Google Photos vs Lorem Picsum

Google's Photos APIs let apps read from and write to a user's Google Photos library across three products: the current Picker API lets a user securely choose individual items to share without granting an app full library access, the older Library API supports app-driven uploads and management of app-created content (several of its broader read scopes were removed on April 1, 2025), and the newer Ambient API drives slideshow experiences on photo frames and connected TVs. Every product requires OAuth2 user consent — there is no server-only API-key path — governed by Google's Photos API User Data and Developer Policy. Usage is free, bounded by per-project quotas that vary by product (for example 100,000 requests/minute for the Picker API versus 10,000/day for the Library API).

Lorem Picsum serves placeholder photos by encoding the size, and optionally a specific image ID or a seed, directly into the request URL — no signup or key required. Every photo comes from Unsplash's library, and query parameters can request a grayscale or blurred variant, a JPEG or WebP file extension, or a random cache-busting suffix for multiple images at one size. A companion /v2/list JSON endpoint returns the full photo catalog with author and dimension metadata for browsing before you hotlink.