TinEye Services

1. Base monthly fee, charged in advance of the month. Any overusage fees are charged the following month.
2. This is a one-time fee to set up your API.
3. The number of searches you can perform each month without additional cost.
4. The maximum number of images you can have in your search collection with no additional cost.
5. Per-search fee for use beyond your monthly limit.
6. Monthly fee for usage beyond your image collection size, calculated based on daily average.
7. Your images are not visible to anyone else.
8. API calls can be made over HTTPS.
9. Service Level Agreement. We guarantee this level of uptime per month.
10. The physical computer(s) used to host your API and images will not be used for any other client's API.
11. Weekdays, 10am to 5pm ET.
12. Weekdays, 10am to 5pm ET.
13. Cancellation will take effect at the end of your current billing period. You will not receive a refund for billing that has already occurred.

• All API licenses are subject to the TinEye terms of services
• Your credit card details are required for the signup.
• Minimum billing: one month. You can cancel your API account at any time.
• Before you sign up be sure to read our Frequently Asked Questions.

Need to speak to someone?
Call + 1 416 860 0330 or send us an email and we will be happy to answer your questions.

MatchEngine Support & Frequently Asked Questions

• What is an API? The acronym "API" stands for "Application Programming Interface". It provides a way for your developers to integrate our technology with your systems.
• Why would I want to use the MatchEngine API? If your firm needs to identify images that are the same, but have been altered so they are no longer 'binary identical'. Common uses are image set deduplication, enforcing a 'blacklist' of images and identifying images of the same items.
• Where can I find documentation about the MatchEngine API? Our complete MatchEngine documentation as well as all the supported libraries are available here.
• What do I need to access the MatchEngine API? You will need to first select a plan and sign up for an account. Once you complete the sign up form, we will get in touch to set up your server.
• Can I see MatchEngine search examples or try the search out for myself? If you haven't already done so, try out TinEye and do some searches. MatchEngine uses the same robust engine as our TinEye reverse image search engine. The main difference between TinEye and MatchEngine is that MatchEngine searches your image collection rather than the TinEye image index. MatchEngine can also find flipped images while TinEye does not.
• What languages are supported? The API is independent of the programming language you use, so you can work in any language you like. We do also supply and support libraries in many major development languages in order to make it even easier to integrate. You can see our current library list here.
• How does MatchEngine work? Once you submit your images to MatchEngine, they are automatically fingerprinted and indexed for searching. The unique fingerprint generated for each image is what MatchEngine uses to distinguish one image from another. MatchEngine uses the image fingerprints to retrieve matches.
  • A unique digital fingerprint is extracted from each image based on the patterns within the image.
  • Fingerprints for your images are stored in an index for your entire image collection.
  • When searching for an image, a fingerprint is generated on the fly and compared against your complete fingerprint index to identify matches.
  • Image submissions, via the 'add' API method, will update your index automatically.
• What are the major functions supported by the API? The major functions supported by the API are 'search', 'add' and 'delete'.
  • search: Input is an image to search for. The response is a list of matching images in your collection.
  • add: Input is one or more images. The images will be fingerprinted and added to your collection index.
  • delete: Input is an image ID. The image is removed from your collection index.
• What kind of images can be recognized by MatchEngine? MatchEngine can match images that have been altered by resizing, cropping, Photoshop edits, occlusions, color changes, etc. However, it is not optimized to work with the 'noisy' photos taken by mobile phone users – if this is your use case please see MobileEngine.
• Will MatchEngine work with my images? If you are unsure if the MatchEngine will work for your images or your particular use case, please get in touch and describe your problem in as much detail as possible.
• How do I prepare my image collection for use with MatchEngine? Images should be in JPEG, PNG or GIF format. They should be sized to ~300 pixels in the SMALLEST dimension.
• How does MatchEngine index my images? It extracts information about the patterns within your images to create a unique 'fingerprint' for each image. The fingerprints are added to an index of all the fingerprints of the images in your collection. When searches are performed, they work by comparing the fingerprint of images.
• How do I add my images to the MatchEngine API? Images are submitted to the MatchEngine API via an HTTP post using the API‘s 'add' function. Submitted images are copied to our servers where they are automatically fingerprinted using our image recognition technology and made available for searching. The unique fingerprint generated for each image is what the MatchEngine uses to distinguish one image from another and identify matches. Images should be prepared as follows:
  • JPEG, PNG or GIF file types
  • Scaled to ~300 pixels in the smallest dimension
  Images that have not been scaled to 300 pixels will be scaled down automatically by the MatchEngine. However, large images increase transmission and processing time.
• How are my images stored? Your images are stored securely on our datacenter servers. Access to your image collection is handled by the MatchEngine API, and only you have access to your images.
• How accurate are MatchEngine results? They are very accurate. MatchEngine can even find a match when just a portion of the images is identical.
• Can the MatchEngine be integrated with other search technologies? The MatchEngine is designed to work independently of other search approaches. To integrate the MatchEngine with an existing search engine, you would need to perform a parallel search with MatchEngine and intersect the two sets of results. Please note that intersection between two sets of search results must not rely on image metadata, as MatchEngine does not recognize this.
• How do I report problems, bugs or feature requests? We are happy to hear from you. Get in touch and we will respond to your question as quickly as possible.
• Can I get a free trial? We do not offer free trials. What we can do for free is offer you an expert opinion. Tell us about your project, provide sample images and we will let you know if any of our APIs meet your needs. Get in touch. Our API licenses are monthly licenses starting at $200 per month. You can cancel your API license at any time.
• Need Support? Can't find the answer you are looking for? Would like to speak to us directly? Please get in touch and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.