Automating Image Search and Download with the Pexels API Module

In the age of digital content creation, high-quality images are essential for bloggers, marketers, and developers alike. Platforms like Pexels provide an incredible resource of royalty-free images, but manually searching and downloading can be time-consuming. This is where automating the process becomes a game-changer, and Python is the perfect tool for this task.

Git: https://github.com/NolanMM/Automating-Image-Search-and-Download-with-the-PexelsAPI-Module.git

I. Sample Usage and Output

search_query = input('Enter a search term: ')
num_images = int(input('Enter the number of images to search for: '))
pexels_api_search_service = PexelsApiSearch()
image_urls_list = pexels_api_search_service.search(search_query,num_images)
if image_urls_list:
    search.save_images(image_urls_list, search_query)

Run the python Script

git clone https://github.com/NolanMM/Automating-Image-Search-and-Download-with-the-PexelsAPI-Module.git
pip install requests python-dotenv
python pexels_image_downloader.py

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to create a Python script that automates image searches and downloads using the Pexels API. We’ll build a class that can perform searches and save images directly to your local machine.

II. Setting Up the Project

To begin, you’ll need to install the requests library if you haven’t already. This library will allow us to send HTTP requests and handle the responses.

pip install requests

III. Writing Script

1. Initialization: We initialize the class with the Pexels API key, which allows us to authenticate our requests.

API_KEY = os.getenv('PEXELS_API_KEY')
BASE_URL = 'https://api.pexels.com/v1/'
class PexelsApiSearch:
  def __init__(self):
    self.api_key = API_KEY
    self.base_url = BASE_URL

2. Image Search: The search method takes in a search query and sends a request to the Pexels API. If successful, it returns the URLs of the images found.

def search(self, query, per_page=15):
  headers = {'Authorization': self.api_key}
  params = {'query': query, 'per_page': per_page}
  response = requests.get(self.base_url + 'search', \
                          headers=headers, params=params)
  if response.status_code == 200:
      data = response.json()
      return [photo['src']['original'] for photo in data['photos']]
  else:
      print('Error:', response.status_code)
      return []

3. Saving Images: The save_images method accepts a list of image URLs and downloads them to a directory named after the search query.

def save_images(self, image_urls, query):
  save_directory = f'./images/{query}'
  if not os.path.exists(save_directory):
      os.makedirs(save_directory)
  for i, url in enumerate(image_urls):
      response = requests.get(url)
      if response.status_code == 200:
          file_path = os.path.join(save_directory, f'image_{i+1}.jpg')
          with open(file_path, 'wb') as f:
              f.write(response.content)
          print(f'Saved: {file_path}')
      else:
          print(f'Error downloading image {i+1}:',response.status_code)

III. Retrieving Pexels API key (Free)

1. Retrieve the API key by clicking the link: https://www.pexels.com/login/
2. Sign Up or Login to Pexels by the link above.
3. Go to the profile and click the API tab like the image below.

4. Retrieve the API key

IV. Note

Pexels API Limit(Free)

200 Requests per Hour or

20,000 Requests per Month

More information

https://help.pexels.com/hc/en-us/categories/900001326143-API