Yandex Image Search API: Full-Size Image URLs as JSON

A Yandex image search API built on the Yandex Images vertical. One text query returns structured image results: the original full-size image URL, the page hosting it, a thumbnail, and the source, with filters for type, color, orientation, file type, exact dimensions, site, and recency.

When to use this skill

• The user wants a "Yandex image search API" or "Yandex images API".
• They want to search Yandex Images programmatically and get full-size image URLs rather than thumbnails.
• They are collecting an image dataset (by topic, color, orientation, or exact size) for research, ML, or content work.
• They want images hosted on a specific site, or only recent images.

Not for: finding where a known image appears on the web (use the Yandex Reverse Image Search Actor), Google Images (use the Google Images API Actor), or plain web results (use the Yandex search API skill).

What you get (one dataset item per page, tagged item_type "image_search")

Each dataset item is one page of the Images vertical, tagged item_type "image_search", holding an image_results array of about 30 rows per page. Per image row: original (the full-size image URL), link (the hosting page), thumbnail, title, source, size, snippet, position. Each item also carries page metadata (total_results_found, page_number, pages_processed).

Prerequisites

• Apify account (sign up at https://apify.com?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills).
• Authentication via apify login, or an APIFY_TOKEN environment variable (Apify Console, Settings, Integrations).

The Actor

• Store page: https://apify.com/johnvc/Scrape-Yandex?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Actor ID: johnvc/Scrape-Yandex
• Pricing: a small per-run start fee plus a per-page fee (see references/gotchas.md).

Run it with the Apify CLI

Basic image search, two pages:

apify actors call "johnvc/Scrape-Yandex" -i '{"text":"aurora borealis","include_image_search":true,"include_organic_results":false,"max_pages":2}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-yandex-image-search-api \
  2>/dev/null

Filtered: recent, horizontal photos from one site:

apify actors call "johnvc/Scrape-Yandex" -i '{"text":"moscow skyline","include_image_search":true,"include_organic_results":false,"image_type":"photo","image_orientation":"horizontal","image_recent":true,"image_site":"commons.wikimedia.org","max_pages":2}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-yandex-image-search-api \
  2>/dev/null

Every call carries the three flags this repo expects: --json, --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-yandex-image-search-api, and 2>/dev/null.

Run it from Claude or another AI agent (MCP)

The Actor is MCP-ready. Add the hosted server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/Scrape-Yandex

Then ask, for example: "Search Yandex Images for red vintage bicycles, photos only, and give me the full-size URLs with their hosting pages." MCP setup docs: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

Workflow

1. Fetch the current input schema with apify actors info "johnvc/Scrape-Yandex" --input --json --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-yandex-image-search-api 2>/dev/null (read taggedBuilds.latest.build.inputSchema), then build the query. text is required. Set include_image_search true; turn include_organic_results false unless you also want the web SERP in the same run.
2. Apply filters. image_type (photo, clipart, and so on), image_color, image_orientation, image_file_type, exact image_width and image_height, image_site (one hosting site), image_recent (fresh images only).
3. Bound the volume. max_pages (default 2) is the cost driver.
4. Estimate cost, then confirm with the user if the run is large. See references/gotchas.md.
5. Run the Actor, then read the completed run’s defaultDatasetId into DATASET_ID and fetch its rows with apify datasets get-items "$DATASET_ID" --format json --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-yandex-image-search-api 2>/dev/null. Filter the dataset to item_type = "image_search", and read each item's image_results array (original is the full-size URL, link the hosting page). Download files yourself only where the hosting page's license allows it.

Inputs

• text (string, required): the image search query
• include_image_search (boolean): turn the Images vertical on
• image_type (enum, 6), image_color (enum, 12), image_orientation (enum, 4), image_file_type (enum, 4)
• image_width / image_height (integers, exact size), image_site (string), image_recent (boolean)
• yandex_domain, lang, lr (market targeting), max_pages (default 2)

Cost

Billing is a small one-time start fee per run plus a per-page fee, so cost is roughly proportional to max_pages. A default two-page image run costs well under a dollar; live prices and thresholds are in references/gotchas.md.

Honest limits

• Result URLs point at third-party image files; hotlinks can rot, so persist what you need (where licensing allows) rather than relying on the URLs long-term.
• Licensing is your responsibility: the Actor returns what Yandex Images lists; it does not check usage rights.
• Filter combinations can be sparse; strict size plus color plus site filters may return few or no rows.

Troubleshooting

• No image rows: confirm include_image_search is true, filter items on item_type = "image_search", and read the nested image_results array (results are not flat rows).
• Too few results: relax filters one at a time, starting with exact image_width/image_height.
• Wrong-market images: set yandex_domain, lang, and lr together.

See references/gotchas.md for cost guardrails and error recovery, and references/actor-index.md for the Actor routing table.

Related image and Yandex Actors

• Yandex Reverse Image Search API: https://apify.com/johnvc/yandex-reverse-image-search?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Google Images API: https://apify.com/johnvc/google-images-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Yandex Search, pay per result edition (rank tracking): https://apify.com/johnvc/yandex-scrape-yandex-search-results-at-scale---per-result?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills