Q: Where can I find your Terms and Conditions?

Our Terms and Conditions can be found here .

Q: How much does the API cost?

We offer five plans: Free ($0/month), Cook ($29/month), Culinarian ($79/month), Chef ($149/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing for large clients). Here you can view the complete pricing details . On RapidAPI four plans are available: Basic (free), Pro, Ultra, and Mega. Here you can view the complete pricing details on RapidAPI. Please be aware the basic/free plan is VERY limited and you will likely incur overage charges if you try to develop your project using this plan. It is intended strictly for minimal testing of the API functionality. Here we explain the difference between subscribing on our platform vs on RapidAPI.

Q: How are the different diets defined?

Gluten Free: Eliminating gluten means avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and other gluten-containing grains and foods made from them (or that may have been cross contaminated). Ketogenic: The keto diet is based more on the ratio of fat, protein, and carbs in the diet rather than specific ingredients. Generally speaking, high fat, protein-rich foods are acceptable and high carbohydrate foods are not. Vegetarian: No ingredients may contain meat or meat by-products, such as bones or gelatin. Lacto-Vegetarian: All ingredients must be vegetarian and none of the ingredients can be or contain egg. Ovo-Vegetarian: All ingredients must be vegetarian and none of the ingredients can be or contain dairy. Vegan: No ingredients may contain meat or meat by-products, such as bones or gelatin, nor may they contain eggs, dairy, or honey. Pescetarian: Everything is allowed except meat and meat by-products - some pescetarians eat eggs and dairy, some do not. Paleo: Allowed ingredients include meat (especially grass fed), fish, eggs, vegetables, some oils (e.g. coconut and olive oil), and in smaller quantities, fruit, nuts, and sweet potatoes. We also allow honey and maple syrup (popular in Paleo desserts, but strict Paleo followers may disagree). Ingredients not allowed include legumes (e.g. beans and lentils), grains, dairy, refined sugar, and processed foods. Primal: Very similar to Paleo, except dairy is allowed - think raw and full fat milk, butter, ghee, etc. Whole30: Allowed ingredients include meat, fish/seafood, eggs, vegetables, fresh fruit, coconut oil, olive oil, small amounts of dried fruit and nuts/seeds. Ingredients not allowed include added sweeteners (natural and artificial, except small amounts of fruit juice), dairy (except clarified butter or ghee), alcohol, grains, legumes (except green beans, sugar snap peas, and snow peas), and food additives, such as carrageenan, MSG, and sulfites.

Q: How can I display ingredient and/or recipe images?

Thorough instructions for using pictures can be found here .

Question 1

Where can I find your Terms and Conditions?

Accepted Answer

Our Terms and Conditions can be found here.

Question 2

Can I cache data?

Accepted Answer

You may cache user-requested data to improve performance (for a maximum of 1 hour). After 1 hour, you must delete your cache and refresh the data via the spoonacular API. If you stop using the spoonacular API or if your access to the API is suspended for any reason, then you must delete all data you ever obtained from the spoonacular API.

Question 3

What are requests, tinyrequests, and results?

Accepted Answer

Every API plan comes with an allotted number of requests, tinyrequests, and results, and every endpoint "costs" a certain amount of these. Here you'll find a comprehensive list of endpoints and what effect they will have on your quotas.

Question 4

How much does the API cost?

Accepted Answer

We offer five plans: Free ($0/month), Cook ($29/month), Culinarian ($79/month), Chef ($149/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing for large clients). Here you can view the complete pricing details. On RapidAPI four plans are available: Basic (free), Pro, Ultra, and Mega. Here you can view the complete pricing details on RapidAPI. Please be aware the basic/free plan is VERY limited and you will likely incur overage charges if you try to develop your project using this plan. It is intended strictly for minimal testing of the API functionality. Here we explain the difference between subscribing on our platform vs on RapidAPI.

Question 5

Do you offer custom plans?

Accepted Answer

If none of our standard plans fits your requirements, please contact us to discuss whether a custom plan may be possible.

Question 6

How are the different diets defined?

Accepted Answer

Gluten Free: Eliminating gluten means avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and other gluten-containing grains and foods made from them (or that may have been cross contaminated). Ketogenic: The keto diet is based more on the ratio of fat, protein, and carbs in the diet rather than specific ingredients. Generally speaking, high fat, protein-rich foods are acceptable and high carbohydrate foods are not. Vegetarian: No ingredients may contain meat or meat by-products, such as bones or gelatin. Lacto-Vegetarian: All ingredients must be vegetarian and none of the ingredients can be or contain egg. Ovo-Vegetarian: All ingredients must be vegetarian and none of the ingredients can be or contain dairy. Vegan: No ingredients may contain meat or meat by-products, such as bones or gelatin, nor may they contain eggs, dairy, or honey. Pescetarian: Everything is allowed except meat and meat by-products - some pescetarians eat eggs and dairy, some do not. Paleo: Allowed ingredients include meat (especially grass fed), fish, eggs, vegetables, some oils (e.g. coconut and olive oil), and in smaller quantities, fruit, nuts, and sweet potatoes. We also allow honey and maple syrup (popular in Paleo desserts, but strict Paleo followers may disagree). Ingredients not allowed include legumes (e.g. beans and lentils), grains, dairy, refined sugar, and processed foods. Primal: Very similar to Paleo, except dairy is allowed - think raw and full fat milk, butter, ghee, etc. Whole30: Allowed ingredients include meat, fish/seafood, eggs, vegetables, fresh fruit, coconut oil, olive oil, small amounts of dried fruit and nuts/seeds. Ingredients not allowed include added sweeteners (natural and artificial, except small amounts of fruit juice), dairy (except clarified butter or ghee), alcohol, grains, legumes (except green beans, sugar snap peas, and snow peas), and food additives, such as carrageenan, MSG, and sulfites.

