greatapis

Animals — entry 006 of 20

Dogs

Verified Jul 2026

The Dog CEO API serves random and breed-filtered dog images sourced from the Stanford Dogs Dataset plus community submissions, returning a direct image URL as JSON rather than the binary file itself. A live call to its breed list returns 108 main breeds and 99 named sub-breeds (42 of the mains have sub-breeds), giving 207 callable breed image paths across 165 leaf-level breed collections, each queryable via dedicated endpoints (e.g. /breed/hound/images/random), and it needs no signup or API key. The project is open-source with no pricing tier of any kind; hosting is covered by on-site ads plus voluntary PayPal donations.

Dog CEO serves random and breed-filtered dog images sourced from the Stanford Dogs Dataset plus community submissions, returning a direct image URL as JSON rather than the binary file itself. A live call to /breeds/list/all returns 108 main breeds and 99 named sub-breeds (42 of the mains have sub-breeds), giving 207 callable breed image paths across 165 leaf-level breed collections. It needs no signup or API key, and hosting is covered by on-site ads plus voluntary PayPal donations rather than any paid tier.

dog-imagesdog-breedsopen-sourcekeyless
Visit dog.ceo ↗Read the docs ↗Status ↗More Animals
AuthenticationNone requiredCall it straight away — no key, no signup.
HTTPSSupportedTraffic is encrypted in transit.
CORSEnabledCallable directly from browser JavaScript.
PricingFreeNo paid tier — free for the documented use case.
FormatsJSONResponses can be requested as JSON.

GreatAPIs Score

Score88out of 100
Authentication25/25No authentication required
Pricing20/20Free to use
Docs14/20Documentation URL provided
Formats9/15Single response format
Freshness20/20Verified within 6 months

Embed this badge

Scored 88 on greatapis.com
<a href="https://greatapis.com/api/dogs/"><img src="https://greatapis.com/badge/dogs.svg" alt="Scored 88 on greatapis.com"></a>

Auth quickstart

  1. No API key required — requests are public and keyless.
Stored keyNo key stored

Your key is stored only in this browser (localStorage) and sent directly to the API — never to greatapis.

Get a random dog image

GEThttps://dog.ceo/api/breeds/image/random

200 application/json

{
  "message": "https://images.dog.ceo/breeds/hound-ibizan/n02091244_2062.jpg",
  "status": "success"
}

Try it

Developer reference
Base URLhttps://dog.ceo/api
Key endpoints
  • GET/breeds/list/all
  • GET/breeds/image/random
  • GET/breed/{breed}/images
Gotchas & limits
  • Every response — success or error — wraps its payload in the same two-field shape: message (a URL, an array of URLs, or an error string depending on the endpoint) and status (success or error). There's no separate data key to look for.
  • The image itself lives on a different host, images.dog.ceo, not dog.ceo — the API only ever returns a link to hotlink or download, never the image bytes.
  • GET /breeds/list/all returns breeds with sub-breeds as an object mapping each breed to an array of its sub-breeds (e.g. "bulldog": ["boston", "english", "french"]) — to fetch a sub-breed's image, chain it into the path as /breed/{breed}/{subbreed}/images/random, confirmed live with /breed/bulldog/french/images/random.
  • An unknown breed doesn't 200 with an empty result — confirmed live, /breed/nonexistentbreed/images/random returns HTTP 404 with {"status":"error","message":"Breed not found (main breed does not exist)","code":404}.
Availability
Uptime100%
Median latency364 ms
Last checkUp · 200 · Sep 2026
3 checks since Aug 2026. A person runs this check by hand, not an automated monitor.
Featured in
2 collections
No key requiredCORS-ready browser APIs
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