TheMealDB

TheMealDB is a comprehensive online platform offering a vast collection of recipes from around the world with a free API. The API and site will always remain free at point of access.

TheMealDB publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Filter API, List API, Lookup API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Recipes, Meals, Food, and Cooking.

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

TheMealDB’s developer surface includes documentation, signup flow, pricing, and 5 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

33.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 28/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1

AccessFree

4 APIs 3 Features 4 Use Cases

RecipesMealsFoodCooking

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1

Composite quality — 33.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 6.9 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 1.7 / 20

Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20

Operational Transparency 2.7 / 13

Governance 8.3 / 12

Discoverability 5.6 / 10

Agent readiness — 28/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 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 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/themealdb: 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 4

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

TheMealDB Filter API

Filter meals by attributes

TheMealDB List API

List available categories, areas, and ingredients

TheMealDB Lookup API

Retrieve details by ID or random meal

TheMealDB Search API

Search for meals and ingredients

Open Collections 1

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

TheMealDB API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Themealdb Plans Pricing

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Themealdb Rate Limits

1 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Themealdb Finops

FINOPS

Features 3

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

TheMealDB: free public API

Free public meal recipe API. Patreon supporters get premium API key with no rate limits.

Public URL: https://www.themealdb.com/

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

Themealdb Context

6 classes · 21 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

TheMealDB API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

TheMealDB API Rules

23 rules · 8 errors 12 warnings 3 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 6

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

CategoriesResponse

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

FilterResponse

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ListResponse

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Meal

16 properties

JSON SCHEMA

MealsResponse

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 6

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Themealdb Categories Response Structure

1 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Themealdb Category Structure

4 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Themealdb Filter Response Structure

1 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Themealdb List Response Structure

1 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Themealdb Meal Structure

16 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Themealdb Meals Response Structure

1 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 6

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Themealdb Categories Response Example

1 fields

EXAMPLE

Themealdb Category Example

4 fields

EXAMPLE

Themealdb Filter Response Example

1 fields

EXAMPLE

Themealdb List Response Example

1 fields

EXAMPLE

Themealdb Meal Example

16 fields

EXAMPLE

Themealdb Meals Response Example

1 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 1

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

Themealdb Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Themealdb Agentic Access

6 operations

6 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Use Cases 4

What developers build with this provider.

Recipe App Development

Build meal recipe apps and cooking websites

Meal Planning

Plan weekly meals by category, region, or available ingredients

AI Cooking Assistant

Power AI agents that suggest meals and cooking ideas

Dietary Filtering

Find meals filtered by ingredients, cuisine, or category

Integrations 1

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

TheCocktailDB

Sister site providing cocktail recipes from the same provider

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

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

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

TheMealDB Spectral Rules

SpectralRules

TheMealDB Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

Pricing

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: themealdb
name: TheMealDB
description: TheMealDB is a comprehensive online platform offering a vast collection of recipes from around the world with
  a free API. The API and site will always remain free at point of access.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  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/themealdb.png
tags:
- Recipes
- Meals
- Food
- Cooking
created: '2024-11-14'
modified: '2026-05-19'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/themealdb/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: themealdb:themealdb-filter-api
  name: TheMealDB Filter API
  description: Filter meals by attributes
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Filter
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/themealdb-filter-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/themealdb-meal-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/themealdb-meal-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/themealdb-context.jsonld
- aid: themealdb:themealdb-list-api
  name: TheMealDB List API
  description: List available categories, areas, and ingredients
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - List
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/themealdb-list-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/themealdb-meal-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/themealdb-meal-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/themealdb-context.jsonld
- aid: themealdb:themealdb-lookup-api
  name: TheMealDB Lookup API
  description: Retrieve details by ID or random meal
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Lookup
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/themealdb-lookup-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/themealdb-meal-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/themealdb-meal-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/themealdb-context.jsonld
- aid: themealdb:themealdb-search-api
  name: TheMealDB Search API
  description: Search for meals and ingredients
  humanURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  baseURL: https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/themealdb-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/themealdb-meal-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/themealdb-meal-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/themealdb-context.jsonld
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/themealdb-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/themealdb-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
- type: Signup
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/
- type: Pricing
  url: https://www.themealdb.com/
  data:
  - name: Free Tier
    description: Always free with test API key 1; no account required for basic access
  - name: Supporter Tier
    description: PayPal supporter for production API key, premium features, and database management
- type: SpectralRules
  url: rules/themealdb-spectral-rules.yml
  title: TheMealDB Spectral Rules
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/themealdb-vocabulary.yml
  title: TheMealDB Vocabulary
- type: Features
  data:
  - 'TheMealDB: free public API'
  - Free public meal recipe API. Patreon supporters get premium API key with no rate limits.
  - 'Public URL: https://www.themealdb.com/'
  sources:
  - https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
  updated: '2026-05-04'
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Recipe App Development
    description: Build meal recipe apps and cooking websites
  - name: Meal Planning
    description: Plan weekly meals by category, region, or available ingredients
  - name: AI Cooking Assistant
    description: Power AI agents that suggest meals and cooking ideas
  - name: Dietary Filtering
    description: Find meals filtered by ingredients, cuisine, or category
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: TheCocktailDB
    description: Sister site providing cocktail recipes from the same provider
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com