Question 7

How can I display ingredient and/or recipe images?

Accepted Answer

Thorough instructions for using pictures can be found here.

Question 8

Is there a guide to the API? What about documentation?

Accepted Answer

There is currently no official guide to our API. You may find this API tutorial from Rakuten RapidAPI helpful. Our full documentation can be found here.

Question 9

I want to make a "What's in my fridge?" app. How do I do this?

Accepted Answer

The "Find Recipes by Ingredients" endpoint will help you develop apps with this feature. This page explains the process in more detail.

Question 10

How do I get the next results after requesting a set of recipes?

Accepted Answer

The parameter for pages/pagination is called "offset."

Question 11

Can I use your API to develop an app for specific medical conditions?

Accepted Answer

We do not have any medical training and thus cannot support the use of the API for medical use cases. Furthermore, there are no endpoints that can provide information regarding whether a recipe or food is suitable for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. However, if you wish to develop such an application you can set other nutritional parameters yourself (e.g. low sugar, low carb, low in saturated fat, etc.) Please be aware that the nutritional information is calculated automatically by our algorithm and may not be error free - you must assume all responsibility for your use of the API per our Terms and Conditions.

Question 12

Where can I find my API key?

Accepted Answer

After you subscribe, you will find your API key in the console. If you subscribe via RapidAPI, you can find your key when looking at the documentation/endpoints. You should see: X-RapidAPI-Key followed by your key.

Question 13

How can I search recipes by the equipment used?

Accepted Answer

You can use the Search Recipes Complex endpoint. Use the equipment parameter to find recipes with "blender" or "slow cooker".

Question 14

Where does your ingredient data come from?

Accepted Answer

Our ingredient data is based primarily on the USDA database. For ingredients missing from their data, we have researched the nutritional information manually.

Question 15

How do I get recipe instructions?

Accepted Answer

The Get Recipe Information endpoint includes instructions when we have them for the recipes returned. To filter out any recipes for which we do not have the instructions, simply set the parameter includeInstruction to true.

Question 16

Can you help me with the API?

Accepted Answer

We offer support for paid plans starting at $99/month. This is however limited to technical questions regarding API functionality and does not include support with the development process.

If you need to hire a developer, here are some qualifications you can look for:
 - knowledge of HTTP-based APIs
 - knowledge of JSON
 - fluent in the development language that you need the API integrated with

Question 17

Is the API slow or down? What is your uptime?

Accepted Answer

You can check the status and uptime of the API here.

Question 18

Why is a credit card required for the free plan on RapidAPI?

Accepted Answer

A credit card is required for all API plans because overage charges apply if you exceed the allotted requests, even for the free plan. If you subscribe directly through our API platform, there is no credit card required for the free plan.

Question 19

Where does your cost data come from?

Accepted Answer

Currently it is an estimated price based on average costs of aggregated supermarket data. Since grocery prices do range (sometimes considerably) from region to region and store to store, we hope to have prices based on user location or an option to enter your own prices in the future.

Question 20

Can the API be used with other languages?

Accepted Answer

Currently the API only works in English. We hope to support more languages in the future. If you are a company interested in using our API, we would be happy to translate the ontology to apply to your recipe data for a one-time fee. Please contact us.

Question 21

Do you offer an SLA?

Accepted Answer

We strive to keep our uptime high, but we only enter into service level agreements with paying customers with plans above $250/month. If this applies to you, please contact us.

Question 22

What SDKs are available?

Accepted Answer

You can find the available SDKs here. RapidAPI subscribers, please refer to this post about SDKs.

Question 23

What are points?

Accepted Answer

Each API plan comes with a daily quota of points. Every API call you make costs a certain amount of points. Usually, every request is 1 point and 0.01 points per result returned, but there are many exceptions. At the bottom of each endpoint description you will find information about the number of points required for that endpoint.

When you are on the free plan and your daily quota is used up, the API will respond with the error code 402 and no more calls can be made until your quota resets.

You have complete control over your quota by looking at your console dashboard and checking the API response headers that appear with every answer from the API. These response headers are:

X-API-Quota-Request: The number of points used by the request.
X-API-Quota-Used: The number of points used in total today. This number resets to zero at midnight UTC.

Question 24

What is the difference between subscribing through RapidAPI vs through your website?

Accepted Answer

The biggest difference is the pricing. We offer plans that are not available on RapidAPI. In particular, our free plan is different because a) no credit card is required and b) we simply restrict access to the API instead of charging overages once the limit is reached. Overages do still apply to paid plans. Additionally, if you subscribe with us you do not have to go through RapidAPI should any issues arise - you can contact us directly. We also offer our own set of SDKs. Aside from these points, the API is the same.

Question 25

Why do I get a 401 error code "You are not authorized"?

Accepted Answer

To make requests you must put your API key in the URL. Please see here.

Question 26

Where can I find a list of ingredients with their IDs?

Accepted Answer

You can find a list of the 1,000 most common ingredients here.

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