Dictionaries · head-to-head
Chinese Text Project vs Collins
Chinese Text Project's JSON API resolves opaque CTP URNs into full text, titles, and subsection metadata across its library of pre-Qin and Han-era classical Chinese works, and underpins the site's own browser plugins for text lookup and annotation. Anonymous requests work without any key but are rate-limited; logged-in accounts get a higher ceiling, and academic institutions can arrange a subscription that issues API keys for extended, programmatic access.
Collins' REST API serves the publisher's monolingual English and bilingual dictionary, thesaurus, translation and audio-pronunciation data used on collinsdictionary.com, with separate JSON and XML response representations for each resource. A live unauthenticated request against the real gateway returned a genuine application-level "NoAccessKey" 403 rather than a Cloudflare challenge, confirming the API Key requirement and that the service itself is fully live. Its own pricing page grants up to 5,000 calls/month free before metered tiers (from £50/month) kick in at higher volumes.
| Chinese Text Project | Collins | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | API Key |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Formats | JSON | JSON, XML |
| CORS | yes | no |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Chinese Text Project needs no API key, while Collins requires API Key — pick Chinese Text Project to start without signup.