TMDB API uses Application level authentication. You can either authenticate with an api_key or by using your access token as a Bearer token. To learn how to obtain these credentials, please visit the Authentication page for details.

Using the bearer token has an added benefit of being a single authentication process that you can use across both the v3 and v4 methods.

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Authenticate with Bearer token

To authenticate with your bearer token, you’ll have to obtain the API Read Access Token from your dashboard (see obtain api key), then send it along as an Authorization header - See cURL example below.

curl --request GET \
     --url 'https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/11' \
     --header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdWQiOiIzNDExYjEzMDZlZjc4YWM4NTliZGI1YzZlZWFkNTIyOSIsIm5iZiI6MTczMzc1MzU2OS4yMTcsInN1YiI6IjY3NTZmYWUxOGIyY2MyNzg4YjExZGUzOCIsInNjb3BlcyI6WyJhcGlfcmVhZCJdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjoxfQ.x5-zdG_Pxfdpidu80KgSm0i3kMFVl2vSnIR2I3NiR8M'

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session_id, guest_session_id, and account_id,

There are other credentials necessary to access some endpoints on TMDB. This section explains in details, how to get each of these credential.

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session_id (User authentication)

The endpoints in Authentication section of this docs allows you to authenticate users so they can do things like, rate movies, add to favourite, as well as create and edit custom list in your application while staying in sync with their TMDB account.

This is controlled with a session_id parameter. Follow the steps below to generate a session_id:

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1. Create a new request token

The create-request-token endpoint allows you to request a new token. This is a temporary token, required to ask the user for permission to access their account and will expire automatically after 60 minutes, if not used.

account_id account_id

example request token

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2. Ask the user for permission

Using the request token from the previous request, replace with REQUEST TOKEN in the url below and forward to your user.

https://www.themoviedb.org/authenticate/{REQUEST_TOKEN}

This will enable the TMDB user to approve your request from their end.

account_id account_id

You can also add a redirect parameter to the url if you have a page you want the user to arrive at, after authenticating.

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3. Create session_id

Once the request token has been approved by the user, use the create-session endpoint, with the approved request token as body parameter, to request for a session_id.

account_id account_id

You will need the session_id as a parameter for subsequent requests. So you should treat it like a password and keep it safe.

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guest_session_id

Guest sessions are special kind of session that gives users the functionality of an account like, rate a movie etc. without having a registered account on TMDB.

To create a Guest session, use the create-guest-session endpoint. If the request is successful, you will recieve a guest session_id like so:

account_id account_id

Guest sessions will automatically be deleted if they are not used withn 60 minutes of being issued.

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account_id

This is a unique Id for a user’s account and a required parameter for all accounts endpoints. It allow users to add or remove personalized informaton from a users account, and is automatically generated once a user logs in to their TMDB account.

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To find your account_id, you can either use the endpoint:

BaseUrl/account?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&session_id=YOUR_SESSION_ID

or

  • Login to your tmdb account on the API reference docs
  • Check the account_id path parameter for any accounts endpoint. account_id account_id