Free JSON API
The tape, machine-readable
Every leaderboard, price series, plan change, and market event on this site is available as JSON. No key, no signup. One condition: attribute “The Token Tape” with a link to thetokentape.com wherever the data appears (CC BY 4.0).
Endpoints
| Endpoint | Query params | Returns |
|---|---|---|
| GET /api/v1/leaderboard | category=all|coding|cli-agent|models · days=7 · limit=50 | The OpenRouter usage leaderboard with deltas. category=models returns the model token board. |
| GET /api/v1/tools/{slug} | days=90 | One tool: entity record, token series, plan snapshot + change history, releases, adoption, Reddit pulse, benchmarks. |
| GET /api/v1/models/{slug} | days=90 | One model: entity record, usage-share series, current/announced/historical per-MTok prices, benchmarks, releases, Reddit pulse. |
| GET /api/v1/events | limit=50 (max 200) · entity={slug} · min_significance=1|2|3 | The market-event tape: price changes, plan changes, rank crossovers, releases, benchmark results, deprecations, milestones. |
base url https://thetokentape.com · cors enabled · cached s-maxage=3600
Response envelope
Every response is wrapped in the same envelope. meta.attribution is the string you must display; meta.source_notes carries upstream citations (OpenRouter’s, for usage numbers) and measurement caveats. Errors use { "error": { "code", "message" } } with 400/404 status.
{
"data": [ … ],
"meta": {
"generated_at": "2026-07-08T14:00:00.000Z",
"attribution": "Data: The Token Tape — thetokentape.com (CC BY 4.0, link required)",
"source_notes": [
"Source: OpenRouter (openrouter.ai/apps), as of 2026-07-07. …"
],
"snapshot_date": "2026-07-07"
}
}Examples
Top coding apps by tokens/day, with 7-day deltas
curl "https://thetokentape.com/api/v1/leaderboard?category=coding&limit=10"Model token board
curl "https://thetokentape.com/api/v1/leaderboard?category=models"Everything we track for Claude Code
curl "https://thetokentape.com/api/v1/tools/claude-code"Price history + current prices for a model
curl "https://thetokentape.com/api/v1/models/claude-sonnet-4-5" | jq ".data.prices"Significant events only (rank crossovers, price changes…)
curl "https://thetokentape.com/api/v1/events?min_significance=3&limit=20"Attribution — the one rule
The data is licensed CC BY 4.0. Charts, articles, dashboards, model training, answer engines — all fine. Display “Data: The Token Tape” linked to thetokentape.com near the data. For OpenRouter-derived usage numbers, also keep OpenRouter’s citation from meta.source_notes. Republishing without the link is the one thing that isn’t allowed.
Rate limits
There is no hard quota. Responses are edge-cached for an hour, and the data only changes daily — so polling faster than hourly buys you nothing. Be reasonable (≤1 request/second sustained); abusive traffic gets blocked. Need full history, CSV export, custom alert webhooks, or a guaranteed SLA? That’s the Pro plan.
How the numbers are produced — sources, ranking formula, cadence — is documented on the methodology page. Machine-readable feeds: this API and the RSS feed.