Pexels

Give your users access to the entire Pexels photo and video library without leaving your app or website. The Pexels API is free and seamlessly integrates with just a few lines of code.

Pexels publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: Collections API, Photos API, and Videos API. Tagged areas include Photos, Stock Media, and Videos.

Pexels’ developer surface includes authentication, developer portal, documentation, signup flow, and 7 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

36.7/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 23/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-25 · rubric v0.14.0

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

3 APIs

Photos Stock Media Videos

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-25 · rubric v0.14.0

Composite quality — 36.7/100 · thin

Contract Quality 13.6 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 6.2 / 20

Access Clarity 10.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 1.4 / 13

Contract Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 5.6 / 10

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 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 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 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Surface 0 / 5

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/pexels: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

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

Pexels Collections API

Browse featured and user-owned collections.

Pexels Photos API

Search, browse, and retrieve photos.

Pexels Videos API

Search, browse, and retrieve videos.

Open Collections 5

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

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

Pexels Collections API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pexels Collections Photos API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pexels Collections Videos API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pexels API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Pexels Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Pexels Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Pexels Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 2

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

Pexels Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Pexels Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Pexels Agentic Access

9 operations

9 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 2

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Portal

Portal

Signup

Signup

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

PrivacyPolicy

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: pexels
name: Pexels
description: Give your users access to the entire Pexels photo and video library without leaving your app or website. The
  Pexels API is free and seamlessly integrates with just a few lines of code.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/pexels.png
tags:
- Photos
- Stock Media
- Videos
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/pexels/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: pexels:pexels-collections-api
  name: Pexels Collections API
  description: Browse featured and user-owned collections.
  humanURL: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  baseURL: https://api.pexels.com/v1
  tags:
  - Collection
  tags_raw:
  - Collections
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/pexels-collections-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/#authorization
- aid: pexels:pexels-photos-api
  name: Pexels Photos API
  description: Search, browse, and retrieve photos.
  humanURL: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  baseURL: https://api.pexels.com/v1
  tags:
  - Photos
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/pexels-photos-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/#authorization
- aid: pexels:pexels-videos-api
  name: Pexels Videos API
  description: Search, browse, and retrieve videos.
  humanURL: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  baseURL: https://api.pexels.com/v1
  tags:
  - Videos
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/pexels-videos-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/#authorization
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/pexels-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/pexels-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/pexels-authentication.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/pexels
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pexels
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.pexels.com/api/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/
- type: Signup
  url: https://www.pexels.com/api/
- type: Website
  url: https://www.pexels.com/
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.pexels.com/terms-of-service/
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.pexels.com/privacy-policy/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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