API Use Policy
The Trakt API helps developers build apps and tools that make Trakt more useful: discovering movies and shows, tracking what people watch, managing lists, and connecting their favorite experiences. We welcome integrations that support Trakt users and contribute to a healthy Trakt ecosystem.
What matters is how you use Trakt access and data. Bulk harvesting, resale, unauthorized redistribution, spam, and evading restrictions are not permitted.
What is permitted?
You can build apps and tools that help people use Trakt or manage their own data. Examples include:
- A mobile, desktop, or web app for browsing movies and shows and managing a user's Trakt watch history, ratings, or lists.
- A media player integration that scrobbles playback to the user's connected Trakt account.
- A personal or self-hosted tool that syncs a user's media server activity with their own Trakt account.
- A Discord bot that shares a user's own activity where they have chosen to post it.
- A one-off personal script that helps a user export or migrate their own watch history, ratings, or lists.
- An app that displays public discovery information, such as trending titles.
An app's popularity, where it runs, or whether it uses a backend does not determine whether it is permitted. The same usage rules apply to personal tools and widely used apps. Caching and background updates are welcome when they support the features your users choose.
These uses must follow the requirements below. Access to Trakt data is not permission to sell it, distribute it as a dataset, or supply it to other services for their own use.
What is not permitted?
- Scraping, bulk harvesting, or mirroring Trakt data to build a reusable copy of its catalog, community activity, ratings, or lists.
- Selling Trakt API access or datasets obtained through it.
- Redistributing Trakt data as a feed or dataset that other services use to populate their own catalogs, rankings, recommendations, or data products.
- Giving other services access to Trakt through your app's credentials.
- Posting unsolicited activity, comments, or other content, or using automation to manipulate ratings, likes, or other community activity.
- Working around rate limits, account restrictions, or a restriction placed on an integration.
Helping a user manage, share, or move their own data is different from collecting data across Trakt to supply another product. User authorization covers access to that user's account and the actions they choose. It does not grant permission to redistribute other users' data or Trakt's broader datasets.
Examples at a glance
| Use case | Permitted? |
|---|---|
| A third-party app lets a user manage their Trakt watchlist. | Yes, subject to this policy. |
| That app caches data for the features its users use. | Yes, within the app's needs and access permissions. |
| A media player reports watched episodes to a connected Trakt account. | Yes, with the user's authorization. |
| A self-hosted tool syncs a user's media server activity with their own Trakt account. | Yes, with the user's authorization. |
| A Discord bot posts a user's own activity to a channel they choose. | Yes, without spam or unwanted posts. |
| A personal script migrates a user's own watch history to their account on another platform. | Yes, at the user's request. |
| A service collects Trakt community lists or ratings to supply another product or sell a data feed. | No. |
| An operator routes a blocked integration through replacement keys or credentials supplied by its users. | No. |
Respect users and their data
Get user authorization before accessing protected account data or acting on someone's behalf. Access and keep only the data needed for the features the user has chosen, respect privacy and access restrictions, and stop accessing an account when authorization is withdrawn.
Keep credentials secure. Do not ask users to share their Trakt passwords or use another person's credentials to obtain access you are not entitled to.
Read the Trakt Privacy Policy to understand how Trakt handles information. It does not cover your application's own data practices. Provide your own clear privacy information explaining what you collect, why you collect it, how long you keep it, and how users can disconnect and request deletion.
Use the API fairly
The API is shared by many apps and their users. Keep your usage proportionate to the features people actually use:
- Use documented API features and respect rate limits and account or feature restrictions.
- Reuse data where appropriate and avoid repeatedly requesting information you already have.
- Keep background activity proportionate to users' needs and address excessive traffic promptly.
- Do not scrape the website or create additional API apps to evade limits.
Staying below a rate limit does not make a prohibited use permitted.
Keep your app active
We will automatically delete API app registrations after 30 consecutive days with no usage. Registrations that have only been used for testing during their first 30 days will also be deleted. This keeps unused registrations from accumulating and helps us support apps that people use.
A personal tool in regular use counts as an active app, even if it serves only one person. Having a single user does not, by itself, make an app a test app.
Deletion removes the app's API access, not the owner's Trakt account or watch history. Keep your developer contact details current so we can reach you about your app.
Follow Trakt's terms and branding requirements
Read and follow the Trakt Terms of Use alongside this API guidance. This page does not replace those terms or grant ownership of Trakt data, content, or trademarks. Do not use Trakt data in applications or websites that promote copyright infringement or piracy.
Follow the Trakt Branding Guide when identifying your integration with Trakt. Use the approved assets without modifying them, keep the required clear space, and do not incorporate the Trakt logo into your own identity or imply Trakt sponsorship or endorsement.
Access restrictions and circumvention
If an integration does not follow this policy, we will normally contact its developer, explain the issue, and give them a reasonable opportunity to address it before restricting access. We may restrict, suspend, or revoke access immediately for abuse or when needed to protect Trakt or its users.
Operators must not work around a restriction by continuing the affected integration through replacement apps, keys, accounts, credentials supplied by users, or third parties. Renaming or repackaging the same integration does not restore permission to use the API. This rule targets evasion of a restriction; using your own credentials for an otherwise permitted personal or self-hosted tool is allowed.
Unsure whether your integration is permitted?
Contact Trakt support if your use is not covered by these examples. Tell us how your integration helps users, whose data it accesses, and how that data is used or shared. We're happy to help clarify how your idea fits into the Trakt ecosystem.
Keep your developer contact details current and follow Trakt API discussions and announcements for updates.