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API endpoint update

New integrations should use . Existing URLs will keep working for the next few months while teams migrate.

Scan Image Text

1 credit / request
POST /v1/scan-image-text

Extract text from a camera-trap image overlay and return structured fields when they can be detected. Direct OCR API calls require Core or higher.

Try in Playground

Examples

Node.js / Express
const form = new FormData()
form.append('image', imageFile)

const response = await fetch('https://api.animaldetect.com/v1/scan-image-text', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: 'Bearer ' + process.env.ANIMAL_DETECT_API_KEY,
  },
  body: form,
})

const data = await response.json()
Example Response
{
  "raw_text": "CAM01 2026/02/12 21:34:10 15C 72%RH",
  "date": "2026-02-12",
  "time": "21:34:10",
  "temperature": { "value": 15, "unit": "C" },
  "humidity": { "value": 72, "unit": "%" }
}

Parameters

Required

file | base64 string

Image data. Upload request body limit is 20MB; raw image budget is 10MB.

Request Notes

Send multipart/form-data for files or JSON with a base64 image. Limits: 20MB request body and 10MB raw image.

Response Fields

string

Required. Full raw text extracted from the image before structured parsing.

string (YYYY-MM-DD)

Optional. Detected and normalized date from the image overlay.

string (HH:MM:SS, 24h)

Optional. Detected and normalized time from the image overlay.

{ value: number, unit: "C" | "F" }

Optional. Primary detected temperature value.

{ value: number, unit: "C" | "F" }

Optional. Secondary detected temperature in alternate unit when available.

{ value: number, unit: "%" }

Optional. Detected relative humidity.

{ value: number, unit: string }

Optional. Detected barometric pressure and its unit.

string

Optional. Detected moon phase (normalized snake_case label).

string

Optional. Detected camera brand based on known camera patterns.

string

Optional. Detected camera model based on known camera patterns.

{ current: number, total: number }

Optional. Detected burst position such as frame 2 of 3.

Status Codes

200OCR and metadata extraction completed.
400Validation error (bad payload/image/base64).
401Invalid, missing, or revoked API key.
403Paid plan required in the normal API.
402Credit limit exceeded.
413File too large for the sync upload limit.
429Rate limit exceeded.
500Unexpected internal server error.
503OCR provider temporarily unavailable.

Notes

  • Fields not found during extraction are omitted from the response.
  • Optimized for camera-trap overlays. For other text, use `raw_text`.
  • Public API keys can still test OCR inside the docs playground only; that exception does not apply to direct `/v1` calls.