Gravatar profile picture API

Put a Gravatar Handle in the URL and the response is the profile picture as image bytes, ready for an <img src>. avatarapi fetches it from Gravatar, checks it is a real image, and caches it at the edge.

<img src="https://avatarsapi.com/gravatar/beau%40automattic.com" alt="">

What goes in the URL

https://avatarsapi.com/gravatar/<handle>

An email address, or its SHA-256 or MD5 hash.

Missing Gravatars are a Miss, not the default silhouette. /email/<address> also checks GitHub and BIMI.

Percent-encode the Handle if it contains a /, a space, or other reserved characters.

Options

?size=16..1000 sets the square size in pixels (default 400): https://avatarsapi.com/gravatar/beau%40automattic.com?size=64
?json returns the resolved image URL instead of the bytes:

{ "version": 1, "data": { "url": "https://…", "source": "gravatar", "kind": "username" } }

Starter Projects can also set ?ttl=1h..28d for the cache lifetime (default 7 days).

When there is no picture

If the account does not exist or has no profile picture, the response is a 404 with a JSON body whose code is ENOTFOUND. That makes onerror a reliable fallback:

<img
  src="https://avatarsapi.com/gravatar/beau%40automattic.com"
  onerror="this.onerror=null; this.src='/default-avatar.svg'"
  alt="">

EUPSTREAM (502) means Gravatar itself failed or changed; it is usually transient. All codes are in the error table.

What goes in the URL

Options

When there is no picture

Related