# Zencoder

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/zencoder/  
**Website:** https://zencoder.com  
**APIs profiled:** 5

Zencoder is a cloud-based video and audio encoding (transcoding) platform, now part of Brightcove, that turns source media into web-, mobile-, and broadcast-ready outputs at scale. Its REST API lets developers submit encoding jobs, generate multiple simultaneous outputs (MP4, HLS, DASH, HEVC/H.265, VP9, 4K/UHD, HDR10), apply captions, watermarks, clips, and thumbnails, protect content with DRM and encryption, and receive completion notifications via webhooks. Zencoder is known for its Emmy Award-winning Context Aware Encoding (CAE), no queue time, and per-minute usage-based pricing. The v2 API is organized around Jobs, Inputs, Outputs, Accounts, and Reports resources and authenticates with a Zencoder-Api-Key header (also accepted as an api_key query parameter). Originally an a16z / GV / 500 Global-backed startup, Zencoder was acquired by Brightcove and its API is documented and supported under the Brightcove developer surface.

## Kin Score — 51.0 / 100 (developing)

Scored 2026-08-17 under rubric 0.11.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 51.0).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 81.5 |
| Contract Quality | 61.9 |
| Governance | 11.5 |
| Operational Transparency | 44.7 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 66.8 |
| Commercial Clarity | 34.2 |

## Agent readiness — 40.3 (agent-ready)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| MCP Server | derived |
| Auth Clarity | yes |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | documented |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | no |
| Event Surface Described | yes |
| Agent Skills | derived |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Self-serve signup — onboarding: self-serve, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (5)

- **Zencoder Accounts API** — Operations for managing accounts.
- **Zencoder Inputs API** — Operations for getting input details and progress.
- **Zencoder Jobs API** — Operations for managing Zencoder encoding jobs.
- **Zencoder Outputs API** — Operations for getting output details and progress.
- **Zencoder Reports API** — Operations for getting reports.

## MCP servers (1)

- **zencoder-mcp.yml**

## Agentic access (1)

- **Zencoder Agentic Access** — 16 operations · 6 acting

## Security (2)

- **Zencoder Authentication** — apiKey · 1 scheme
- **Zencoder Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · DMARC

## Tags

Company, Video, Video Encoding, Transcoding, Media, Streaming, Video Processing, Cloud, Brightcove, Captions, DRM, HLS

---

Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/zencoder/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.