Plex API Documentation
Plex Media Server contains a large number of API commands that can be sent as requests to the Plex server. These commands can allow a Plex owner to gather information about their Plex server, download the Plex database or logs, and even manage the updates of the Plex server software.
Looking for an API command?
You can use the expandable menu on the left to view a specific API command you can use with your own Plex sever.
Below is a list of commands added recently as well as some of the most popular ones over the past month.
What's new
Using the API commands
The API commands can be run from any Web browser, or from tools that can make GET HTTP requests, such as Postman. Most requests sent to Plex will return an XML string value that can then be parsed to obtain the information needed from the request.
All requests do require a Plex token to be submitted. The owner of the Plex server can easily obtain the Plex token from the server, and then add it to any API request for authentication.
Documentation organization
This API is organized into various categories to help sort the API requests that can be sent to a Plex server. I have tried to provide as much documentation about each request as I could, however, there is sometimes limited information about the return data from an API request.
In addition, I will continue to add more API commands to this site as I am able to find and report the commands.
The current API commands that are available on this site can be found in the list on the left side. The commands are organized into various sections to make finding the correct API command easier.
The Plex token
Most Plex API commands will require a Plex token to be passed in as a parameter. Most commands will require the Plex administrative token. Other commands, such as playlists, are specific to a Plex user and will require the token for the user.
Providing an invalid token, or a token that doesn't have correct access to make the request, will result in HTTP error 401 - Unauthorized.
JSON response
By default, Plex will return XML data for those API requests that return a response with data. This is what is described on the pages of the API commands.
Plex also can return a response in JSON format if you wish to work with JSON.
To have Plex return JSON, you simply add the following header to the API request:
Accept: application/json