Link Preview API for developers
One HTTPS call returns normalized metadata for any URL — title, description, image, logo, brand palette. Build Slack-style unfurls, Discord previews, iMessage cards, or your own custom layout — entirely in your own markup.
https://api.microlink.io?url=https://github.com
Fast link previews Cached at the edge, globally
2.0
secs
P95
response time
1.41
secs
average
response time
99.9
%
SLA
Guaranteed
One payload,
every preview style
The Microlink link preview API normalizes every metadata source into a single JSON response. Render it as a Slack-style hero card, a Telegram bubble, an iOS notification, a WhatsApp chat preview — same fields, your markup.
Need a ready-to-paste iframe instead? See the Embed API.
Normalized metadata, ready to render
Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD, oEmbed, microdata, and HTML tags collapsed into one predictable JSON shape. Pull title, description, image, logo, publisher, and brand palette from any URL and ship the preview without per-site fallback logic.
Generate previews with AI
Paste the payload into Cursor, Claude Code, or any AI assistant and let it render a preview built from your own design system — same tokens, same components, no SDK to fight. Six ready-to-paste recipes (hero, inline, tweet, telegram, notification, chat bubble) ship with the guide.
Captures URLs behind Cloudflare and CAPTCHAs
Every URL is rendered through a real headless browser routed via a rotating residential proxy network. Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA — pages behind antibot walls still come back with full metadata, so your previews stay perfect even when the source would block a scraper. Proxy rotation ships with every Pro plan.
JavaScript-rendered pages, captured
React, Vue, and Next.js sites that inject metadata at runtime are captured as a real visitor sees them — no stale SSR, no empty meta tags. Smart TTL caching keeps responses fresh against source changes while delivering sub-second previews from 240+ Cloudflare edge locations.
Copy. Paste. Preview.
One API call returns every piece of metadata you need — title, description, image, logo, palette. Map those fields to your own components — slack hero cards, telegram bubbles, ios notifications, whatsapp chat previews — all from the same payload.
Last month usage
359.2M
reqs per month
12%
cache hit rate
10TB
data served
some clients
Start free, scale when ready
No login. No credit card. Preview any URL on the free tier — upgrade when production traffic kicks in. Proxy rotation ships with every pro plan.
Most popular
Pro
For production workloads.
$46
/month
≈ $1.00 per 1,000 requests
Billed in EUR · USD shown for reference
requests / month
Everything in Free
Priority email support
Cancel anytime · No setup fees
Free
Try the API in seconds. No card.
$0
/month
50 requests per day
50 requests / day
Screenshot, PDF, SDK
Enterprise
Dedicated infra for high-volume.
Custom
From $585 / month
Everything in Pro
Custom SLA & DPA available
Need more details?
Built on open source,
trusted by developers
Microlink link previews are powered by metascraper and browserless — battle-tested libraries used by thousands of developers worldwide.
Try it live, right now
Skip the setup. Paste any URL and our interactive tool returns the link preview payload — copy the JSON, copy individual fields, or prototype your own card.
The most complete link preview API, with no compromises.
No brittle scrapers, no conflicting tag sources, no partial previews — our link preview API turns any URL into a custom-styled preview in one predictable JSON response. See the metadata API guide or generate previews with AI.
Unified Link Preview Payload
Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD, oEmbed, microdata, RDFa, and raw HTML merged into one predictable JSON response. The same fields for every URL — no per-site fallback logic.
Brand-Ready Visuals
High-resolution image, logo, favicon, and dominant color palette returned alongside the text. Theme link previews and chat unfurls without manual art direction.
JavaScript-Rendered Pages
Full headless browser execution means React, Vue, and Next.js sites that inject meta tags at runtime are captured correctly every time — no stale SSR required.
Proxy Rotation Behind CAPTCHAs
Rotating residential proxies and real headless browsers reach pages behind Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, hCaptcha, and reCAPTCHA — included with every Pro plan.
Global Edge Delivery
Link preview responses are cached and distributed across 240+ Cloudflare edge locations, ensuring sub-second URL previews and feed ingestion worldwide.
Plain HTTPS, No SDK Required
A single GET request returns the link preview payload. Call it from any backend, edge runtime, browser, or static site — no library install needed.
Smart TTL Caching
Configure Time-To-Live caching rules to keep your link previews fresh against source changes while maintaining sub-second API performance at scale.
AI-Friendly by Design
Paste the payload into Cursor, Claude Code, or any AI assistant and let it generate a preview component built from your own design tokens — no SDK, no wrapper.
Free to Start
Preview any URL immediately. 50 requests per day on the free tier — no setup fees, no credit card, and pay-as-you-grow pricing once production traffic kicks in.
Unified Link Preview Payload
Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD, oEmbed, microdata, RDFa, and raw HTML merged into one predictable JSON response. The same fields for every URL — no per-site fallback logic.Brand-Ready Visuals
High-resolution image, logo, favicon, and dominant color palette returned alongside the text. Theme link previews and chat unfurls without manual art direction.JavaScript-Rendered Pages
Full headless browser execution means React, Vue, and Next.js sites that inject meta tags at runtime are captured correctly every time — no stale SSR required.
