Get a key

Sign in with Google or GitHub at https://app.megalania.io/login. Open the Keys page and make a key. Send it as Authorization: Bearer meg_sk_…. Nobody at Megalania has to do anything for you.

Two addresses appear below. https://get.megalania.io is the host for scraping. https://api.megalania.io is the host for batches, keys and your account.

From nothing to a 200 in five steps

1. Sign in. Open https://app.megalania.io/login and press Sign in with Google or Sign in with GitHub. Your first sign-in makes your account. In the beta, only invited emails can sign in. If the sign-in page says you are not invited, write to [email protected] from the email you want to use.

2. Make a key. Open the Keys page. Pick a name, the scope and the date it stops working, then press Create:

• scope scrape (meg_sk_…): for scraping and batches.
• scope account (meg_ak_…): for your account over the API: more keys, people, usage, purchases. It cannot scrape.

Every key has an end date, at most 400 days ahead. We show each key once. Store it in a password manager now.

3. Put it in your shell.

export MEG_API_KEY='meg_sk_...'

4. Use it now. A new key works within a second, at most a minute.

5. Scrape.

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MEG_API_KEY" \
  "https://get.megalania.io/v1?engine=http&url=https://docs.megalania.io/start/quickstart"

It prints 200. This key is the bearer key that the other guides call “your key”. A key in the address (?api_key=) is refused.

Subscribing and buying credits

Sign in, then pick a plan. You pay on Stripe’s page; we never see your card. Each paid month adds the plan’s monthly credits to your account as soon as Stripe confirms the payment. Credits from a month last 61 days, so unused ones carry over one month. A pack tops up an active subscription and is sold only for your plan. If you open /buy signed out, the page sends you to sign in and back.

In test mode, use the card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date and any CVC. No real money moves.

Over the API, the account’s owner subscribes with an account key: POST /v1/account/subscription. See account.md. Packs: POST /v1/account/checkout, see account.md.

A lost key

Make a new one on the Keys page and revoke the old one there. A revoked key stops working within about a second. There is nothing to recover: we store only a hash of each key.

Errors on this page

Every code, with its cost, is in errors.md.