Authentication

All API endpoints are free to use, with a limit of 5 API requests per hour. 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	5 requests per hour, per IP address	`429`
Active Premium key	1,000 requests per hour, per key	`429`
Invalid, unknown, or cancelled key	Falls back to 5 requests per hour, per IP address	`429`

Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429 with a JSON message field. Further requests are blocked for 5 minutes, after which you can call the API again.

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.

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