aid: placekitten
name: PlaceKitten
description: "Placeholder kitten image service. Free, no-auth REST contract: /{width}/{height} for color, /g/{width}/{height} for grayscale. Created by Mark James, inspired by placehold.it."
url: https://placekitten.com/
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-05-28'
modified: '2026-05-30'
x-source: public-apis/public-apis
x-category: "Animals"
x-tier: 3
x-tier-reason: bulk-registered-from-public-apis
x-type: opensource
x-status: deprecated
x-status-checked: '2026-05-30'
x-status-evidence: >-
  HTTPS probe of https://placekitten.com/, /200/300, and /g/200/300 returned
  Cloudflare HTTP 521 (web server is down). DNS still resolves to Cloudflare
  edge IPs but the origin appears offline.
x-recommended-alternatives:
  - picsum.photos
  - placedog.net
  - https://place-hold.it
tags:
  - Animals
  - Public APIs
  - Placeholder
  - Images
  - Deprecated
apis:
  - name: PlaceKitten
    description: "Placeholder kitten image service (deprecated; origin returns HTTP 521)."
    humanURL: https://placekitten.com/
    baseURL: https://placekitten.com/
    tags:
      - Animals
      - Placeholder
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://placekitten.com/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/placekitten-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/placekitten-image-request-schema.json
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/placekitten-image-response-schema.json
      - type: JSONStructure
        url: json-structure/placekitten-image-request-structure.json
      - type: JSONLD
        url: json-ld/placekitten-context.jsonld
      - type: SpectralRules
        url: rules/placekitten-rules.yml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/shared/placekitten.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fetch-placeholder-image.yaml
      - type: Vocabulary
        url: vocabulary/placekitten-vocabulary.yml
      - type: Example
        url: examples/placekitten-getKittenImage-example.json
      - type: Example
        url: examples/placekitten-getGrayscaleKittenImage-example.json
      - type: Example
        url: examples/placekitten-html-embed-example.json
      - type: Archive
        url: https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://placekitten.com/
    contact:
      - FN: Mark James
        url: http://mark.james.name
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://placekitten.com/
  - type: PublicAPIsListing
    url: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis
  - type: Archive
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/*/placekitten.com
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com