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GIPHY

GIPHY is the world's largest library of animated GIFs, stickers, and short video clips, serving more than 10 billion pieces of content per day to millions of users across thousands of applications. The GIPHY API gives developers programmatic access to this library through a simple REST interface, enabling applications to search for GIFs and stickers by keyword, retrieve trending content, translate text or slang into the most relevant GIF, fetch a single random GIF, and look up specific GIFs by ID. All endpoints return structured JSON responses containing media URLs, metadata, attribution details, and user information. The GIPHY API is widely used in messaging platforms, social applications, productivity tools, and marketing campaigns to enrich user experiences with expressive animated media.

GIPHY icon

Power end-to-end data operations for your GIPHY API with Nexla. Our bi-directional GIPHY connector is purpose-built for GIPHY, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to GIPHY or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your GIPHY workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

  • Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
  • Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
  • API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
  • Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites​

To connect Nexla to the GIPHY API, you need a GIPHY developer account and an API key. GIPHY uses API key authentication — every request to the API must include your API key as a query parameter. API keys are issued through the GIPHY Developer Dashboard and can be created free of charge.

All new API keys begin as beta keys, which are rate-limited to 100 API calls per hour. If your integration requires higher throughput, you can submit a production key application through the Developer Dashboard. GIPHY will review the application and, if approved, provision a production key with higher rate limits.

Create a GIPHY Developer Account and API Key​

  1. Navigate to the GIPHY Developer Portal at developers.giphy.com and click Create Account to register. If you already have a GIPHY account, click Log In instead.

  2. After signing in, you will be taken to your Developer Dashboard. Click the Create an App button to begin creating a new application.

  3. On the app creation screen, select API as the app type (as opposed to the SDK option), then click Next Step.

  4. Enter a name for your application in the App Name field (for example, Nexla Integration) and a brief description in the App Description field explaining how you intend to use the API.

  5. Check the checkbox to agree to the GIPHY API Terms of Service, then click Create App.

  6. Your new application will appear on the Developer Dashboard. The API Key is displayed directly below the app name. Copy this value and store it securely — you will need it when configuring your Nexla credential.

Important

Keep your API key confidential. Do not commit it to source control or share it in public forums. If your key is compromised, you can regenerate it from the Developer Dashboard.

Beta API keys are rate-limited to 100 requests per hour. To request a production key with higher limits, visit your Developer Dashboard and submit a production key application. For complete details on rate limits and key tiers, refer to the GIPHY API FAQ and the Request a GIPHY API Key support article.

Authenticate​

Create a credential in Nexla​

  1. After selecting the data source type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

  2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

  3. Enter your GIPHY API key in the API Key field. This key is appended as the api_key query parameter to every request Nexla sends to the GIPHY API and is required for all endpoints.

    The API key is stored securely by Nexla and is masked after saving. To rotate or revoke an API key, return to the GIPHY Developer Dashboard and manage your app's key from there.

  4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source creation and can be selected for use with a new data source.

Use as a data source​

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Giphy connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Giphy API, and click Next; or, create a new Giphy credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Giphy API endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below; click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

Search GIFs

This endpoint searches the Giphy library for GIFs matching a keyword or phrase. Use this endpoint when you need to retrieve GIF content and metadata for specific topics, brands, or expressions — for example, to populate a content catalog, analyze GIF engagement by topic, or feed a recommendation engine.

  • Enter the word or phrase to search for in the Query field. Giphy will return GIFs whose title, tags, or associated metadata match the search term. Multi-word searches are supported (for example, happy birthday or reaction meme).

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Limit field to control the maximum number of GIF records returned per API request. The Giphy API supports a maximum of 50 results per page; the default is 25. For large data ingestion jobs, Nexla will paginate automatically.

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Rating field to filter results by content rating. Accepted values are:

    • g — General audiences (all ages)
    • pg — Parental guidance suggested
    • pg-13 — Parents strongly cautioned
    • r — Restricted (adult audiences)
  • Optionally, enter an ISO 639-1 two-letter language code in the Language field to filter search results to GIFs relevant to a specific language or locale (for example, en for English or es for Spanish).

