reverse-image
SauceNAO
The de-facto reverse-image search for anime, manga and fan art, indexing billions of images from sources such as Pixiv and Danbooru. Submit an image or image URL and it identifies where the artwork came from; there is a JSON API, but it requires a free registered key. Indispensable when you need to trace an illustration back to its original artist or first posting.
Why it’s useful & how it works
SauceNAO is the standard first stop when you need to trace an anime illustration, manga panel, or fan-art piece back to its original artist and posting. It simultaneously checks more than 30 art-focused databases, including Pixiv, Danbooru, Nico Nico Seiga, DeviantArt, and several others, returning a ranked list of source matches with direct links. When you search from Echo, it passes the image URL to SauceNAO's API and displays the results inline, so you can see confidence scores and source links without leaving the page.
What’s inside
Billions of illustrations and art images across more than 30 continuously updated databases. Pixiv and Danbooru alone contribute tens of millions of entries, with Pixiv re-indexed every few hours and Danbooru updated every few minutes.
API access
https://saucenao.com/search.php?output_type=2&api_key= <KEY>&db=999&url=<IMG>
An API key is required (usually free); see the endpoints above for where to get one.
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Responded HTTP 200 457 ms
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 642 ms
- API, direct
- Cloudflare challenge HTTP 403 80 ms (just a moment)
- API, through a proxy
- Cloudflare challenge HTTP 403 550 ms (just a moment)
Reachability measured 2026-08-22.
Access
Programmatic API access (a key may be required, see the API tag).