ImgBB

Tier 2 image origin — free unlimited hosting + REST API, no card

ImgBB

Role

Tier 2 origin in the 4-tier image-host chain. Used by CI for blog-post images that don’t belong in the repo — throwaway screenshots from automated publishing flows, batch uploads generated outside an editor session, and any image too big to commit sensibly.

Free tier

• Unlimited uploads
• Unlimited bandwidth on hot-link
• REST API at https://api.imgbb.com/1/upload (key-based)
• No file-count cap, no per-day cap documented at family scale
• 32 MB per upload ceiling
• Albums + auto-delete-after-N-days options for ephemeral content

Card / subscription required?

NO. Free-tier sign-up is email-only; the API key is generated on the dashboard. No payment method requested.

How it’s used

1. CI step uploads the image via POST /1/upload with key=<IMGBB_KEY> (sourced from Doppler) + base64-encoded body.
2. API returns { data: { url, display_url, delete_url, ... } }.
3. The URL gets committed back to the post’s frontmatter as image_tier_2:.
4. Site build embeds the URL into the 3-tier image-CDN chain so deliveries still go through wsrv.nl / ImageKit transforms.

Methods supported

Upload-by-URL, upload-by-base64, upload-by-multipart-form-data. No paid plan; no auth flow beyond API key.

Alternatives

• repo-hosted on CF Pages — Tier 1 default
• Imgur — Tier 3 mirror, similar feature set
• GitHub user-content — Tier 4 for > 32 MB

Swap cost

Low — single env var (IMGBB_KEY) + one CI step. Existing URLs keep resolving even after a swap because each tier’s URLs are absolute and permanent.

Why this is our pick

• Free unlimited, no card, no quota cliff at family scale
• Permissive REST API doesn’t require OAuth dance
• Mature service (around since 2014); low operational risk

Cross-refs

• 4-tier image-host decision
• repo-hosted Tier 1
• Imgur Tier 3
• GitHub user-content Tier 4
• 3-tier image-CDN chain — the delivery layer wrapping all 4 origin tiers
• No card-on-file rule
• Never-hit-quotas rule

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