Giphy API - Search GIFs, Stickers, Emoji & Clips

Search Giphy's GIF and sticker library, get trending content, translate a phrase to a GIF, fetch a random GIF, list animated emoji, or look up a GIF by ID. Useful for chatbots, social media automation, and content tools.

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key): Giphy requires an API key on every request. You supply your own free key; the actor does not include one.

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Before You Start

1. Go to https://developers.giphy.com/dashboard/ and sign in (free).
2. Click Create an App, choose API, and give it any name.
3. Copy the API key and paste it into the Giphy API Key input field.

A free beta key allows roughly 100 calls per hour. If you need more, request a production key on the Giphy dashboard.

No key? The run still finishes, but it returns a single row explaining how to add your key. It returns no GIFs and charges no task fee. The actor never passes sample data off as real results.

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Quick Start

Search GIFs

{
  "task": "search_gifs",
  "query": "funny cat",
  "limit": 25,
  "rating": "g",
  "apiKey": "YOUR_GIPHY_API_KEY"
}

Preview the output format without a key

{
  "task": "search_gifs",
  "demoMode": true
}

Demo Mode returns placeholder GIFs marked isSampleData: true. They are not real Giphy results. Demo runs are not charged a task fee.

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Tasks

Task	What it does	Needs query
search_gifs	Search GIFs by word or phrase	Yes
get_trending	Currently trending GIFs	No
translate_to_gif	Turn a word or phrase into one matching GIF	Yes
get_random	One random GIF, optionally filtered by tag (query)	Optional
search_stickers	Search animated stickers	Yes
get_trending_stickers	Currently trending stickers	No
search_emoji	List Giphy's animated emoji library (no search term; use limit and offset to page)	No
get_gif_by_id	Look up one GIF by its Giphy ID (gifId)	No

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
task	string	"search_gifs"	Which operation to run (see Tasks)
apiKey	string	-	Your Giphy API key. Required for real data
query	string	-	Search term, phrase, or random-GIF tag
gifId	string	-	Giphy GIF ID for get_gif_by_id
limit	integer	25	Results per run (max 50)
offset	integer	0	Results offset for pagination
rating	string	"g"	Content rating filter: g, pg, pg-13, r
language	string	"en"	Language code for search (e.g. en, es, fr)
webhookUrl	string	-	Optional URL that receives the results as a POST
demoMode	boolean	false	Return labelled placeholder data instead of calling Giphy

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Output

Each run pushes one row to the dataset. For list tasks the row holds totalCount, count, offset, and a data array of GIFs. Each GIF includes id, title, url, embedUrl, rating, image renditions (original, downsized, fixed_height, fixed_width, preview, mp4), and the uploader (user) when Giphy provides one. Every row carries the attribution Powered By GIPHY.

If something goes wrong (missing key, rejected key, rate limit, missing query), the row contains an error field that says what happened and how to fix it.

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Pricing

Pay per event:

Event	When it is charged	Price
Actor start	Once when the run starts, one event per GB of memory (minimum one). At the default 1 GB of memory that is $0.10 per run	$0.10 per GB
Search GIFs	Search Giphy's library of millions of GIFs by entering a word or phrase	$0.01
Get Trending GIF	Get the most relevant and engaging trending GIFs, updated continuously	$0.01
Translate to GIF	Convert words and phrases to the perfect GIF using Giphy's special algorithm	$0.01
Get Random GIF	Get a random GIF, optionally filtered by tag for themed randomness	$0.01
Search Stickers	Search animated stickers with transparent backgrounds	$0.01
Get Trending Stickers	Get currently trending sticker content	$0.01
Search Emoji	Search Giphy's uniquely diverse animated emoji library	$0.01
Get GIF by ID	Retrieve a specific GIF by its unique Giphy ID	$0.01
Result	Each item written to the default dataset	$0.00001

No task fee is charged for Demo Mode, for runs without a key, or for runs where Giphy returns an error. The actor start and the single dataset row are platform fees that apply to every run. You can lower the start fee by running with less memory (128 MB is plenty for this actor).

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Troubleshooting

"Giphy API key required"

You ran without a key. Add your free key from https://developers.giphy.com/dashboard/ to the Giphy API Key field.

"Giphy API error: 401" or "403"

Giphy rejected the key. Check that you pasted the whole key and that the app still exists on your Giphy dashboard.

"Giphy API error: 429"

You hit the hourly limit for your key. Wait and retry, or request a production key from Giphy.

"Query parameter is required"

search_gifs, translate_to_gif, and search_stickers need a query.

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Built by John Rippy | Actor Arsenal