ExerciseDB vs API Ninjas: GIFs and Video or a Simple Exercise Lookup?

Disclosure: this site is funded by KinesteX, which sells a motion-tracking SDK for fitness apps. Neither API on this page is ours, and we have no reason to prefer either. AscendAPI and API Ninjas facts come from their own documentation, home and pricing pages, read through a source snapshot on October 27, 2026; every count below is the vendor's own figure.

First, which ExerciseDB?#

The exercisedb.dev home page now reads "Previously ExerciseDB" above the name AscendAPI, and it sells two exercise products. ExerciseDB V1 is free with no key at oss.exercisedb.dev, 1,500 exercises with 180p GIFs, with a paid tier on RapidAPI. ExerciseDB V2 is on RapidAPI only, with an MP4 video per exercise. On this page "ExerciseDB" means those two. ExerciseDB vs wger covers the older RapidAPI listing under the same name.

API Ninjas is a catalog of small APIs sold under one key, and its Exercises API is one of them. The two meet on the same question, "give my app an exercise list", but they sell different things: ExerciseDB sells media, and API Ninjas sells a simple lookup.

ExerciseDB vs API Ninjas at a glance#

Prices for every plan are in exercise database API pricing.

Where ExerciseDB wins#

Demonstration media. AscendAPI's V2 overview says "Each exercise includes an MP4 demonstration video for in-app playback", alongside images at 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p, and it states 11,000+ exercises, 15,000+ videos and 20,000+ images. V1's paid tier serves images and GIFs at the same four sizes, and its free tier one 180p GIF per exercise. API Ninjas returns photos only, and only on premium plans. For a workout player, that difference usually decides it; exercise APIs with video compares every source of demo video.

Richer records. A V1 record carries arrays of body parts, target muscles, secondary muscles and equipment, plus step-by-step instructions. V2 adds an overview, exerciseTips, variations, keywords and relatedExerciseIds. API Ninjas returns one primary muscle per exercise.

A free path you can ship a prototype on. V1's free tier needs no sign-up and no key, and AscendAPI's rate-limit guide gives free plans "a limit of 1,000 requests per hour per API key". V2's Basic plan, per AscendAPI's quickstart, is free with 2,000 requests a month, 200 exercises, images and videos, and no credit card.

Where API Ninjas wins#

Terms you can read before you build. API Ninjas' pricing page puts commercial use, data storage, rate limits, attribution and uptime in one table. The Free plan is "Evaluation and demo purposes only", with attribution required and no commercial use; Developer adds commercial use with 100,000 calls a month and a 99% uptime SLA; Business adds "Data caching/storing allowed" with 1,000,000 calls and a 99.95% SLA. AscendAPI's pages we read state rate limits but not its terms on commercial use or on keeping a copy of the data, and its paid prices sit on RapidAPI listings our snapshot did not read.

One key, no marketplace. API Ninjas keys come from its own site and go in an X-Api-Key header; ExerciseDB's paid tiers and all of V2 go through RapidAPI, with its own account, subscription and X-RapidAPI-Key. If your app already calls other API Ninjas endpoints, such as its Calories Burned API, one plan covers them all.

Simple filters and safety cues. /v1/exercises filters by name (partial matches), type (seven values from cardio to strongman), muscle, difficulty (beginner, intermediate or expert) and equipments, and each result carries instructions and safety_info. API Ninjas' FAQ also promises that over-quota requests "will simply be denied", so a traffic spike never bills you beyond your plan.

The catches on each side#

ExerciseDB. Free V2 media is watermarked; AscendAPI says paid plans serve "clean, watermark-free assets". Some fields in its schema tables are still marked "Next Update" or "Coming Soon", among them muscle activation images on both versions and a difficulty level on V2, so check the field you need is "Available" before designing around it.

API Ninjas. /v1/exercises "Returns up to 5 exercises", and the offset parameter that pages past them is premium. The full list of exercise names for a muscle group, /v1/allexercises, is for "Business tier and above, or any annual plan". The Developer plan does not allow caching or storing data, so an app that keeps a local copy of the catalog needs Business.

Which should you pick?#

• Video or animated demos in the app → ExerciseDB: V2 for MP4 video, V1 for GIFs.
• A free prototype that may become a product → ExerciseDB V1 free or the V2 Basic plan to build, then read AscendAPI's paid plans and terms on RapidAPI before launch.
• Text metadata and a still photo, under terms you can cite → API Ninjas on a paid plan; Business if you store the data.
• Filtering by difficulty or equipment on a budget → API Ninjas' Developer plan covers both filters, while ExerciseDB V1 lists difficulty only in its paid-tier schema.
• Data you own outright, with no API at all → neither: free-exercise-db is public domain. See ExerciseDB vs free-exercise-db.

The wider field, wger included, is in exercise database APIs compared and ExerciseDB alternatives.