Detect Language API

⭐ Beginner's Pick Text Analysis / API Key Intermediate HTTPS
Varies by plan (check documentation)

Overview

Detect Language API accurately identifies the language of any text, supporting over 164 languages and returning ISO language codes. It is simple to integrate with a straightforward POST request and an API key. Developers can use it to automatically route multilingual user content to the correct processing pipeline.

💡

Beginner Tip

Send a POST request with your text in the "q" field and include your API key as a Bearer token — responses come back in milliseconds with an ISO 639-1 language code.

Available Data

translated text
source language
target language
confidence score
Use case: Integrate detects text language data into web and mobile applications

Example Response

JSON Response
{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "result": "Data from Detect Language",
    "description": "Detects text language",
    "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:00:00Z"
  }
}

Field Reference

language ISO 639-1 code of the detected language (e.g., "en", "de", "ja")
isReliable Whether the detection confidence is high enough to trust the result
confidence Confidence score for the top detected language; higher is more certain
data.detections Array of all detected language candidates with their individual confidence scores

Implementation Example

const url = "https://detectlanguage.com/";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
  "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

401 Unauthorized API key is missing or invalid in the Authorization header
Use the format "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" — copy the key from your detectlanguage.com account page
isReliable: false in response The submitted text is too short or ambiguous for confident detection
Submit longer text (a full sentence or more) to get reliable results
429 Rate Limit Exceeded Free plan allows limited daily detections
Cache results for repeated text inputs or upgrade to a paid plan for higher limits

Matrix Score Breakdown

🌐 Reachability 30/30
⚡ Speed 5/20
🔒 Security 15/15
🛠 Developer XP 12/20
✓ Reliability 10/15

Partially tested on Apr 5, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth API Key
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS UNKNOWN
Category Text Analysis
Difficulty Intermediate
Verified: 2026-04-04

Alternatives to Detect Language

Technical alternatives for different use cases.

Language detection with 173 language support

Better For

Detecting more languages with confidence scores

Trade-off

Free tier (languagelayer requires paid plan)

Includes language detection alongside translation

Better For

Combined detection and translation in one API

Trade-off

Standalone detection accuracy for rare languages

Recipes Using Detect Language

Build something with this API. Each recipe includes step-by-step instructions and code outlines.

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