Image search guide / 2026

Image Search API for AI Agents in 2026

An image URL alone is rarely enough for responsible reuse. A useful image-search response also carries the source, creator, license, dimensions, and preview metadata that downstream applications need.

Quick answer

Search reusable images without losing attribution.

Submit an image query and receive up to 20 public image documents with creator and license metadata when available. The normalized response helps applications preserve attribution while selecting visual sources.

curl --get 'https://extractor.sh/api/images' \
  --data-urlencode 'q=solar panels' \
  --data-urlencode 'limit=10' \
  --data-urlencode 'format=json'

Available data

What you can extract

Up to 20 ordered public image documents
Source and image URLs
Creator and license metadata when available
Dimensions, previews, and descriptive fields when exposed

AI workflows

Where normalized data helps

Visual research assistants
Licensed asset discovery
Multimodal RAG source collection
Editorial and presentation workflows

AI-ready output

Markdown for models. JSON for systems.

Raw HTML consumes tokens on navigation, scripts, styling, and interface labels. Clean Markdown keeps the readable hierarchy for LLM prompts and RAG chunks. Normalized JSON is better when your application needs an explicit semantic type, source, author, publication date, media, attributes, and collection items.

Always retain the canonical URL from the response. AI-generated summaries should remain traceable to the public source, especially when the underlying page can change.

Boundaries

Public data only

License metadata must still be reviewed before reuse.
The endpoint searches public catalogs rather than private media libraries.
Availability and metadata completeness vary by source.

extractor.sh does not bypass CAPTCHAs, login walls, paywalls, access controls, or regional restrictions. Review the source’s terms and applicable law before collecting or reusing data.