The Search GIFs endpoint returns a JSON array of GIF objects under the data key. Each object contains the GIF ID, URL, embed URL, title, rating, user information, images at various resolutions, and attribution metadata. The Giphy API reference provides complete field descriptions at developers.giphy.com/docs/api/endpoint/#search.

Trending GIFs

This endpoint retrieves the currently trending GIFs on Giphy. Trending content is updated daily and reflects the most relevant and engaging GIFs across the Giphy network. Use this endpoint when you want to track what content is popular, power a trending feed, or analyze GIF engagement trends over time.

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Limit field to specify the maximum number of trending GIF records to return per request. The maximum supported by the Giphy API is 50; the default is 25.

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Rating field to filter trending results by content rating. Accepted values are g, pg, pg-13, and r.

Trending GIFs are recalculated by Giphy on a daily basis. To capture daily snapshots of trending content, consider scheduling this Nexla source to run once per day. Additional details are available in the Giphy Trending endpoint documentation.

Search Stickers

This endpoint searches the Giphy sticker library for animated stickers matching a keyword or phrase. Stickers are animated, transparent-background GIFs designed for use in messaging apps, creation tools, and iMessage-style integrations. Use this endpoint when you need sticker-specific content and metadata rather than standard GIFs.

  • Enter the word or phrase to search for in the Query field. Giphy will return stickers whose title or tags match the search term.

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Limit field to control the maximum number of sticker records returned per request (maximum 50, default 25).

  • Optionally, enter a content rating in the Rating field to filter results. Accepted values are g, pg, pg-13, and r.

Stickers are stored in a separate Giphy library from GIFs. Content and metadata returned by this endpoint — including image URLs and attribution — follow the same structure as the GIF search response. For complete field documentation, refer to the Giphy API reference.

Trending Stickers

This endpoint retrieves the currently trending stickers on Giphy. Use this endpoint when you want to track popular sticker content, build a trending sticker feed, or analyze sticker engagement trends.

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Limit field to specify the maximum number of trending sticker records to return per request (maximum 50, default 25).

  • Optionally, enter a value in the Rating field to filter results by content rating. Accepted values are g, pg, pg-13, and r.

Get GIF by ID

This endpoint retrieves a single GIF object by its unique Giphy ID. Use this endpoint when you have a specific GIF ID and need to fetch its full metadata — for example, to enrich an existing dataset with current GIF information or to verify that a specific GIF is still available.

  • Enter the unique Giphy GIF identifier in the GIF ID field. GIF IDs are alphanumeric strings (for example, xT9IgG50Lg7russbER) that can be found in any previous Giphy API response or in the GIF's share URL on giphy.com.

This endpoint returns a single GIF object, not an array. If you need to retrieve multiple GIFs by ID in a single call, the Giphy API also supports a "Get GIFs by IDs" endpoint that accepts a comma-separated list of IDs. You can access that endpoint via the manual configuration option below.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration​

Giphy data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Giphy API endpoint not covered by the pre-built templates — such as Translate, Random GIF, or Get GIFs by multiple IDs — or when a custom request parameter is needed. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

The Giphy API is a read-only REST API — all endpoints use the GET method. All endpoint URLs begin with https://api.giphy.com/v1/, for example: https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?q=your+query&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Search GIFs), https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/trending?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Trending GIFs), https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/random?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Random GIF), https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/GIF_ID?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Get GIF by ID), https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs?ids=ID1,ID2&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Get GIFs by IDs), and https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/translate?s=your+phrase&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (Translate), with equivalent /v1/stickers/trending and /v1/stickers/search endpoints for stickers. Your Giphy API key is automatically injected by Nexla from the credential — you do not need to manually add the api_key query parameter or a request header when using credential-based authentication.

Giphy API responses wrap records inside a data key, with pagination metadata in a pagination key and attribution information in a meta key. For list endpoints (Search, Trending), enter $.data[*] in the Set Path to Data in Response field; for the Get GIF by ID endpoint, use $.data. To preserve pagination totals or attribution details on each record, enter $.pagination and/or $.meta in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Giphy data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.