Food & Drink — entry 017 of 20

TheMealDB

Verified Jul 2026

TheMealDB is TheCocktailDB's sister project, a community-curated meal-recipe database — ingredients, measurements, and instructions — searchable by name, category, or area of origin, sharing the same free-forever core access with premium endpoints behind a paid supporter key. A live GET against the real gateway, www.themealdb.com, returned a genuine random-meal JSON payload while carrying Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, reconfirming both cors yes and API Key auth in the same probe.

recipesmealscookingrecipe-database
AuthenticationAPI KeySign up with the provider to obtain credentials.
HTTPSSupportedTraffic is encrypted in transit.
CORSEnabledCallable directly from browser JavaScript.
PricingFreemiumA usable free tier exists, with paid plans for more volume.
FormatsJSONResponses can be requested as JSON.

GreatAPIs Score

Score61out of 100
Authentication15/25API key required
Pricing17/20Freemium tier available
Docs0/20No docs or spec available
Formats9/15Single response format
Freshness20/20Verified within 6 months

Embed this badge

Scored 61 on greatapis.com
<a href="https://greatapis.com/api/themealdb/"><img src="https://greatapis.com/badge/themealdb.svg" alt="Scored 61 on greatapis.com"></a>

Auth quickstart

  1. Sign up with the provider to get an API key.
  2. Send it on every request as a headerAuthorization: <key>
  3. The exact header isn't documented — Authorization is a common default; confirm in the provider's docs.
Stored keyNo key stored

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