The Best Exercise Database APIs for Developers (2026)

Two axes decide this category: licence and hosting (data you own and serve, or an API you rent) and media (text, still images, animated GIFs, or video). Muscle, equipment and instruction fields look alike everywhere, so they rarely decide anything.

One naming note before you compare. "ExerciseDB" now mostly means AscendAPI. The exercisedb.dev home page reads "Previously ExerciseDB" above the AscendAPI name, and AscendAPI's documentation names the ExerciseDB/exercisedb-api GitHub repository as its own. There is also an older ExerciseDB listing on RapidAPI under the publisher justin-WFnsXH_t6, which our July review covered; its page renders only its title to a non-browser client today, so we could not establish whether it and AscendAPI's listings are the same product. When a tutorial says ExerciseDB, check which host it calls.

The options at a glance#

Every count above is as the source states it on October 22, 2026, except free-exercise-db's, which we counted ourselves.

ExerciseDB V1 and V2 (AscendAPI)#

AscendAPI's documentation describes two exercise products. ExerciseDB V1 is "the classic, open dataset" in AscendAPI's words, with GIF animations and step-by-step instructions. Its free tier is "1,500 exercises with 180p GIFs. No authentication required", at oss.exercisedb.dev/api/v1/exercises, and a paid tier on RapidAPI adds 360p to 1080p images and GIFs, difficulty levels and exercise types. ExerciseDB V2 is the larger product: AscendAPI states 11,000+ exercises, 15,000+ videos and 20,000+ images, with an MP4 demonstration video per exercise, overview, exerciseTips, variations and relatedExerciseIds. V2 runs only through RapidAPI; its free Basic plan gives 2,000 requests a month and 200 exercises, and "free tier media is watermarked".

AscendAPI's rate-limiting guide gives free plans 1,000 requests per hour per API key and says paid plans "have no strict rate limit". Paid prices are on its RapidAPI listings, which we could not read, and its terms of use sit behind a link that answered our snapshot runner with a bot check. It is also not self-hostable: a git clone of the exercisedb-api repository on October 22, 2026 found only a README and an AGPL-3.0 LICENSE. Best for a hosted catalog with GIFs or video and a free way to try it. Watch out: free tiers with unreadable terms, a 200-exercise V2 trial, and prices you have to read on RapidAPI. The plans are broken down on exercise database API pricing.

wger#

An open-source, self-hostable fitness application (routines, nutrition logging against Open Food Facts, body weight) whose README lists a "REST API for third-party integrations or automations". The application code is AGPL-3.0-or-later and the exercise and ingredient data is "Creative Commons (see individual entries)". In wger's code, each exercise, image and video carries its own licence and author fields, new uploads default to CC-BY-SA 4, and the exercise endpoints are commented "Everybody can read". Images must be static (the validator rejects animation), and a separate video model accepts mp4, mov, webm, ogv and ogg files. We could not read the live catalog size on wger.de, whose bot check blocked our runner, so this page gives no wger count. Best for full control and an auditable stack with no per-call fee. Watch out: AGPL on code you modify and deploy, attribution and share-alike on much of the data, and an application to operate rather than a dataset. For per-image licences and the options if wger does not fit, see how wger's exercise image licenses work.

API Ninjas Exercises#

A hosted REST API that API Ninjas says covers "over 3000 exercises". Each record has name, type, muscle, difficulty, instructions, an equipments array and safety_info, and on premium plans an images array of start and finish photos "in movement order". A call to /v1/exercises returns up to five results; paging past them uses a premium offset, and the full list for a muscle group (/v1/allexercises) needs the Business tier or an annual plan. A free key exists, but the free plan is "Evaluation and demo purposes only" and API Ninjas says commercial use "is not permitted on the free tier". Its pricing page lists the Developer plan at $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly, and that plan does not allow storing data; Business, at $149 or $99, does. Best for lightweight metadata with simple photos. Watch out: no video or GIFs, five results per call, and the storage rule if you plan to cache the catalog.

free-exercise-db#

Technically a dataset, not an API: yuhonas/free-exercise-db on GitHub, which its README calls an "Open Public Domain Exercise Dataset" of 800+ exercises. When we counted the combined dist/exercises.json on October 22, 2026 it held 876 exercises with force, level, mechanic, equipment, primary and secondary muscles, instructions and category, and 1,746 JPEG image paths. Its LICENSE.md is the Unlicense, so there is no attribution or share-alike to carry. There is no key and no server: you clone the repo or fetch the JSON and images from raw GitHub URLs, as the README describes, and serve them yourself. Best for bootstrapping with zero cost and zero licence friction. Watch out: static files, English only, no motion, and you own search, hosting and fixes. The counted breakdown is on what free-exercise-db contains, counted.

Exercise and workout video APIs#

Only one option here serves demonstration video from a hosted API: AscendAPI's ExerciseDB V2, with an MP4 per exercise, watermarked on the free plan. wger's code can store and serve videos you supply on your own server. ExerciseDB V1 stops at GIFs, API Ninjas at still photos and free-exercise-db at JPEGs. Formats, watermarks, licences and the stock-library route are compared in exercise video APIs compared. If what you need is to analyse the user's own movement through the camera rather than play a demonstration, that is pose estimation: see AI workout tracking APIs.

Which should you pick?#

• Zero cost and zero licence obligations: free-exercise-db. Public domain, no key, no attribution; you host the files.
• A maintained, self-hosted, auditable stack: wger, if you can accept AGPL on deployed changes and per-entry Creative Commons on the data.
• A hosted catalog with GIFs or video: AscendAPI's ExerciseDB. Prototype on V1's keyless free tier or V2's Basic plan, then read the paid prices and the terms of use on RapidAPI before launch.
• Text metadata with simple photos: API Ninjas Exercises on a paid plan, Business if you will store the data.

Watch the fine print#

Exercise counts, free tiers, prices and gating in this category change often. This page was re-checked on October 22, 2026 against AscendAPI's documentation and home page, API Ninjas' Exercises and pricing pages, and the free-exercise-db, wger and exercisedb-api repositories. Before you commit, re-read the licence or terms that govern the exact files you will ship.