Proxy Rotation Behind CAPTCHAs
Rotating residential proxies and real headless browsers reach pages behind Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, hCaptcha, and reCAPTCHA — included with every Pro plan.Global Edge Delivery
Link preview responses are cached and distributed across 240+ Cloudflare edge locations, ensuring sub-second URL previews and feed ingestion worldwide.Plain HTTPS, No SDK Required
A single GET request returns the link preview payload. Call it from any backend, edge runtime, browser, or static site — no library install needed.
Smart TTL Caching
Configure Time-To-Live caching rules to keep your link previews fresh against source changes while maintaining sub-second API performance at scale.AI-Friendly by Design
Paste the payload into Cursor, Claude Code, or any AI assistant and let it generate a preview component built from your own design tokens — no SDK, no wrapper.Free to Start
Preview any URL immediately. 50 requests per day on the free tier — no setup fees, no credit card, and pay-as-you-grow pricing once production traffic kicks in.
Already shipping in real products
How mymahi powers its newsfeed and luckynote unfurls links inside notes — two short reads on the link preview API in production.
Preview any URL
Call the link preview API directly for the metadata payload, then render the card style that fits your product — hero, inline, chat bubble, notification, or your own. Free to start, no credit card.
No login needed
50 reqs/day free
No credit card
Product Information
Everything you need to know about
the Microlink Link Preview API.
What is a link preview API?
A link preview API takes any URL as input and returns the structured metadata behind it —
title, description, image, logo, publisher, brand palette, and more — in a single JSON response.Microlink merges Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD, oEmbed, microdata, RDFa, and raw HTML tags into one predictable shape, so every URL returns the same fields. See the metadata API guide for the full response.
What is link unfurling, and how do I unfurl URLs?
Link unfurling is the process of expanding a plain URL into a rich preview — the way Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage turn a pasted link into a card with title, description, image, and logo.
To unfurl a URL programmatically, call the Microlink link preview API and render the response in your own markup. See the metadata API with custom HTML/CSS guide for a worked example.
Is there a free link preview API?
Yes. The Microlink link preview API is free with 50 requests per day — no login, no credit card, no setup. Cached responses served from 240+ Cloudflare edge locations do not count against your daily limit.
For production workloads, Pro plans start at €39 per month and include rotating proxy support, higher rate limits, and priority response.
How is this different from oEmbed or an embed API?
oEmbed
is the open spec providers like YouTube, Spotify, and Twitter implement to expose ready-to-paste embed HTML — usually an interactive iframe. The Microlink embed API wraps oEmbed and falls back to scraping where the provider does not support it.The link preview API focuses on the underlying data: it returns the normalized metadata payload, and leaves the rendering entirely up to you. Choose link previews when you want to control the markup; choose embeds when you want the provider's native player.
How do I build a custom URL preview from the API response?
Fetch the payload from
https://api.microlink.io?url=YOUR_URL and read data.title, data.description, data.image.url, data.logo.url, data.publisher, and data.image.palette. Map those fields into your own markup — whatever HTML and CSS fits your design system.The metadata API with custom HTML/CSS guide ships a worked example. For ready-made layouts you can paste into Cursor or Claude Code, see generate custom previews with AI.
Can Microlink preview URLs behind Cloudflare, antibot walls, or CAPTCHAs?
Yes. Microlink routes requests through a rotating residential proxy network and renders pages in a real headless browser. URLs gated by Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA, or similar anti-bot systems are fetched and rendered the same way a real visitor sees them.
The response shape stays identical —
title, description, image, logo, palette — so URLs that would normally return 403 still come back with a perfect preview. Proxy rotation is included with every Pro plan; see the proxy parameter for configuration.Does the link preview API support PDFs, images, and media?
Yes. Pass any URL — webpage, PDF, image, video, audio, or social media post — and the link preview API returns the matching metadata.
- PDFs: title, author, page count.
- Images: dimensions, dominant color palette.
- Audio / video: embeddable player metadata when available.
- Social posts: oEmbed-normalized title, author, image.
How does Microlink handle JavaScript-rendered pages and SPAs?
Every Microlink request runs in a real headless browser via the
browserless
driver. React, Vue, Next.js, Svelte, and other SPAs that inject metadata at runtime are captured correctly — the API waits for the DOM to settle before extracting tags.This is the same architecture used by Slack and Discord for unfurl previews, but exposed as a single HTTPS endpoint you can call from your backend.
How fresh are the link previews?
Every response is cached at the edge with a configurable TTL. By default Microlink keeps previews fresh by re-fetching the URL after the TTL window expires; you can override the TTL parameter per request to balance freshness against latency.
Cached responses are served from 240+ Cloudflare locations in milliseconds and do not count against your daily quota.
Can I use AI to generate the preview component?
Yes — and we recommend it. Microlink ships a guide with the exact base prompt to paste into Cursor, Claude Code, or any AI assistant. Six ready-made recipes are bundled (hero card, inline, tweet, telegram, notification, chat bubble).
See generate custom previews with AI for the prompt and the recipes.
How fast is the link preview API?
Cold responses settle in the low-second range; cached responses return in milliseconds. We publish live P95 and average response times on the status page.
Cached responses are served globally from 240+ Cloudflare edge locations, and every plan ships with a 99.9% uptime SLA.
What happens to my data?
Microlink does not store the body of the pages it fetches — only the normalized metadata payload, cached for the configured TTL window.
No login is required for the free tier, and Pro accounts can rotate API keys at any time. Source URLs and response payloads are not used to train any model.
Other questions?
We are always available at
[email protected]
.