# Kakao, free: Image search API

> Returns image search results for the query from the Daum Search service.

Kakao's image search API on its Free quotas plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 searches. It returns all 5 key fields we check: Image, Size, Thumbnail, Page, Site.
We haven't run Kakao through [our image search API benchmark](https://datacircle.dev/best-image-search-api.txt) yet.
Half of the 376 plans we rank by price cost $0.817 per 1,000 searches or less. This plan has the lowest price per 1,000 searches of the 376 plans.
[SerpScraper.dev](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/serpscraper-dev/39-monthly/llms.txt), [SerpKite](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/serpkite/300-pack-pro-post-v1-images-brave-images/llms.txt) and [Litescrape](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/litescrape/top-up-from-10-usage-based-get-api-bing-images/llms.txt) are the best image search API providers in the Datacircle benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/kakao/free
- [Image search API: 16 providers compared on price and data](https://datacircle.dev/best-image-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/getting-started/quota?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing
- Request: `GET https://dapi.kakao.com/v2/search/image`
- API key: with the plan, on https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/getting-started/quota?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing
- Its API docs: https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/daum-search/dev-guide?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing#search-image
- Sold by: Kakao (https://developers.kakao.com?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-11-04

## In the answer

- Completeness: 100%
- Image: ✓
- Size: ✓
- Thumbnail: ✓
- Page: ✓
- Site: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 searches: $0.00
- Per: call
- Billing: free

## Charges

- Most per search: 4,000
- Also pays for: from the same budget: Search web document · Search video · Search blog · Search book · Search cafe

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Returns image search results for the query from the Daum Search service.

## Data

- Keep data: Cache data Kakao provided for purposes other than improving user's environment in the app, or failing to retain the data with the most recently updated data
- Use data: Besides the violations and examples of violations specified in this Agreement, you shall not allow any third party, including your end user, to conduct any of the following activities. [...] Sell, trade or resell Kakao Platform Services for unauthorized commercial purposes [...] Cache data Kakao provided for purposes other than improving user's environment in the app, or failing to retain the data with the most recently updated data [...] Copy, reproduce, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, input into a search engine or directory, or otherwise use or provide to others any information (e.g., data, secret key, access token, etc.) obtained through the Service or Kakao Developers without prior approval from Kakao, provided, however, that, such information may be shared with agents under a confidentiality agreement [...] Use the service in excess of the provision limit outlined in Article 6 (e.g., daily quota, monthly quota, MAU limit), provided, however, that the daily quota may be exceeded when using paid services

## Plan

- Pay: $0
- You get: 30,000 requests a day
- Enough for: 30,000 calls a day

## Rate limit

- Per day: 30,000
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: query. Optional: sort, page, size
- Method: GET
- Path: /v2/search/image

## About the plan

- Plan: Free quotas
- Who can get it: Kakao Developers members with an app, game applications and websites, game-related applications and websites, and virtual asset-related services are restricted from using the Service

## The 11 fields the plan's answer can hold

total results, pageable results, is last page, image result collection, image result thumbnail, image result original, image result original width, image result original height, image result source, image result link, image result creation time

## Kakao's plans (1)

- [Kakao, free](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/kakao/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete

## Kakao's calls for this API (1)

- `GET /v2/search/image`: [Kakao, free](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/kakao/free/llms.txt)

## Kakao's APIs (3)

- [Kakao: image search API pricing, 1 plan](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/kakao/free/llms.txt)
- [Kakao: video search API pricing, 1 plan](https://datacircle.dev/video-search-apis/kakao/free/llms.txt)
- [Kakao: web search API pricing, 1 plan](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kakao/free/llms.txt)

## Kakao: image search API alternatives

- [SerpScraper.dev, free](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/serpscraper-dev/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete
- [SerpKite, free, POST /v1/images, Bing Images](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/serpkite/free-post-v1-images-bing-images/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete, live
- [Litescrape, free, 5 free calls, GET /api/bing/images](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/litescrape/free-5-free-calls-get-api-bing-images/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete
- [PrismCrawl, free credits, POST /v1/microsoft/images/search](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/prismcrawl/free-credits-post-v1-microsoft-images-search/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete, live
- [JustSerpAPI, free](https://datacircle.dev/image-search-apis/justserpapi/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 20% complete, live

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-11-04.

- https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/daum-search/common?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing
- https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/daum-search/dev-guide?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing
- https://developers.kakao.com/docs/en/getting-started/quota?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing
- https://developers.kakao.com/terms/en/site-policies?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image-search-api-pricing