RTSP website screenshot

RTSP

Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is an application-level network protocol designed for controlling streaming media servers. Defined by IETF RFC 2326 (RTSP 1.0) and RFC 7826 (RTSP 2.0), it acts as a network remote control for multimedia servers, enabling on-demand delivery of real-time audio and video data. RTSP controls sessions between endpoints but relies on RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for actual media transport. It is widely used in IP cameras, DVR systems, media servers, and live streaming platforms.

RTSP publishes 2 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Streaming, Video, Media, Protocol, and Real-Time.

The RTSP catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

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27.0/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFreemium
2 APIs
StreamingVideoMediaProtocolReal-Time

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 27.0/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 2.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 0.0 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.1 / 13
Governance 7.0 / 12
Discoverability 5.9 / 10
Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 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
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/rtsp: 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 2

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

RTSP Protocol

The Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is a stateful protocol defined in RFC 2326 (1.0) and RFC 7826 (2.0). It defines methods including OPTIONS, DESCRIBE, SETUP, PLAY, PAUSE, ...

RTSP Implementations

Common open-source RTSP server and client implementations used in production. MediaMTX (formerly rtsp-simple-server) is a ready-to-use media server supporting RTSP/RTMP/WebRTC w...

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Rtsp Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Rtsp Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Rtsp Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

Rtsp Context

3 classes · 8 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

RTSP API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

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

RTSP Session

8 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Rtsp Session Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Security Posture 1

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

Rtsp Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Specification
Specification
 Specification
Specification

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Wikipedia
Wikipedia

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: rtsp
name: RTSP
description: Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is an application-level network protocol designed for controlling streaming
  media servers. Defined by IETF RFC 2326 (RTSP 1.0) and RFC 7826 (RTSP 2.0), it acts as a network remote control for multimedia
  servers, enabling on-demand delivery of real-time audio and video data. RTSP controls sessions between endpoints but relies
  on RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for actual media transport. It is widely used in IP cameras, DVR systems, media servers,
  and live streaming platforms.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/rtsp.png
tags:
- Streaming
- Video
- Media
- Protocol
- Real-Time
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-02'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/rtsp/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: rtsp:rtsp-protocol
  name: RTSP Protocol
  description: The Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is a stateful protocol defined in RFC 2326 (1.0) and RFC 7826 (2.0).
    It defines methods including OPTIONS, DESCRIBE, SETUP, PLAY, PAUSE, RECORD, ANNOUNCE, GET_PARAMETER, SET_PARAMETER, and
    TEARDOWN for controlling streaming media sessions. RTSP URLs follow the rtsp:// scheme. Sessions are established before
    streaming begins and media is transmitted via RTP/RTCP on separate channels.
  humanURL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7826
  baseURL: rtsp://
  tags:
  - Streaming
  - Video
  - Media
  - Protocol
  - IETF
  - RFC
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7826
  - type: Specification
    url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2326
  - type: Specification
    url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7826
- aid: rtsp:rtsp-implementations
  name: RTSP Implementations
  description: Common open-source RTSP server and client implementations used in production. MediaMTX (formerly rtsp-simple-server)
    is a ready-to-use media server supporting RTSP/RTMP/WebRTC with an HTTP API for management. GStreamer and FFmpeg provide
    RTSP client/server libraries. IP camera manufacturers (Axis, Hikvision, Dahua) expose RTSP streams at standard paths like
    rtsp://{host}:554/live or rtsp://{host}/stream.
  humanURL: https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx
  tags:
  - Streaming
  - Video
  - IP Camera
  - Open Source
  - MediaMTX
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/rtsp-domain-security.yml
- type: Specification
  url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7826
- type: Specification
  url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2326
- type: Wikipedia
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-Time_Streaming_Protocol
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com