous requests should be

    sufficient for most users. Indeed, https://openverse.org itself

    operates using anonymous requests from the browser.


    Registered users are automatically granted slightly higher limits.

    Further increases to rate limits are available upon request (see above).


    Every Openverse API response that was subject to rate-limits includes

    headers outlining the permitted and available usage. Exceeding the limit

    will result in ''429: Too Many Requests'' responses.


    ### Pagination


    Openverse''s dataset is valuable, and the

    [Terms of Service](https://docs.openverse.org/terms_of_service.html)

    disallow scraping under all circumstances. As such, pagination

    for anonymous users is limited, accommodating only the typical

    usage on https://openverse.org. Pagination is limited in terms

    of the size of individual pages and the total number of works

    visible for a query (pagination depth).


    Authenticated users are subject to the same limit of total works

    available for a query, but may request larger individual pages.


    Increases to pagination limits on page size and total depth are

    available upon request (see above).'
  humanURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1/
  baseURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1
  tags:
  - Authentication
  tags_raw:
  - auth
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openverse-auth-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/api/reference/authentication_and_throttling.html
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://api.openverse.org/v1/terms_of_use/
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse
  - type: NPMPackage
    url: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@openverse/api-client
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
- aid: openverse:openverse-images-api
  name: Openverse Images API
  description: These are endpoints pertaining to images.
  humanURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1/
  baseURL: https://api.openverse.org/v1
  tags:
  - Image
  tags_raw:
  - images
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openverse-images-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.openverse.org/api/reference/authentication_and_throttling.html
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://api.openverse.org/v1/terms_of_use/
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse
  - type: NPMPackage
    url: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@openverse/api-client
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-09-16'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/plans.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/finops.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://openverse.org
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/openverse-capability-edges.yml
  name: Openverse Business Capability Map
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/issues
- type: Releases
  url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/releases
- type: CodeOfConduct
  url: https://github.com/WordPress/.github/blob/trunk/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: License
  name: MIT
  url: https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/blob/main/LICENSE
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/openverse-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/openverse-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/openverse-authentication.yml
- url: https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/feed/
  type: Blog

Openverse API — frequently asked questions

Does Openverse have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 3 APIs from Openverse, including Openverse Audio API, Openverse Auth API and Openverse Images API.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Openverse API?

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

How do I authenticate with the Openverse API?

Openverse uses bearer-token authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Openverse Authentication.

How much does the Openverse API cost?

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

Is the Openverse API ready for AI agents?

Openverse has a Kin Score of 33.8 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 29.2 (agent-ready), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

Work with this as data

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Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

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Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/openverse/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/openverse/evidence"

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