Microlink API

Free link preview API with no key for basic use: extract title, description, image, author and favicon from any URL. Powers unfurl previews. Tested example.

No API key requiredCORS enabledHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 19 Aug 2026

What is the Microlink API?

Microlink is a free link preview API that extracts structured metadata from any URL — title, description, preview image, author, publication date, logo and favicon — returning it as normalised JSON.

Link unfurling looks trivial until you try it: some sites use Open Graph, some Twitter cards, some only JSON-LD, and many need JavaScript executed before the metadata exists. Microlink handles all of that and returns one consistent shape.

The free tier allows around 50 requests per day without a key, which suits low-volume use or development. Because previews for a given URL rarely change, caching aggressively makes that allowance go a long way.

Quick facts

Base URL: https://api.microlink.io
Authentication: Free tier needs no key, at about 50 requests per day. A paid key raises limits substantially.
Rate limit: Roughly 50 requests per day on the free unauthenticated tier.
Pricing: Free tier; paid plans for production volume.
CORS: Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript
Official docs: Read the docs

How to use the Microlink API

Every request below was executed against the live API on 19 Aug 2026, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

1. Extract preview metadata from a URL

GET https://api.microlink.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com

curl

curl 'https://api.microlink.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://api.microlink.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python (requests)

import requests

res = requests.get("https://api.microlink.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response — HTTP 200

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "publisher": "example.com",
    "lang": "en",
    "title": "Example Domain",
    "url": "https://example.com/",
    "image": null,
    "date": null,
    "author": null,
    "description": "This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. Avoid use in operations.",
    "logo": null
  },
  "statusCode": 200,
  "redirects": [],
  "headers": {
    "age": "13041",
    "allow": "GET, HEAD",
    "cf-cache-status": "HIT",
    "cf-ray": "a2d65d39d960643e-EWR",
    "content-encoding": "br",
    "content-type": "text/html",
    "date": "Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:20:09 GMT",
    "last-modified": "Tue, 18 Aug 2026 20:06:42 GMT",
    "server": "cloudflare"
  }
}

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`url`	string	Required	The URL to unfurl. Must be URL-encoded. `https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com`
`screenshot`	boolean	Optional	Also capture a screenshot of the page. `true`
`meta`	boolean	Optional	Include full metadata extraction. `true`
`palette`	boolean	Optional	Extract a colour palette from the preview image. `true`

Response fields

statusstring: `success` or `error`.
data.titlestring: Page title.
data.descriptionstring: Page description.
data.imageobject: Preview image with URL and dimensions, or null.
data.logoobject: Site logo or favicon.
data.publisherstring: Publisher or site name.
data.langstring: Detected page language.

What you can build with the Microlink API

Render rich link previews in a chat, CMS or bookmarking app
Generate Open Graph cards for user-submitted URLs
Extract article metadata for a reading list
Capture page screenshots for link cards

Common errors and how to fix them

429

Free tier daily allowance exhausted.

Fix: Cache previews by URL — they rarely change. A paid key raises the limit.

data.image is null

The page has no Open Graph or Twitter card image.

Fix: Fall back to the logo or a generated placeholder rather than rendering a broken image.

status: error

The target URL is unreachable or blocks scrapers.

Fix: Read the error message; some sites deliberately block metadata extraction.

Microlink API — frequently asked questions

Is Microlink free?

There is a free tier requiring no API key, limited to roughly 50 requests per day. Paid plans are needed for production volume.

What does a link preview API actually do?

It fetches a URL, executes any JavaScript needed, and normalises Open Graph, Twitter card and JSON-LD metadata into one consistent JSON shape — so you get a title, description and image regardless of how the site marks it up.

Why is the image field sometimes null?

The target page has no Open Graph or Twitter card image. Fall back to the site logo or a generated placeholder rather than showing a broken image.

Can I generate screenshots too?

Yes, pass screenshot=true. That consumes more of your quota than a metadata-only request.

Tools that pair with this API

JSON Formatter

Format, beautify and minify JSON online with 2-space, 4-space or tab indentation. Sort keys alphabetically and catch syntax errors instantly — free and private.

URL Encoder

Percent-encode text for URLs instantly. Switch between encodeURIComponent and encodeURI modes, see live output and copy the result. Free URL encoder.

Meta Tag Generator

Generate SEO-ready HTML meta tags with live character counters for title and description. Free meta tag generator with robots, viewport and charset options.

Alternatives to Microlink API

If Microlink does not fit, these social media apis cover similar ground. Every one was called before publishing, and each links to its own reference page with a working curl command and the response it returned.

API	What it does	Auth	CORS	Last verified
Mastodon	Free Mastodon API: public timelines, instance metadata, trending hashtags and account data from any Mastodon server with no key for public endpoints. Tested.	No key	No	19 Aug 2026
Lemmy	Free Lemmy API with no key: posts, comments, communities and site data from any federated Lemmy instance. A Reddit-style API without gatekeeping. Tested.	No key	No	19 Aug 2026
DEV Community	Free DEV.to API with no key for public content: articles, tags, users and comments from the developer community platform. Tested curl example and live JSON.	No key	Yes	19 Aug 2026
Bluesky Public API	Free Bluesky public API with no key: profiles, posts, followers and feeds from the AT Protocol network. No authentication for public data. Tested example.	No key	Yes	19 Aug 2026
Misskey Instance API	Free Fediverse API with no key: read a Misskey instance's metadata — version, languages, registration policy, features and admin contact. Tested example included.	No key	Yes	21 Aug 2026
Open Collective	Free Open Collective GraphQL API with no key: transparent budgets, expenses, contributors and balances for thousands of open source projects. Tested example included.	No key	Yes	21 Aug 2026

All Social Media APIs

Microlink is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 19 Aug 2026; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.