Application Level Authentication

The Default Way to Authenticate

Application-level authentication is generally the default method for authenticating with the API. Version 3 can be controlled either by a single query parameter, api_key, or by using your access token as a Bearer token. You can request an API key by logging into your TMDB account and clicking here.

Bearer Token

The default method to authenticate is with your access token. Go to your account page, under the API settings section, and you will see a new token listed called API Read Access Token. This token should be sent as an Authorization header.

Here is a simple cURL example using this method:

cURL example

curl --request GET \
     --url 'https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/11' \
     --header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}'