Unsplash website screenshot

Unsplash

Unsplash is a platform providing the world's largest collection of high-quality, freely usable photographs. The Unsplash API gives developers programmatic access to search, browse, and retrieve photos, collections, topics, and user profiles. Photos are provided under the Unsplash License. Authentication uses Client-ID for public access or OAuth 2.0 for user-delegated operations.

Unsplash publishes 7 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Collections API, Current User API, Photos API, and 4 more. Tagged areas include Photos, Image, Photography, Stock Photos, and Creative.

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

Unsplash’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, GitHub presence, changelog, engineering blog, and 10 more developer resources.

41.1/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 32/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-21 · rubric v0.12.0
AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try
7 APIs
PhotosImagePhotographyStock PhotosCreativeOpen-SourceMedia

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-21 · rubric v0.12.0
Composite quality — 41.1/100 · developing
Contract Quality 18.5 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 4.8 / 20
Access Clarity 3.2 / 20
Operational Transparency 3.8 / 13
Contract Governance 3.5 / 12
Discoverability 7.4 / 10
Agent readiness — 32/100 · agent aware
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 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/unsplash: 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 7

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

Unsplash Collections API

Photo collection management

Unsplash Current User API

Authenticated user operations

Unsplash Photos API

Photo browsing and management operations

Unsplash Search API

Search photos, collections, and users

Unsplash Stats API

Platform statistics

Unsplash Topics API

Editorial topic operations

Unsplash Users API

User profile operations

Scroll for all 7

Open Collections 9

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

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

Unsplash Collections API

OPEN COLLECTION

Unsplash API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 9

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Unsplash Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

Unsplash Context

11 classes · 42 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Unsplash API Rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Unsplash API Rules

8 rules · 2 errors 4 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

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

Unsplash Photo

20 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Unsplash Photo Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Security Posture 3

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

Unsplash Authentication

apiKey/oauth2 · 2 schemes

SECURITY

Unsplash Domain Security

TLSv1.2 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Unsplash Vulnerability Disclosure

security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

Unsplash Scopes

8 scopes · authorizationCode

8 scopes

SCOPES

Agentic Access 1

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

Unsplash Agentic Access

29 operations · 7 acting

29 operations · 7 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Access & Security 4

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Company 3

The organization behind the API

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: unsplash
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/unsplash.png
name: Unsplash
description: Unsplash is a platform providing the world's largest collection of high-quality, freely usable photographs. The
  Unsplash API gives developers programmatic access to search, browse, and retrieve photos, collections, topics, and user
  profiles. Photos are provided under the Unsplash License. Authentication uses Client-ID for public access or OAuth 2.0 for
  user-delegated operations.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2024-11-13'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
type: Index
tags:
- Photos
- Image
- Photography
- Stock Photos
- Creative
- Open-Source
- Media
tags_raw:
- Photos
- Images
- Photography
- Stock Photos
- Creative
- Open Source
- Media
apis:
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-collections-api
  name: Unsplash Collections API
  description: Photo collection management
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Collection
  tags_raw:
  - Collections
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-collections-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-current-user-api
  name: Unsplash Current User API
  description: Authenticated user operations
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Current User
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-current-user-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-photos-api
  name: Unsplash Photos API
  description: Photo browsing and management operations
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Photos
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-photos-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-search-api
  name: Unsplash Search API
  description: Search photos, collections, and users
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-stats-api
  name: Unsplash Stats API
  description: Platform statistics
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Stats
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-stats-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-topics-api
  name: Unsplash Topics API
  description: Editorial topic operations
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - Topics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-topics-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
- aid: unsplash:unsplash-users-api
  name: Unsplash Users API
  description: User profile operations
  humanURL: https://unsplash.com/developers
  baseURL: https://api.unsplash.com
  tags:
  - User
  tags_raw:
  - Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/unsplash-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/rules/unsplash-rules.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-schema/unsplash-photo-schema.json
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/unsplash-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/unsplash-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/unsplash-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/unsplash-authentication.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/unsplash-scopes.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unsplash
- type: Website
  url: https://unsplash.com
- type: Documentation
  url: https://unsplash.com/documentation
- type: Developers
  url: https://unsplash.com/developers
- type: Guidelines
  url: https://help.unsplash.com/en/articles/2511245-unsplash-api-guidelines
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/unsplash
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://unsplash.com/documentation/changelog
- type: Vocabulary
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/unsplash-vocabulary.yml
- type: JSONLDContext
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/unsplash/refs/heads/main/json-ld/unsplash-context.jsonld
- type: Blog
  url: https://unsplash.com/blog/rss/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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