Authentication

All API endpoints are free to use, with a limit of 100 API requests per day. For 1,000 requests per hour, subscribe to Animechan Premium ($5/month) and you’ll receive an API key by email. Send it as a Bearer token to access the API with the higher rate limit.

Here is how to authenticate using a secret API key:

const response = fetch(`${BASE_URL}/quotes/random?anime=ReLIFE`, {
		headers: {
				Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY',
		},
});
const quote = await response.json()

The older x-api-key header is still accepted and will keep working, so existing integrations need no changes. New ones should use Authorization: Bearer, which matches Day in History — one membership covers both APIs.

Rate limits

Request	Limit	When exceeded
No API key	100 requests per day, per IP address	`429`
Active Premium key	1,000 requests per hour, per key	`429`
Invalid, unknown, or cancelled key	Falls back to 100 requests per day, per IP address	`429`

Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429 with a JSON message field. The free tier’s budget refills 24 hours after your first request in the window, not at midnight.

An unrecognised API key is not rejected with an authentication error. The API quietly applies the free IP-based limit instead. So if a key that used to work starts returning 429 after only a handful of requests, check that the Premium subscription behind it is still active, and that it is being sent in one of the two supported headers.

Overview Get anime information