apiCommonsPlans: 0.1
provider:
  id: genius
  name: Genius
  url: https://docs.genius.com/
  signup: https://genius.com/api-clients

source:
  - https://docs.genius.com/
  - https://genius.com/api-clients

modified: '2026-05-29'

summary: >-
  Genius offers a single free public API. Apps are registered at
  https://genius.com/api-clients, which issues a client ID, client secret,
  and a long-lived client access token suitable for read-only requests. User
  tokens issued via the OAuth2 authorization-code flow are required for
  account, voting, and annotation-write actions. There is no paid tier
  documented by Genius; the platform is free at point of use, subject to
  terms of service and unpublished fair-use limits.

plans:
  - id: free
    name: Free Developer
    description: >-
      The default and only published plan. Free registration at
      https://genius.com/api-clients yields a client_id, client_secret, and
      a non-expiring client access token. All published endpoints are
      available. Authenticated write actions (createAnnotation, vote,
      delete) require a user-context OAuth2 token with the appropriate
      scope.
    price:
      currency: USD
      amount: 0
      period: month
    eligibility: public
    signup:
      type: self-serve
      url: https://genius.com/api-clients
    quotas:
      requestsPerMonth: unmetered-fair-use
      seats: 1
    features:
      - "All read endpoints: /search, /songs/{id}, /artists/{id}, /albums/{id}, /annotations/{id}, /referents, /web_pages/lookup, /users/{id}, etc."
      - "Write endpoints with OAuth2 user tokens: createAnnotation, deleteAnnotation, vote/downvote."
      - "OAuth2 authorization-code flow."
      - "Client-only access token for read-only server-side use."
    limits:
      - "Search results capped at 5 per page."
      - "Other paginated endpoints capped at 50 per page."
      - "No documented hard rate limit; expect soft per-IP / per-token throttling under abuse."
    support: community-only

monetization:
  model: free
  notes: >-
    Genius itself monetizes through advertising and brand partnerships on
    genius.com; the developer API has no published commercial tier.

terms:
  url: https://genius.com/static/terms
  notes:
    - "Attribution to Genius is required when displaying scraped lyrics or annotations."
    - "Genius does not license lyrics through this API; lyric licensing is handled separately by music publishers."