TheMealDB

Overview

TheMealDB is an open, community-curated database of meals: recipes with ingredients + measures, step-by-step instructions, photos, and YouTube videos, organized by category (Beef, Chicken, Seafood, Dessert…) and area (British, Italian, Mexican…). Great for recipe apps, meal planners, and kitchen-display projects.

Quick Start

A random meal — the free tier’s public test key is literally 1:

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/random.php"

Search by name:

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/search.php?s=pie"

Look up by ID:

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/lookup.php?i=52802"

Filter by category, area, or ingredient:

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/filter.php?c=Seafood"
curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/filter.php?a=Italian"
curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/filter.php?i=chicken_breast"

Lists for building filters:

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/list.php?c=list"   # categories
curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/list.php?a=list"   # areas
curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/list.php?i=list"   # ingredients

Authentication

• The free tier works with the shared test key 1 in the URL path (/api/json/v1/1/...).
• For production, register a free account at the site and get your personal key (/api/json/v2/<YOUR_KEY>/...).

Rate Limits & Notes

• The free/test tier is rate-limited (roughly one request every 2 seconds) and has no SLA.
• Meal data is community-contributed — verify instructions for anything serious.
• Ingredients come with a measure per ingredient (strIngredient1 + strMeasure1 pairs) — perfect for structured recipe rendering.

FAQ

Is TheMealDB free? Yes — free tier with the public test key 1; personal free keys for registered users.

Why is the key “1”? That’s the shared public test key for the free tier. Register for your own key for production use.

Can I call it from the browser? Yes — CORS is enabled.