The free and open source API to generate memes.

jacebrowning jacebrowning Last update: Mar 17, 2023

An API to programmatically generate memes based solely on requested URLs.

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Images

The API is stateless so URLs contain all the information necessary to generate meme images. For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/buzz/memes/memes_everywhere.gif produces:

Example Image

Available Formats

Clients can request .jpg instead of .png for smaller files. The .gif and .webp extensions can be used if an animated background is available or to animate text on static backgrounds:

Format Example
PNG /images/ds/small_file/high_quality.png
JPEG /images/ds/high_quality/small_file.jpg
GIF (animated background) /images/oprah/you_get/animated_text.gif
GIF (static background) /images/iw/animates_text/in_production.gif
WebP (animated background) /images/oprah/you_get/animated_text.webp
WebP (static background) /images/iw/animates_text/in_production.webp

Custom Dimensions

Images can be scaled to a specific width or height using the width=<int> and height=<int> query parameters. If both are provided (width=<int>&height=<int>), the image will be padded to the exact dimensions.

For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/both/width_or_height/why_not_both~q.png?height=450&width=800 produces:

Custom Size

Special Characters

In URLs, spaces can be inserted using underscores or dashes:

  • underscore (_) → space ( )
  • dash (-) → space ( )
  • 2 underscores (__) → underscore (_)
  • 2 dashes (--) → dash (-)
  • tilde + N (~n) → newline character

Reserved URL characters can be included using escape patterns:

  • tilde + Q (~q) → question mark (?)
  • tilde + A (~a) → ampersand (&)
  • tilde + P (~p) → percentage (%)
  • tilde + H (~h) → hashtag/pound (#)
  • tilde + S (~s) → slash (/)
  • tilde + B (~b) → backslash (\)
  • tilde + L (~l) → less-than sign (<)
  • tilde + G (~g) → greater-than sign (>)
  • 2 single quotes ('') → double quote (")

For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/ugandanknuck/~hspecial_characters~q/underscore__-dash--.png produces:

Escaped Characters

All of the POST endpoints will return image URLs with special characters replaced with these alternatives.

Templates

The list of predefined meme templates is available here: https://api.memegen.link/templates/

Alternate Styles

Some memes come in multiple forms, which can be selected using the style=<str> query parameter.

For example, the https://api.memegen.link/templates/ds/ template provides these styles:

/images/ds.png /images/ds.png?style=maga
Default Style Alternate Style

Custom Overlays

The style=<str> query parameter can also be an image URL to overlay on the default background image.

For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/pigeon/Engineer/_/Is_this_Photoshop~q.png?style=https://i.imgur.com/W0NXFpQ.png produces:

Custom Overlay

The overlay image can be customized with the following additional query parameters:

Name Type Description
center <float>,<float> Position of overlay relative to the top-left corner
scale <float> Ratio of the background image's dimensions

Custom Backgrounds

You can also use your own image URL as the background.

For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/custom/_/my_background.png?background=http://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.png produces:

Custom Background

This can be combined with custom overlays to augment the background image.

Layouts

Add the layout=<str> query parameter to switch between the default and top text positioning.

For example, https://api.memegen.link/images/rollsafe/When_you_have_a_really_good_idea.gif?layout=top produces:

Top Layout

Fonts

The list of fonts is available here: https://api.memegen.link/fonts/

Add the font=<str> query parameter to customize the look of your meme:

Name ID Alias
Titillium Web Black font=titilliumweb font=thick
Kalam Regular font=kalam font=comic
Impact font=impact -
Noto Sans Bold font=notosans -

Explore the full API here: https://api.memegen.link/docs/

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