Trace Moe vs Waifu.im

Trace.moe's real search endpoint at api.trace.moe was reconfirmed live — a deliberately broken image URL returned a proper JSON error rather than a network failure, and a real image search (a Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka 2 screenshot) returned genuine matching-scene data with Access-Control-Allow-Origin echoing the request's Origin. It's free and keyless up to a 100-search/24-hour quota per IP (confirmed live via GET /me, not the 1,000/month figure some third-party write-ups repeat); Patreon sponsorship raises both the daily quota and concurrency.

Waifu.im serves a curated, moderator-reviewed archive of over 4,000 anime-style illustrations through a REST API, with AND/OR tag filtering across dozens of character and franchise tags (confirmed live via a plain GET against api.waifu.im/tags), NSFW toggling, and artist attribution on every image. Basic browsing needs no authentication; an X-Api-Key or JWT unlocks per-user favorites, albums, and reports.