Fetch real vehicle photos for any make and model. Returns up to 10 clean, relevant results per call. Filter by angle, color, photo type, and size to get exactly the images your use case needs.

Who uses this API

Dealerships, rental platforms, and marketplaces call this endpoint when they need stock photos for a year, make, and model — especially when the lot has no shoot yet.

Use cases

B2B

Dealerships — listing photos: Fill a VDP with front, side, or rear images when a unit has no photography yet.
Rental — catalog visuals: Show a consistent make/model photo on booking pages without photographing every unit.
Marketplaces — placeholder galleries: Attach representative images to a listing until seller photos are uploaded.

B2C

Consumer listing galleries: Show make/model photos on a private-party listing while the seller adds their own shots.
Comparison tools: Display matching angles across vehicles a shopper is comparing.

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
`make`	Yes	Vehicle manufacturer. Example: `"Toyota"`, `"Ford"`, `"BMW"`
`model`	Yes	Vehicle model name. Example: `"Camry"`, `"F-150"`, `"3 Series"`
`key`	Yes	Your CarsXE API key
`year`	No	4-digit model year. Narrows results to a specific model year
`trim`	No	Trim level. Helps surface images of the right variant
`color`	No	Preferred vehicle color. Example: `"red"`, `"midnight blue"`
`angle`	No	`front`, `side`, or `back`
`photoType`	No	`interior`, `exterior`, or `engine`. Only valid alongside `make`, `model`, `year`, and `trim`
`size`	No	`Small`, `Medium`, `Large`, `Wallpaper`, or `All`
`license`	No	Usage-rights preset, or a comma-separated list of specific license tokens. See Usage rights.
`transparent`	No	`true` (default) — prefer images with transparent/white backgrounds
`validate`	No	`true` (default) — return only clean, relevant vehicle photos
`format`	No	`json` (default) or `xml`

Example

Get vehicle images

Code

curl -G https://api.carsxe.com/images \
  -d key=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -d make=Toyota \
  -d model=Camry \
  -d year=2022 \
  -d angle=front

Response

Top-level shape

{

"success": true,// always true on 200

}

Click the query or images sections to expand them and see sample data. For the full interactive reference, try it live in the API Reference.

The images array is always present. It will be empty when no matching images are found — not absent.

images

Each object in the images array represents one vehicle photo.

Name
mime
Type
string
Description
The MIME type of the image file. Example: "image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/webp".
Name
link
Type
string
Description
Direct URL to the full-resolution image. Use this to display or download the image.
Name
contextLink
Type
string
Description
Related page URL for the image — useful for attribution.
Name
height
Type
string | number
Description
Image height in pixels. May be returned as a string or number depending on the image.
Name
width
Type
string | number
Description
Image width in pixels. May be returned as a string or number depending on the image. All images are at least 300px on their shortest side.
Name
byteSize
Type
number | string
Description
File size in bytes. Useful for estimating download time or enforcing size limits before fetching the full image.
Name
thumbnailLink
Type
string
Description
URL to a smaller thumbnail of the image. Faster to load than the full image — useful for previews and grids.
Name
thumbnailHeight
Type
string
Description
Thumbnail height in pixels.
Name
thumbnailWidth
Type
string
Description
Thumbnail width in pixels.

license filters results by Creative Commons labels that the hosting site attached to the image. It does not grant a copyright license. Every image includes a contextLink to the source page. Confirm the license there before you download, publish, or reuse the photo.

Leave license blank to return images regardless of license label. An unknown token returns 400.

Presets

Value	Meaning	Included labels	Excluded labels
`Public`	Public domain only	`cc_publicdomain`	—
`Share`	Free to use or share	Public domain, attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives	—
`ShareCommercially`	Free to use or share, even commercially	Public domain, attribution, ShareAlike, NoDerivatives	NonCommercial
`Modify`	Free to use, share, or modify	Public domain, attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial	NoDerivatives
`ModifyCommercially`	Free to use, share, or modify, even commercially	Public domain, attribution, ShareAlike	NonCommercial, NoDerivatives

Specific licenses

Pass one or more tokens instead of a preset. Separate them with commas. Prefix a token with - to exclude images that carry that label. Include at least one token. A token cannot be both included and excluded.

Token	Label	Meaning
`cc_publicdomain`	Public domain	No copyright-license conditions on the labeled work.
`cc_attribute`	Attribution (BY)	Use, including commercially, and modify. Credit the creator when you share the work.
`cc_sharealike`	ShareAlike (SA)	Modifications are allowed. If you share an adaptation, use the same license.
`cc_noncommercial`	NonCommercial (NC)	Commercial use is not allowed.
`cc_nonderived`	NoDerivatives (ND)	Sharing a modified version is not allowed.

ModifyCommercially is equivalent to cc_publicdomain,cc_attribute,cc_sharealike,-cc_noncommercial,-cc_nonderived.

To request public-domain and attribution-only images, excluding ShareAlike, NonCommercial, and NoDerivatives:

curl -G https://api.carsxe.com/images \
  -d key=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -d make=Toyota \
  -d model=Camry \
  -d license=cc_publicdomain,cc_attribute,-cc_sharealike,-cc_noncommercial,-cc_nonderived

Image quality

By default (validate=true), results include only clean, relevant vehicle photos that match the requested make, model, and year.

Pass validate=false for up to 10 images at full speed.

Errors

See the Errors guide for the full list. The most common cases specific to this endpoint:

400 — "Invalid license..." — license is not a preset or a comma-separated list of the tokens above. Fix the value and retry.
500 — "Please supply a make and model..." — both parameters are required. Add them and retry. Branch on the success field.
404 — No images found for this combination — try relaxing your filters (remove angle, color, or trim) or verify the make and model spelling.