API Documentation

3Captcha is a captcha-solving API. When a website you're automating shows a captcha (a "prove you're human" challenge), you send us the captcha's details and we return a token that proves the challenge was passed. You then submit that token to the website, exactly as if a real user had solved it.

You are charged only when a solve succeeds — there is no cost for failed attempts.

1. Get your API key — create an account, then copy the prv_… key from your dashboard.
2. Send a solve request — POST the sitekey + siteurl, passing your key in the x-api-key header.
3. Submit the token — the response's token goes into the captcha field on the target site.

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}'

# Success
{"status":"success","token":"0.w0e4...","elapsed":5.2}

The async flow is the recommended way to solve. It never blocks your connection and survives long solves. It's just two steps:

1. Create a task — send the captcha details, get a taskId back instantly.
2. Poll that task — ask for the taskId every few seconds until you get success (with the token) or error.

Works for every enabled type: turnstile, recaptcha-v2, recaptcha-v3 and ocr.

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/createTask \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"type":"turnstile","sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}'

# 200 OK — keep the taskId, you poll it in step 2
{"status":"success","taskId":"c60c71cdec26fae307cc73ceb8f40a92","type":"turnstile"}

curl "http://3captcha.world/getTaskResult?taskId=c60c71cdec26fae307cc73ceb8f40a92" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

The result is always one of three states:

{"status":"processing","taskId":"c60c71..."}                 # still solving → poll again
{"status":"success","taskId":"c60c71...","token":"0.w0e4..."}  # done → use "token"
{"status":"error","taskId":"c60c71...","detail":"..."}      # failed

Once you get success, the token is the solved captcha. Submit it to the target site exactly like a human's answer:

• Turnstile → the cf-turnstile-response field (or its JS callback).
• reCAPTCHA → the g-recaptcha-response field.
• OCR → the token is the recognized text.

# Python
import requests, time
API = "http://3captcha.world"
HEAD = {"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

task = requests.post(API + "/createTask", headers=HEAD,
    json={"type": "turnstile", "sitekey": "0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T", "siteurl": "https://example.com/"}).json()
task_id = task["taskId"]

while True:
    r = requests.get(API + "/getTaskResult", params={"taskId": task_id}, headers=HEAD).json()
    if r["status"] == "success":
        print("TOKEN:", r["token"]); break
    if r["status"] == "error":
        print("FAILED:", r.get("detail")); break
    time.sleep(4)   # still processing — poll again

# Node.js
const API = "http://3captcha.world";
const HEAD = { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" };

const task = await fetch(API + "/createTask", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ...HEAD, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ type: "turnstile", sitekey: "0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T", siteurl: "https://example.com/" }),
}).then(r => r.json());
const taskId = task.taskId;

while (true) {
  const r = await fetch(API + "/getTaskResult?taskId=" + taskId, { headers: HEAD }).then(r => r.json());
  if (r.status === "success") { console.log("TOKEN:", r.token); break; }
  if (r.status === "error") { console.log("FAILED:", r.detail); break; }
  await new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, 4000));   // still processing
}

# PHP
$api = "http://3captcha.world";
$head = ["x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY", "Content-Type: application/json"];

$ch = curl_init($api . "/createTask");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $head);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode(["type" => "turnstile", "sitekey" => "0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T", "siteurl" => "https://example.com/"]));
$task = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
$taskId = $task["taskId"];

do {
    sleep(4);
    $r = json_decode(file_get_contents($api . "/getTaskResult?taskId=" . $taskId, false,
        stream_context_create(["http" => ["header" => "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"]])), true);
} while ($r["status"] === "processing");
echo ($r["status"] === "success") ? "TOKEN: " . $r["token"] : "FAILED: " . $r["detail"];

Every solve request needs your API key. Send it in the x-api-key header (or api_key in the JSON body).

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}'

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}'

# 200 OK — submit "token" as cf-turnstile-response
{"status":"success","token":"0.w0e4...","elapsed":5.2}

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/recaptcha-v2 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"sitekey":"6LfyCr4rAAAAAEEBPic8UihJxtI4IeOMuPXRLebm","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}'

# 200 OK — submit "token" as g-recaptcha-response
{"status":"success","token":"03AFcWeA...","elapsed":19.4}

v3 runs in the background (no image challenge) and returns a token whose score is decided by Google. Submit the token to your own verification endpoint to read the score.

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/recaptcha-v3 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"sitekey":"6Lcyqq8oAAAAAJE7eVJ3aZp_hnJcI6LgGdYD8lge","siteurl":"https://example.com/","action":"submit"}'

# 200 OK
{"status":"success","token":"03AGdBq26...","elapsed":33.2}

Our OCR engine extracts letters and numbers from any captcha image — built to handle noisy, distorted and overlapping characters with high accuracy.

curl -X POST http://3captcha.world/solve/ocr \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"base64":"/9j/4AAQSkZJRg..."}'

# 200 OK — "token" is the recognized text (letters/numbers only)
{"status":"success","token":"42ST","elapsed":22.7}

# Python
import requests
r = requests.post("http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile",
  headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
  json={"sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"})
print(r.json())

# Node.js
const res = await fetch("http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json", "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ sitekey: "0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T", siteurl: "https://example.com/" }),
});
console.log(await res.json());

# PHP
$ch = curl_init("http://3captcha.world/solve/turnstile");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
  CURLOPT_POST => true,
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ["Content-Type: application/json", "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"],
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => '{"sitekey":"0x4AAAAAAActoBfh_En8yr3T","siteurl":"https://example.com/"}',
]);
echo curl_exec($ch);