Dictionaries · head-to-head
Collins vs Oxford
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.
Oxford Dictionaries API (Oxford Languages) exposes definitions, translations, and lexical metadata sourced from Oxford University Press's own databases across dozens of languages, authenticated with an app ID/key pair from its developer portal. New accounts start on a free Sandbox tier that emulates the live API for evaluation before moving to paid production plans, with custom Enterprise licensing available from an annual per-language fee.
| Collins | Oxford | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | API Key | API Key |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Formats | JSON, XML | JSON |
| CORS | no | no |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Collins supports 2 response formats, while Oxford offers fewer — pick Collins for more integration flexibility.